Two texts can seem so similar on the surface but could end up being quite different as you explore their depths. This is shown through the contrast in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Taylor Swift’s Love Story by the use of literary devices and their vastly different structures to express the theme of love. In Romeo and Juliet, imagery was used far more to convey the love that the protagonists felt for each other while in Taylor Swift’s Love Story, repetition was more commonly employed. “It’s a love story, baby just say ‘YES’” (Swift; 16, 30, 34, 48) was used four times throughout the song to stress the fact that the pair were truly in love. Meanwhile, Shakespeare used imagery to convey their adoration, as shown when Romeo explains
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The song both starts and ends with, “We were both young when I first saw you.” (Swift; 1, 50) By using a circular structure, Taylor Swift shows the way the protagonists will always come back to each other as there is no real end to their story which portrays their neverending love. On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet has a defined beginning, middle, and end. The play starts off with Romeo and Juliet meeting at a party. Their encounter eventually led to their marriage, until their untimely death where the First Watch finds “Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new killed.” (5.3. 203-204) Romeo states that, “My life were better ended by their hate Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love,” (2.2. 82-83) showing his willingness to embrace death if that is what it takes to be with her. Since you cannot come back from the dead and they chose to take their lives to be together in the afterlife, this proves the different yet still effective linear structure used in Romeo and Juliet that was used to convey the theme of love. Although the structures were different in the two texts, the theme of love was equally represented in both as the protagonists remain together
The song both starts and ends with, “We were both young when I first saw you.” (Swift; 1, 50) By using a circular structure, Taylor Swift shows the way the protagonists will always come back to each other as there is no real end to their story which portrays their neverending love. On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet has a defined beginning, middle, and end. The play starts off with Romeo and Juliet meeting at a party. Their encounter eventually led to their marriage, until their untimely death where the First Watch finds “Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new killed.” (5.3. 203-204) Romeo states that, “My life were better ended by their hate Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love,” (2.2. 82-83) showing his willingness to embrace death if that is what it takes to be with her. Since you cannot come back from the dead and they chose to take their lives to be together in the afterlife, this proves the different yet still effective linear structure used in Romeo and Juliet that was used to convey the theme of love. Although the structures were different in the two texts, the theme of love was equally represented in both as the protagonists remain together