Contrast In Romeo And Juliet English Literature Essay

This days black fate on more days doth depend; this but begins the woe others must end. Love, hate, fate, choice, light, and dark are themes used in the play of Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare wrote the well-known romantic play called Romeo and Juliet about the forbidden love between two lovers from different warring families. When the two young star-crossed lovers die, they bring their feuding families back together. In the play, Shakespeare uses contrast to add depth, dramatic effects and metaphor, which makes the play more enjoyable to view. Three of many contrasts that Shakespeare uses in the play are love versus hate, light versus dark, and fate versus choice.

Shakespeare uses love and hate in the play to add tension to the plot. In the play, the two lovers fall in love despite the conflict that is going on between their families, knowing that there will be consequences. Unfortunately, they die from their own passionate love and their families hate. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare uses many oxymoron, such as “loving hate”, which are two words with very opposite meanings. These two passions are the main themes in this play. At the beginning of the play after Romeo and his friends crashed the Capulet’s feast, Romeo and Juliet learn of each other’s lineage. Juliet says to herself, “O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if though will not, be but sworn my love and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (2.2.30-40). Juliet states these words to tell him that if he gives up his name, she will refuse to being a Capulet just to be with him because she loves him, which tells us that there will be drama and sacrifice throughout the play. In contrast to the love in the play is the violent hate. When Tybalt finds out that Romeo crashed the feast, he challenges him to a duel of which Mercutio dies in. In that sense, Romeo had to show his hate for Tybalt by killing him. After the Prince exiles Romeo from Verona for murdering Tybalt, he returns for Juliet’s sake knowing that there will be painful death towards him. Shakespeare uses the contrast of love and hate to build up suspense, which makes the reader fascinated in how the tension will be resolved.

Another contrast that Shakespeare uses in the play is the light and dark, which helps reflect the beautiful passion of young love while using metaphor for the viewer’s joy. When Romeo sees Juliet at the feast, he says, “O she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear” (1.5.45). Shakespeare uses the contrast of light and night to show Romeo’s strong attraction to Juliet. In contrast to dark is the light that Romeo and Juliet describe one another with. To Juliet, Romeo is the “day in night”; to Romeo, Juliet is the sun rising from the east. In the famous balcony scene, Romeo defines Juliet as the sun rising from the east that banishes the “envious moon” and transforms the night into day. After the lover’s wedding night together, Romeo had to leave for exile in the morning. Romeo and Juliet, not wanting to leave each other, tried to pretend that it is still night by insisting that the singing they can hear isn’t coming from the lark, but the nightingale, which would have meant that they could spend more time together. Shakespeare applies light and dark imagery throughout the tragic love story to show contrast while creating mood to the love of Romeo and Juliet.

Last but not least, the contrast of fate and choice play a major part in the play because it fuels the plot. Everyone makes choices out of their own free will. Whether it is a wrong or a right choice, it will eventually lead to their determined fate. This relates to how the star-crossed lovers’ choices reflected their own fate. When fate sends Peter to ask Romeo to help him read the guest list for the Capulet’s feast, he reads that his first love, Rosaline, will be attending, which makes him choose to go the party, where he finds his true love, Juliet. If fate did not send Peter to ask Romeo for help, he would have probably never met Juliet. Romeo chooses to go to the Capulet’s feast after having a dream about going to the party will cause him his own death. From the beginning of the play, Romeo and Juliet were meant to fall in love and ultimately die together for the greater good of Verona as they reunite their families. The characters that died in the play, starting with Mercutio and Tybalt and ending with Paris, Romeo, and Juliet were all fated to die. The choices that Romeo and Juliet make cause them to fall in love with each other which cost them their own lives because fate and choice are connected in a way that cannot be described. The contrast of fate and choice is one of the main parts in the play because it extends the plot in an attractive way.

In short, in the play, Romeo and Juliet, the use of contrast adds drama and thickens the plot so that the audience enjoy it. Shakespeare uses the contrast of love and hate that goes on throughout the play because of the hatred between the Montagues and Capulets. Like the contrast of love and hate, he uses light and dark to reveal the beauty of the love between Romeo and Juliet. Similarly, he includes fate and choice in the play to show how the choices that were made in the play, led to Romeo and Juliet’s tragic end. “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” (5.3.310)