Romeo and Juliet: Figurative Language Analysis

Literary Devices and Figurative Language

• The phrase 'star-cross'd lovers' uses metaphorical language to describe Romeo and Juliet's ill-fated love.
• In the line 'Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean', the literary device of oxymoron is used to highlight the contradiction between civil (peaceful) and blood.
• The line 'The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love' employs the literary device of metaphor to describe the perilous nature of Romeo and Juliet's love.
• In the line 'With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls', the literary device of metaphor is used to describe the power of love to overcome obstacles.
• The line 'And what love can do that dares love attempt' employs rhetorical question to emphasize the limitless power of love.
• The line 'The orchard walls are high and hard to climb' uses hyperbole to emphasize the difficulty of overcoming obstacles.
• In the line 'For stony limits cannot hold love out', the literary device of personification is used to describe love as an unstoppable force.

The Prologue and Character Insights

• The prologue serves to introduce the conflict and tragic fate of the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet.
• Juliet's quote 'What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, / Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part / Belonging to a man' highlights her perception that a name does not define a person's identity.
• Juliet's figurative language in lines 25-26 'What’s in a name? that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet' uses metaphor to emphasize that a name does not change the essence of a thing, relating to the theme of appearance vs. reality.