Discussion Topic
The literary devices used in Juliet’s soliloquies throughout "Romeo and Juliet."
Summary:
Juliet’s soliloquies in "Romeo and Juliet" employ various literary devices, including metaphors, similes, and personification. She often uses metaphors to compare her feelings and experiences to more tangible objects or concepts. Similes help to draw vivid comparisons, while personification brings inanimate objects and abstract ideas to life, enhancing the emotional and dramatic effect of her speeches.
What five literary devices are present in Juliet's soliloquy in act 2, scene 5?
(All quotes are taken from The Norton Shakespeare, based on the Oxford Edition. Copyright 1997 by W.W. Norton & Company.)
In Juliet's short soliloquy, there are several literary devices
employed.
1. Free Verse. The soliloquy is an example of free verse.
2. Allusion. Juliet alludes to two mythological characters. The first allusion
: "Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw Love,..." (Line 7) "Love" is a
reference to Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus was said to
travel in a chariot drawn by doves.
The second allusion is that of Venus' son, Cupid: "...And therefore hath the
wind-swift Cupid wings." (Line 8) Cupid was the Roman god of love.
3. Simile. "She would be as swift in motion as a ball." (Line 13)
4. Personification . "My words would bandy [volley; toss; throw]" (Line 14). Juliet is wishing she could give her "words" the...
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ability to transport the Nurse toRomeo and back quickly.
5. Hyperbole. "But old folks, many feign as they were dead--/Unwieldy, slow,
heavy, and pale as lead." (Lines 16-17) This description is an exaggeration of
how Juliet views those who are older than she, and this comment is a result of
her unbearable anxiety as she waits for word from Romeo.
6. Couplet. Two lines that end with rhyming words:
"But old folks, many feign as they are dead--
Unwildy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead."
References
What literary devices are used in Juliet's soliloquy before she drinks the potion (Act 4, Scene 3)?
Shakespeare uses alliteration as Juliet describes her premonitions after she is left alone by her mother and her nurse. Alliteration occurs when a writer repeatedly uses the same letter at the beginning of words that are in close proximity. We see both a repetition of "f" and "c" sounds in the following speech:
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I’ll call them back again to comfort me.
what with loathsome smells,Shakespeare uses repetition for emphasis, such as when Juliet repeats Romeo's name three times:
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo!The exclamation point also shows her emotions rising to a crescendo. This soliloquy of Juliet's, in which, all alone on stage, she verbalizes her thoughts, is an example of foreshadowing or suggesting what is to come: things do go quite awry with the plan for her to feign death. Through Juliet's soliloquy, we learn her thoughts and fears as she takes the step of drinking the potion. We come to understand what a frightening prospect this is for her. We see what courage it takes her to go ahead with the plan. We also are alerted to the risky nature of this scheme.
After the Nurse and Lady Capulet have left her in Act IV, Scene 3, Juliet is alone with her thoughts about drinking from the vial; naturally, she expresses aloud her concerns that it may not work to put her in a trance, or it may work too well and kill her.
1. metaphor : "heat of life" is compared to her blood.
As the "faint cold fear thrills through [her] veins," Juliet feels that they almost freeze the "heat of life" leaving her. (l.17)
2. personification: the catacomb vault to which Juliet will be taken is spoken of as having a "mouth."
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, (ll. 365-36)
3. simile: comparison of a "kinsman's bone" with "a club" using the word as. Juliet worries that if she wakes from the potion taken in the vial, she might go crazy from being placed in the tomb where she may be surrounded by the skeletons of her kinsmen:
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud,
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's boneAs with a club dash out my desp'rate brains? (ll 53-55)
4. apostrophe : Apostrophe is the addressing of someone
or some abstract not physically present. At the end of her
soliloquy, Juliet talks to Tybalt and Romeo in her mind.
O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.(ll 57-60)