“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Imagery in Romeo and Juliet
Find an example of striking imagery from the first scene. Present your quotation and who said it, then explain the meaning and comment on the effectiveness or dramatic impact of the imagery.
I've chosen the passage when Romeo says "she'll not be hit with Cupid's arrow". I suppose it means that Romeo is in love with Rosaline, and he illustrates the fact that Rosaline doesn't love him in return by telling she will never be hit with an arrow which would make her feel something for him. At that moment we feel pity for Romeo because unrequited love is one thing that we never want to experience. Consequently the presence of the God of love is very effective and shows the sadness of Romeo in a dramatic way.
In my point of view, a really striking example of imagery in this first scene comes when Montague describes his son as "the bud bit with an envious worm", unable to "spread his sweet leaves to the air, or dedicate his beauty to the sun". Romeo is associated with what could be a blooming flower ; he's young and has everything he could dream of to be happy, except the love of this mysterious girl. He's so tortured by this unrequited love that it is devouring him on the inside ; holding him back from enjoying his youth. This metaphor embodies most patterns used throughout the scene : the references to nature, to lightness (the sun), and it reinforces the dramatical tone by presenting the theme of love-sickness. Emma W
A striking example of imagery is when Romeo says "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs". I think it means that love consists of desperation, which we can relate to Romeo because he loves Rosaline but he knows she doesn't feel the same way, so he's desperate for e to love him back. I think it has an effective and dramatic impact because this imagery highlights Romeo's sensitive traits but it mostly emphasises on his sadness.
For me, a striking example of imagery is when Montague says " Addin to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs", talking about Romeo. We have not seen Romeo yet, but we understand by the words of his father how much he is sad. The imagery of clouds suggest a heavy, sad, desperate mood. Sighs can express his tiredness and disappointment. That is why this imagery is so striking; we manage to know Roméo's state of mind without seeing him.
In my point of view a very interesting example of imagery is when Benvolio tells to Capulet that he has seen Romeo "underneath the grove of the sycamore". Both literally and symbolically Romeo is near a sycamore because this tree is associated with rejected lovers. Before being informed of the true nature of Romeo's problems, the viewer can imagine why Romeo is so melancholic.
I think that an example of striking imagery from the first scene is when Montague, talking about his son's state of mind, says that 'all so soon as the all-cheering sun/Should in the farthest east begin to draw/The shady curtains from Aurora's bed', Romeo goes home, fleeing from the light and happiness produced by the sun. The opposition between light and darkness helps both explicit Romeo's sadness and explore the theme of conflict through contrast, while the personification of dawn as the Roman goddess 'Aurora' may refer to Rosaline, foreshadowing Romeo's revelation of his love-sickness. I think that this imagery is very effective as it really helps the audience understand Romeo's situation and state of mind.
One striking imagery in the second scene is when Benvolio tells Romeo to " turn giddy rand be holp by backward turning'', so that Romeo will be cured of the pain of love. Again, Benvolio advises Romeo to find another girl for this will cure him of this present infatuation. Turning Romeo's giddy rand is more lively than changing Romeo's site of the girl he loves.
I think an example of stiking imagery is when Romeo says "Alas that Love, whose view is muffled still,/ Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!" There's a personnification of love, who's here described as blind, probably because there's a well-known portrait of Cupid where he is painted with a blindfold on his eyes. According to me, Romeo means that even though love/Cupid can't see anything, he always finds a way to get to you, to make you feel whatever he wants. It has a dramatic effect since it shows that we can't refuse love ; it's up to Cupid/love/fate. That's what happens with Romeo and Juliet : they fall in love and will never be able to go back.
One striking imagery is when Montague, talking about Romeo, says 'and makes himself an artificial night'. So, he is comparing Romeo's sadness to a night. The imagery of darkness shows Romeo's dreary mood. He is avoiding light because he is experiencing unrequited love. The words 'artificial night' want to show that he is in a constant night because he is depressed and desperate. His night is 'artificial' because it's caused by love.
The example of powerful imagery I choose is the methaphor of the bud, from line I.I.142 to line I.I.144. Romeo’s father is talking to Benvolio about Romeo’s strange behaviour and melancholy when he compares Romeo to a « bud bit with an envious worm » before he can « spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. » Romeo is the bud : a handsome young flower which hasn’t opened out yet. It is a symbol of youth eaten from the inside by a worm which is in fact the melancholy which causes Romeo to be sad and introverted. Romeo is in love and can’t recover from his melancholy : he can’t enjoy his life. It is also a good example of tragic irony because Montague doesn’t realize how ominous his words are. Indeed, Romeo will never be able to develop his beauty because he is going to die of the melancholy he has from Juliet’s death… These three lines highlight the main themes of the book : love, death, melancholy, youth. They add depth to Shakespeare's book and improve the audience's understanding of his work while appealing to senses (the smell of the flower) and feelings (sadness, melancholy).
One powerful example of imagery I found comes when Montague explains to Benvolio the very deep sadness of Romeo. In fact Montague says that Romeo " with tears augment[s] the fresh moarning drew" and "add[s] to clouds more clouds with his deep sights". Here, makes a parallel batween Romeo's woe and heartache and the weather. I find it really effective because it shows the distress of romeo through an imagery easy to understand. According to me it could also mean that like clouds, his grief is going to be dispelled in one gale (which represents Juliet). It shows the way romeo is desesperate but also the way his love is likely to be changed
A striking example of imagery for me would be when Benvolio is trying to help Romeo forget about Rosaline, an he says: "Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning". The "tut" shows that Benvolio is not taking Romeo's problem very seriously. He is saying that to forget Rosaline, he must look at other girls, and to stop being in love with Rosaline, he has to fall in love with another girl. It looks like it never ends, as soon as one problem is done, another one comes straight away.
In the first scene of act 1, Romeo says “Love is a fire made with the fumes of sighs, Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes, Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.” I think this is a very powerful imagery for love. Love is described as a ‘fire’, something hard to control, that shines bright but also consumes Romeo, but it is a fire ‘made with the fume of sighs’ : it is the result of sighs, which are signs of humans' distress. Love would be a flame made from a haze created by humans' sorrow, in this case, Romeo's. It means that this passion, this pure, powerful feeling has an unclear origin, something dark and surrounded by a haze, that comes from humans. I interpret ‘Being purged’ as ‘being cleared out ’ : if the haze surrounding that flame goes away, all is left is ‘a sparkling in lovers' eyes’ : something wild, intense, hard to control, but also short-lived, just like a sparkling. However, ‘Being vexed’, this love reduces the lover to nourish ‘a sea [...] with loving tears’ : this would theoretically take a great amount of time, and that would be done with only ‘loving’ tears. This is what Romeo thinks he's experiencing : his love has been vexed, being unrequited, and he is stuck in this state, doomed to fill a sea with his tears, that are still and always loving. Romeo's sorrow somehow dooms him to feel like that for a long time, whereas, would his love has been requited, it would have only been a spark, long gone by the time Romeo speaks.
A striking example of imagery for me is when the Prince speaks and says "That quench the fire of your pernicious rage". In Romeo and Juliet the fire is used to describe love and rage, it 's an very important element. Here, this imagery make us realise that this quench is growing bigger and bigger as the rage people put in it. More over the trouble of the prince is that fire is hard to control such as the quarrel and that if nobody act it will continue to spread.
Montague talking about the dark mood of his son Romeo (lines 129-140 in scene 1),he talks about increasing clouds, "the all-cheering sun", "the shady curtains of night", "locking out fair daylight and making an artificial night", "having a black and portentous humour". That's five or six instances of light/dark imagery right there, used to illustrate that Romeo is really depressed, miserable and experiencing painful love. Through this imagery's we know Romeo's state of mind and how his sad, meloncoly and black bill and it is well compared to the weather.
When Benvolio speaks with Montague and Lady Montague, in line 112 of the first scene, he tells them he has seen Romeo "underneath the grove of sycamore", it's a reference about Romeo's state of mind. The sycamore is supposed to be the rejected lover's tree and Romeo believes himself madly in love of Rosalyn who doesn't return his love. It effects the audience, because they found the boy more melancholic and more dramatic.It emphasizes Romeo's feelings.
The example I chose to explain is when Romeo says that "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs". This imagery conveys on one hand the extreme painfulness of love. Smoke is very painful when it gets in contact with the eyes for example. But it also conveys the sense of misery and the fact that Romeo is desperate. The word "sighs" refers to Romeo's own sobs because he knows that Rosaline doesn't love him. This quote has a dramatic impact as it accentuates Romeo's despair; he is very sorrowful and miserable.
I think a good example of imagery in the first scene is from line 184 to 185, when, just after comparing love to smoke, Romeo adds that it's "a madness most discreet, / A choking gall, and a preserving sweet". Shakespeare uses oxymoron again to show Romeo's inner feelings, through the opposition of "madness" and "discreet": two words with contradictory meanings. The choice of the word "madness" is good too, as it resembles what Romeo seems to be suffering of: a madness of love. The meaning of “choking gall” and “preserving sweet” is more uncertain, but could show again Romeo’s feelings, as he speaks of a sweet (representing Rosaline) that he’s choking on.
A striking example of imagery comes when Romeo talks with Benvolio at the end of the first scene and says that "being vexed (is like) a sea nourished with loving tears", it highlights Romeo's state of mind about his unreturned love with Rosaline; he is hopeless and his heart is broken. It obviously illustrates the story of Romeo & Juliet, based on true but impossible love, deception, "loving tears", despair and finally death. I like the fact that this imagery is telling paradoxically with the one before : "being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes", it suggest that love could be a "fire" which masters you and gets the upper hand on your feelings and actions; but also a "sea" made with sadness, deception and pain. Love seems to be a unclassifiable force of nature. In only two lines, we find out that love is a mad, indisputable feeling which is both ardor, passion and despair.
An interesting imagery in the first scene of Romeo and Juliet is when Romeo is talking to Benvolio and says "Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!". This quotation is the perfect example of Romeo's idealistic but unrealistic view of love, and also of the struggle of love during the whole book. What I find interesting with this imagery is that he says that love even being blind will find its own way which, in the book, eventually does in a sad and dramatic way. The thing is that Romeo is trying to find the love that he despairs with his eyes open, by which I mean trying to conquer the heart of Rosaline but if he closes his eyes true love will eventually arrive.
I've chosen the imagery said by Romeo in the first scene, which is : " Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs, being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers eyes, being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears." Romeo is comparing love to a smoke and explaining us what it becomes like after "using it" in a certain way, using other imageries like the fire or the sea. His idea is that the eyes are able to reflect love, we can see in them excitement, "a fire sparkling "in them, or they can cry, with the "sea nourished with loving tears". I like this imagery, because it brings the reader to think of love in a metaphorical, poetic way.
A striking exemple of imagery comes when, in the first scene, Romeo defines love as "a smoke raised with the fume of sighs". The meaning of this imagery is that love nourrished by sighs. This seems completely paradoxical, because love is supposed to be something beautiful and here, Romeo is basically saying that there is no love without pain (sighs). Furthermore, where there is smoke, there is fire, which brings me to the second point which is that love is like a flame that can disappear at anytime if you don't take care of it. But, if you take care of it, you care, and it is painful to care. The dramatic effect of this imagery is that it is applied to Romeo, a young men devoured by his love.
We can see an example of a striking imagery in dialogue between Benvolio and Romeo, when Romeo says "not having that which, having, makes them shorter" in answer to Benvolio's question "what sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?". By "not having that", we find out that Romeo is missing something: he is missing a reciprocation of love; "which, having, makes them shorter" is perfect explanation of how is it like, when you are in love - your hours seem to be shorter, when you spend them with someone you love.
As an example of striking imagery, I would chose this line from benvolio at the beginning of scene 4 : "We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf". For me, this sentence meant that Romeo will have to do a lot to charm Rosaline because "from Love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed".The "quote" that I've choosen also reminds us from the tragic ending of the Play. It shows us that the destiny of Romeo and Juliet is uncontrollable as they are weak with their "scarf" against "Cupid" and their future. The impact of this line on the audience really depends on how the line is played : It can be desperate as well as joyful.
I think that a good example of imagery is when Juliet's nurse compares Paris to a man of wax: "A man, young lady! lady, such a man As all the world - Why, he's a man of wax." lines 75 to 77, scene 3 act 1. The nurse is saying that Paris seems to be a man of wax because he has no flaws, just like a statue. The nurse says this to encourage Juliet to marry him while Lady Capulet compares him to a book and a flower. Given the fact that Juliet marries Romeo, a person full of emotion, I don't think she would enjoy being married to a human-shaped lump of wax.
I think a striking example of imagery is when Romeo complains that "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs". I understand it means that love is toxic because of its fumes, and that love is burning and untouchable too closely which we can relate to Romeo's feelings for Rosaline but he knows she doesn't love him back. I think this imagery has a dramatic effect because it emphasises Romeo's sadness and suffering.
I would say your article is so interesting and informative for me and this article explained everything in detail. You have done a superb job thanks for sharing this kind of stuff with us. Hicee Jones
I've chosen the passage when Romeo says "she'll not be hit with Cupid's arrow". I suppose it means that Romeo is in love with Rosaline, and he illustrates the fact that Rosaline doesn't love him in return by telling she will never be hit with an arrow which would make her feel something for him. At that moment we feel pity for Romeo because unrequited love is one thing that we never want to experience. Consequently the presence of the God of love is very effective and shows the sadness of Romeo in a dramatic way.
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, a really striking example of imagery in this first scene comes when Montague describes his son as "the bud bit with an envious worm", unable to "spread his sweet leaves to the air, or dedicate his beauty to the sun". Romeo is associated with what could be a blooming flower ; he's young and has everything he could dream of to be happy, except the love of this mysterious girl. He's so tortured by this unrequited love that it is devouring him on the inside ; holding him back from enjoying his youth. This metaphor embodies most patterns used throughout the scene : the references to nature, to lightness (the sun), and it reinforces the dramatical tone by presenting the theme of love-sickness. Emma W
ReplyDeleteA striking example of imagery is when Romeo says "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs". I think it means that love consists of desperation, which we can relate to Romeo because he loves Rosaline but he knows she doesn't feel the same way, so he's desperate for e to love him back. I think it has an effective and dramatic impact because this imagery highlights Romeo's sensitive traits but it mostly emphasises on his sadness.
ReplyDeleteFor me, a striking example of imagery is when Montague says " Addin to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs", talking about Romeo. We have not seen Romeo yet, but we understand by the words of his father how much he is sad. The imagery of clouds suggest a heavy, sad, desperate mood. Sighs can express his tiredness and disappointment. That is why this imagery is so striking; we manage to know Roméo's state of mind without seeing him.
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view a very interesting example of imagery is when Benvolio tells to Capulet that he has seen Romeo "underneath the grove of the sycamore". Both literally and symbolically Romeo is near a sycamore because this tree is associated with rejected lovers. Before being informed of the true nature of Romeo's problems, the viewer can imagine why Romeo is so melancholic.
ReplyDeleteI think that an example of striking imagery from the first scene is when Montague, talking about his son's state of mind, says that 'all so soon as the all-cheering sun/Should in the farthest east begin to draw/The shady curtains from Aurora's bed', Romeo goes home, fleeing from the light and happiness produced by the sun. The opposition between light and darkness helps both explicit Romeo's sadness and explore the theme of conflict through contrast, while the personification of dawn as the Roman goddess 'Aurora' may refer to Rosaline, foreshadowing Romeo's revelation of his love-sickness. I think that this imagery is very effective as it really helps the audience understand Romeo's situation and state of mind.
ReplyDeleteOne striking imagery in the second scene is when Benvolio tells Romeo to " turn giddy rand be holp by backward turning'', so that Romeo will be cured of the pain of love. Again, Benvolio advises Romeo to find another girl for this will cure him of this present infatuation. Turning Romeo's giddy rand is more lively than changing Romeo's site of the girl he loves.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI think an example of stiking imagery is when Romeo says "Alas that Love, whose view is muffled still,/ Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!"
ReplyDeleteThere's a personnification of love, who's here described as blind, probably because there's a well-known portrait of Cupid where he is painted with a blindfold on his eyes. According to me, Romeo means that even though love/Cupid can't see anything, he always finds a way to get to you, to make you feel whatever he wants. It has a dramatic effect since it shows that we can't refuse love ; it's up to Cupid/love/fate. That's what happens with Romeo and Juliet : they fall in love and will never be able to go back.
One striking imagery is when Montague, talking about Romeo, says 'and makes himself an artificial night'. So, he is comparing Romeo's sadness to a night. The imagery of darkness shows Romeo's dreary mood. He is avoiding light because he is experiencing unrequited love. The words 'artificial night' want to show that he is in a constant night because he is depressed and desperate. His night is 'artificial' because it's caused by love.
ReplyDeleteThe example of powerful imagery I choose is the methaphor of the bud, from line I.I.142 to line I.I.144. Romeo’s father is talking to Benvolio about Romeo’s strange behaviour and melancholy when he compares Romeo to a « bud bit with an envious worm » before he can « spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. » Romeo is the bud : a handsome young flower which hasn’t opened out yet. It is a symbol of youth eaten from the inside by a worm which is in fact the melancholy which causes Romeo to be sad and introverted. Romeo is in love and can’t recover from his melancholy : he can’t enjoy his life. It is also a good example of tragic irony because Montague doesn’t realize how ominous his words are. Indeed, Romeo will never be able to develop his beauty because he is going to die of the melancholy he has from Juliet’s death… These three lines highlight the main themes of the book : love, death, melancholy, youth. They add depth to Shakespeare's book and improve the audience's understanding of his work while appealing to senses (the smell of the flower) and feelings (sadness, melancholy).
ReplyDeleteOne powerful example of imagery I found comes when Montague explains to Benvolio the very deep sadness of Romeo. In fact Montague says that Romeo " with tears augment[s] the fresh moarning drew" and "add[s] to clouds more clouds with his deep sights". Here, makes a parallel batween Romeo's woe and heartache and the weather. I find it really effective because it shows the distress of romeo through an imagery easy to understand. According to me it could also mean that like clouds, his grief is going to be dispelled in one gale (which represents Juliet). It shows the way romeo is desesperate but also the way his love is likely to be changed
ReplyDeleteA striking example of imagery for me would be when Benvolio is trying to help Romeo forget about Rosaline, an he says: "Tut, man, one fire burns out another's burning". The "tut" shows that Benvolio is not taking Romeo's problem very seriously. He is saying that to forget Rosaline, he must look at other girls, and to stop being in love with Rosaline, he has to fall in love with another girl. It looks like it never ends, as soon as one problem is done, another one comes straight away.
ReplyDeleteIn the first scene of act 1, Romeo says “Love is a fire made with the fumes of sighs,
ReplyDeleteBeing purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes,
Being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears.”
I think this is a very powerful imagery for love. Love is described as a ‘fire’, something hard to control, that shines bright but also consumes Romeo, but it is a fire ‘made with the fume of sighs’ : it is the result of sighs, which are signs of humans' distress. Love would be a flame made from a haze created by humans' sorrow, in this case, Romeo's. It means that this passion, this pure, powerful feeling has an unclear origin, something dark and surrounded by a haze, that comes from humans.
I interpret ‘Being purged’ as ‘being cleared out ’ : if the haze surrounding that flame goes away, all is left is ‘a sparkling in lovers' eyes’ : something wild, intense, hard to control, but also short-lived, just like a sparkling.
However, ‘Being vexed’, this love reduces the lover to nourish ‘a sea [...] with loving tears’ : this would theoretically take a great amount of time, and that would be done with only ‘loving’ tears. This is what Romeo thinks he's experiencing : his love has been vexed, being unrequited, and he is stuck in this state, doomed to fill a sea with his tears, that are still and always loving. Romeo's sorrow somehow dooms him to feel like that for a long time, whereas, would his love has been requited, it would have only been a spark, long gone by the time Romeo speaks.
A striking example of imagery for me is when the Prince speaks and says "That quench the fire of your pernicious rage". In Romeo and Juliet the fire is used to describe love and rage, it 's an very important element. Here, this imagery make us realise that this quench is growing bigger and bigger as the rage people put in it. More over the trouble of the prince is that fire is hard to control such as the quarrel and that if nobody act it will continue to spread.
ReplyDeleteMontague talking about the dark mood of his son Romeo (lines 129-140 in scene 1),he talks about increasing clouds, "the all-cheering sun", "the shady curtains of night", "locking out fair daylight and making an artificial night", "having a black and portentous humour". That's five or six instances of light/dark imagery right there, used to illustrate that Romeo is really depressed, miserable and experiencing painful love. Through this imagery's we know Romeo's state of mind and how his sad, meloncoly and black bill and it is well compared to the weather.
ReplyDeleteWhen Benvolio speaks with Montague and Lady Montague, in line 112 of the first scene, he tells them he has seen Romeo "underneath the grove of sycamore", it's a reference about Romeo's state of mind. The sycamore is supposed to be the rejected lover's tree and Romeo believes himself madly in love of Rosalyn who doesn't return his love. It effects the audience, because they found the boy more melancholic and more dramatic.It emphasizes Romeo's feelings.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe example I chose to explain is when Romeo says that "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs". This imagery conveys on one hand the extreme painfulness of love. Smoke is very painful when it gets in contact with the eyes for example. But it also conveys the sense of misery and the fact that Romeo is desperate. The word "sighs" refers to Romeo's own sobs because he knows that Rosaline doesn't love him. This quote has a dramatic impact as it accentuates Romeo's despair; he is very sorrowful and miserable.
ReplyDeleteI think a good example of imagery in the first scene is from line 184 to 185, when, just after comparing love to smoke, Romeo adds that it's "a madness most discreet, / A choking gall, and a preserving sweet". Shakespeare uses oxymoron again to show Romeo's inner feelings, through the opposition of "madness" and "discreet": two words with contradictory meanings. The choice of the word "madness" is good too, as it resembles what Romeo seems to be suffering of: a madness of love.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of “choking gall” and “preserving sweet” is more uncertain, but could show again Romeo’s feelings, as he speaks of a sweet (representing Rosaline) that he’s choking on.
A striking example of imagery comes when Romeo talks with Benvolio at the end of the first scene and says that "being vexed (is like) a sea nourished with loving tears", it highlights Romeo's state of mind about his unreturned love with Rosaline; he is hopeless and his heart is broken. It obviously illustrates the story of Romeo & Juliet, based on true but impossible love, deception, "loving tears", despair and finally death.
ReplyDeleteI like the fact that this imagery is telling paradoxically with the one before : "being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes", it suggest that love could be a "fire" which masters you and gets the upper hand on your feelings and actions; but also a "sea" made with sadness, deception and pain. Love seems to be a unclassifiable force of nature. In only two lines, we find out that love is a mad, indisputable feeling which is both ardor, passion and despair.
An interesting imagery in the first scene of Romeo and Juliet is when Romeo is talking to Benvolio and says "Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,
ReplyDeleteShould, without eyes, see pathways to his will!".
This quotation is the perfect example of Romeo's idealistic but unrealistic view of love, and also of the struggle of love during the whole book.
What I find interesting with this imagery is that he says that love even being blind will find its own way which, in the book, eventually does in a sad and dramatic way. The thing is that Romeo is trying to find the love that he despairs with his eyes open, by which I mean trying to conquer the heart of Rosaline but if he closes his eyes true love will eventually arrive.
I've chosen the imagery said by Romeo in the first scene, which is : " Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs, being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers eyes, being vexed, a sea nourished with loving tears." Romeo is comparing love to a smoke and explaining us what it becomes like after "using it" in a certain way, using other imageries like the fire or the sea. His idea is that the eyes are able to reflect love, we can see in them excitement, "a fire sparkling "in them, or they can cry, with the "sea nourished with loving tears". I like this imagery, because it brings the reader to think of love in a metaphorical, poetic way.
ReplyDeleteA striking exemple of imagery comes when, in the first scene, Romeo defines love as "a smoke raised with the fume of sighs". The meaning of this imagery is that love nourrished by sighs. This seems completely paradoxical, because love is supposed to be something beautiful and here, Romeo is basically saying that there is no love without pain (sighs). Furthermore, where there is smoke, there is fire, which brings me to the second point which is that love is like a flame that can disappear at anytime if you don't take care of it. But, if you take care of it, you care, and it is painful to care. The dramatic effect of this imagery is that it is applied to Romeo, a young men devoured by his love.
ReplyDeleteWe can see an example of a striking imagery in dialogue between Benvolio and Romeo, when Romeo says "not having that which, having, makes them shorter" in answer to Benvolio's question "what sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?". By "not having that", we find out that Romeo is missing something: he is missing a reciprocation of love; "which, having, makes them shorter" is perfect explanation of how is it like, when you are in love - your hours seem to be shorter, when you spend them with someone you love.
ReplyDeleteAs an example of striking imagery, I would chose this line from benvolio at the beginning of scene 4 : "We'll have no Cupid hoodwinked with a scarf". For me, this sentence meant that Romeo will have to do a lot to charm Rosaline because "from Love's weak childish bow she lives uncharmed".The "quote" that I've choosen also reminds us from the tragic ending of the Play. It shows us that the destiny of Romeo and Juliet is uncontrollable as they are weak with their "scarf" against "Cupid" and their future. The impact of this line on the audience really depends on how the line is played : It can be desperate as well as joyful.
ReplyDeleteI think that a good example of imagery is when Juliet's nurse compares Paris to a man of wax: "A man, young lady! lady, such a man As all the world - Why, he's a man of wax." lines 75 to 77, scene 3 act 1.
ReplyDeleteThe nurse is saying that Paris seems to be a man of wax because he has no flaws, just like a statue. The nurse says this to encourage Juliet to marry him while Lady Capulet compares him to a book and a flower. Given the fact that Juliet marries Romeo, a person full of emotion, I don't think she would enjoy being married to a human-shaped lump of wax.
I think a striking example of imagery is when Romeo complains that "Love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs". I understand it means that love is toxic because of its fumes, and that love is burning and untouchable too closely which we can relate to Romeo's feelings for Rosaline but he knows she doesn't love him back. I think this imagery has a dramatic effect because it emphasises Romeo's sadness and suffering.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI would say your article is so interesting and informative for me and this article explained everything in detail. You have done a superb job thanks for sharing this kind of stuff with us. Hicee Jones
ReplyDelete