Light symbolises purity and love, while darkness gives off the impression of fear, hate and violence. In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the playwrite flips the symbolism, blurring the lines between what is good and what is bad. In doing so, shakespeare gives off the message that not all things appear as they are first perceived. The play’s main characters’ Romeo and Juliet discover that love can be soothing, but it can also be rough. Hate can be malicious, but it can also lead to righteousness. Contrast illustrates how love and hate are two sides of the same coin, where love can spring forth from hate, and hate can bloom out of love. This intertwining reveals that they are part of the same whole ,where you can’t have one without the other.
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However, Shakespeare flips this symbolism, condemning the day while romanticizing night. This is evident when Juliet says, “the world will be in love with night/ And pay no worship to the garnish sun” (3.2.24-5) The light and dark imagery reveals that good things, the day, can turn evil while bad things, night,can turn good. This relates to how love can be rough, but hate can lead to good intent. Throughout the play, Romeo is constantly playing with Love’s rough edges. This is revealed in the quote, “O brawling love! O Loving hate!/ O anything, of nothing first create” (1.1.169-70). The oxymoron expresses that love can strike the heart just as powerful as it can treat it. Contrary to love, hate can lead to good intents, as demonstrated when Friar Laurence says, “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (2.4.91-2). Friar Laurence, seeing the hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets, wed Romeo and Juliet to resolve the fued. In conclusion, love and hate share similar aspects to each other as it can both be good and bad, blurring the line between the once polar …show more content…
This ideology is first demonstrated in Romeo’s love for Rosaline. At the beginning of the play, Romeo romanticizes Rosaline, saying that “she is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair/ To merit bliss by making me despair” (1.2.214-15). Rosaline, however, did not return Romeo’s love. This makes Romeo hates his life because it is meaningless without her love. This also illustrates how Rosaline’s good intentions to be a nun staying loyal to God leads to the unintended evil of Romeo’s misery. Later in the play, this principle expresses itself when Romeo declares his love for Juliet. However, this love leads to him to hate his own name- Romeo- and the pride of being a Montague that comes with it. This is evident when he asks Friar Laurence, “In what vile part of this anatomy/ Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack/ The hateful mansion” (3.3 106-7). This quote clearly depicts how the good intentions of Romeo wanting to be with Juliet have caused him the desire to physically harmself if it can remove his name. Both examples tie back to the play’s tragic ending. In order for hatred between the houses to die, love between Romeo and Juliet must also die, for love cannot exists without hate and acts of good cannot exists without acts of
However, Shakespeare flips this symbolism, condemning the day while romanticizing night. This is evident when Juliet says, “the world will be in love with night/ And pay no worship to the garnish sun” (3.2.24-5) The light and dark imagery reveals that good things, the day, can turn evil while bad things, night,can turn good. This relates to how love can be rough, but hate can lead to good intent. Throughout the play, Romeo is constantly playing with Love’s rough edges. This is revealed in the quote, “O brawling love! O Loving hate!/ O anything, of nothing first create” (1.1.169-70). The oxymoron expresses that love can strike the heart just as powerful as it can treat it. Contrary to love, hate can lead to good intents, as demonstrated when Friar Laurence says, “For this alliance may so happy prove/ To turn your households’ rancor to pure love” (2.4.91-2). Friar Laurence, seeing the hatred between the Montagues and the Capulets, wed Romeo and Juliet to resolve the fued. In conclusion, love and hate share similar aspects to each other as it can both be good and bad, blurring the line between the once polar …show more content…
This ideology is first demonstrated in Romeo’s love for Rosaline. At the beginning of the play, Romeo romanticizes Rosaline, saying that “she is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair/ To merit bliss by making me despair” (1.2.214-15). Rosaline, however, did not return Romeo’s love. This makes Romeo hates his life because it is meaningless without her love. This also illustrates how Rosaline’s good intentions to be a nun staying loyal to God leads to the unintended evil of Romeo’s misery. Later in the play, this principle expresses itself when Romeo declares his love for Juliet. However, this love leads to him to hate his own name- Romeo- and the pride of being a Montague that comes with it. This is evident when he asks Friar Laurence, “In what vile part of this anatomy/ Doth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sack/ The hateful mansion” (3.3 106-7). This quote clearly depicts how the good intentions of Romeo wanting to be with Juliet have caused him the desire to physically harmself if it can remove his name. Both examples tie back to the play’s tragic ending. In order for hatred between the houses to die, love between Romeo and Juliet must also die, for love cannot exists without hate and acts of good cannot exists without acts of