Romeo and Juliet Group

Question:


BradB3
Student
High School - 9th Grade

Paraphrase Romeo's speech (Act 5, Scene 3, lines 45-48) and identify its poetic device.

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Posted by BradB3 on Sunday November 23, 2008 at 11:06 AM and tagged with act 5, characters, maw, metaphor, romeo, romeo and juliet, scene 3, shakespeare, tomb.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    eNotes Editor

     Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
    Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,
    Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
    And in despite I'll cram thee with more food.

    You horrible stomach, you womb of death
    Filled full with the most beautiful thing (piece of food?) in the world,
    Like this I force your rotten jaws open
    And spitefully I will cram them full of more food.

    A maw is a stomach, and Romeo's device is simply an extended metaphor. Beginnign with the idea of the tomb (presumably, with a door that he is forcing open with his wrenching-iron) as a stomach, he ends by revealing that he himself intends suicide upon getting to Juliet (to "cram" the tomb-stomach, which "eats" dead bodies with more food).

     

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/romeo-text/act-v-scene-iii

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Sunday November 23, 2008 at 11:43 AM