Language is a key factor in the analysis of Shakespeare plays. No word or image is there by accident. Characters are defined by how they speak, the words they use. Shakespeare uses many types of figurative language in Acts I of Romeo and Juliet. Figures of speech are poetic devices in which words are used in a non-literal or imaginative sense to make writing more descriptive and colourful. When you want to explain something to another person, it often helps to compare the new thing to something that the person is familiar with. This is basically what poets do when they use figurative language. The difference is that a poet is likely to use surprising combinations that make the reader see familiar things in new ways. Figurative language uses
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you men, you beasts,That quench the fire of your pernicious rage. With purple fountains issuing from your veins.".
You there! You men, you beasts, who satisfy your anger with fountains of each other’s' blood! This is a metaphor because their comparing each others anger to blood. The Prince compares the Capulets and Montagues to beasts, because they have just had a fray. He then compares their rage to a fire.
"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss".
Romeo compares his lips to pilgrims when talking to Juliet. Shakespeare uses religious imagery to reinforce the purity of their love, and how they are drawn together like pilgrims to a holy site. His lips are “two blushing pilgrims” drawn to her kiss.
Allusion -
“But all so soon as the all-cheering sun should in the farthest East begin to draw the shady curtains from Aurora's bed.”
The phrase "draw the shady curtains from Aurora's bed" refers to Roman mythology and is therefore an example of allusion. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn. The image portrays the sun drawing the curtains from the goddess of the dawn's bed.
“She hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, from love's weak childish bow she lives
you men, you beasts,That quench the fire of your pernicious rage. With purple fountains issuing from your veins.".
You there! You men, you beasts, who satisfy your anger with fountains of each other’s' blood! This is a metaphor because their comparing each others anger to blood. The Prince compares the Capulets and Montagues to beasts, because they have just had a fray. He then compares their rage to a fire.
"My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss".
Romeo compares his lips to pilgrims when talking to Juliet. Shakespeare uses religious imagery to reinforce the purity of their love, and how they are drawn together like pilgrims to a holy site. His lips are “two blushing pilgrims” drawn to her kiss.
Allusion -
“But all so soon as the all-cheering sun should in the farthest East begin to draw the shady curtains from Aurora's bed.”
The phrase "draw the shady curtains from Aurora's bed" refers to Roman mythology and is therefore an example of allusion. Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn. The image portrays the sun drawing the curtains from the goddess of the dawn's bed.
“She hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, from love's weak childish bow she lives