Essay on Light and Dark
Imagery in ROMEO and JULIET.
In the opening paragraph you
need to write the title (and underline it) and the name of the author. You need to write the main idea of the essay.
William Shakespeare, the
author of the play ROMEO and JULIET, uses light and dark imagery to express the
emotional state of Romeo, one of the star-crossed lovers in his
masterpiece. Romeo is in a dark and
depressed state because he is suffering from unrequited love. He is in love
with a young woman named Rosaline who doesn’t love him back. His speech and
behavior reflect his dark mood. It is
not until he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Juliet that his speech
and behavior change to reflect his joy and happiness.
(Provide context in this
paragraph. What is going on with Romeo at the beginning of the play?) He is suffering from unrequited love. He is in love with a young woman named Rosaline
who doesn’t love him back. His speech
reflects his dark mood. It is not until he meets Juliet and falls in love with
her, that his language changes to expressions of light, joy and happiness.
At the beginning of
ROMEO and JULIET, we find his parents, Lord and Lady Montague, and his best friend, Benvolio, worrying about
the emotional state of Romeo. Benvolio
tells Romeo’s parents that he has seen Romeo walking alone at night “…so early
walking did I see your son”, but Romeo is so depressed that he has been turning away from
his best friend to avoid speaking to him.
Lord Montague also expresses concerns about his son’s emotional health
for he says that his son cries a great deal “…With tears augmenting the fresh
morning’s dew”, and that as soon as the sun rises, Romeo, “Away from light
steals home…Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, And makes
himself an artificial night.” Romeo is clearly depressed for he spends the
night walking about alone, avoiding even his best friend, and when the sun
rises, he shuts the curtains and sits in darkness, crying. Isolation and excessive crying are all symptoms of deep depression, and the words and imagery used to describe Romeo strongly convey the mood of darkness and heaviness. Lord Montague at one point even calls Romeo his "heavy son." There is grave cause for concern regarding Romeo's emotional health and the Montagues prevail upon Benvolio to find out why Romeo is so depressed.
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The Montagues ask Benvolio,
as Romeo’s cousin and best friend, to find out why their son is so
depressed. When they spot Romeo
approaching after the riots, the parents retreat, leaving Benvolio to talk to
him for them. Romeo replies to his
friend’s question about his emotional state that, “…such is love’s
transgression. Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast.” Romeo is suffering
from unrequited love. The girl he loves,
Rosaline, loves him not “…She’ll not be hit /With Cupid’s arrow…” which is the reason he is so depressed. Benvolio
counsels Romeo that the cure for an old love is a new love and tells him to
check out other girls to help him forget Rosaline. An opportunity arrives in the form of an
invitation to a party which promises the presence of many beautiful girls. The only problem is that the party is hosted
by the enemy of Romeo’s family, the Capulets!
In Act 1, Scene 4, before entering the party,
Romeo is again being quite dark, depressing, and clearly, not in a party mood;
he says to his good friends, Benvolio and Mercutio, “Give me a torch. I am not
for this ambling./Being but heavy, I will bear the light.” Romeo’s friends are
eager to start dancing, but he continues in his depressed vein by saying,” You
have dancing shoes/With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead/So stakes me to the
ground I cannot move.” His friend, Mercutio, tries to joke him out of his dark
heaviness by advising him “If love be rough with you, be rough with love…” At
last, Benvolio reminds them that it is getting late and they will miss the
party if they tarry too much longer. Romeo says that despite his fears that
tonight will initiate a series of events ending in his death “…some misgivings
/ Some consequences yet hanging in the stars/ Shall bitterly begin his fearful
date…of untimely death….” he throws his fate to the stars and enters the house
of his enemies.
It is in Act 1, Scene 5, at
the party in his enemy’s home that Romeo’s life changes and it is reflected in
the language he speaks. As soon as he lays eyes on Juliet, the black clouds
surrounding him lift, his life is flooded with light, and his words immediately
change from dark, heavy imagery to that of lightness and beauty. He says, “O,
she doth teach the torches to burn bright!/It seems she hangs upon the cheek of
night/As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear –“ From the veil of darkness, Romeo
emerges into the light of Juliet’s love for later, when he sees her walk onto
her balcony after the party, he says, “What light through yonder window
breaks?/It is the East and Juliet is the sun!” He has immediately forgotten
about that follower of Dian, the goddess of chastity, Rosaline, and is now
expressing his love for Juliet by exquisite words of light and joy.
Before meeting Juliet, Romeo
tells his friends he cannot dance, for his feet are made of lead and that he
“cannot bound a pitch” for he’s too depressed over his lack of love, but after
meeting her, Romeo risks certain death by leaping over the tall wall that
surrounds his enemy’s mansion to speak to his lady love. When Juliet wonders how he managed to brook
the tall wall, Romeo tells her, “With
love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls;/For stony limits cannot hold
love out.”
