Romeo and Juliet: Act II Close Reading of one of Juliet's speeches from "The Balcony Scene," Act II, Scene II -- the theme of 'star crossed' (i.e. doomed) love JULIET

Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract to night:

It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be

Ere one can say 'It lightens.' Sweet, good night!

This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,

May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.

Good night, good night! As sweet repose and rest

Come to thy heart as that within my breast!

The balcony scene of "Romeo and Juliet" has provided modern romantic tragedy with one of its most long-standing images of young love and beauty. The play's most familiar image is that of young and beautiful Juliet standing above her beloved Romeo on a balcony while professing her affection for the honest and open young man. However, a close reading of the text suggests that the actual language of these adolescents is filled with dramatic foreshadowing of their eventual fate -- the language of death that runs through the play, regarding the romance of the protagonists. Even when Juliet is declaring her love for Romeo, there is a sense that between...

The theme of the star-crossed lovers that begins the play thus is ever-present, even when the two of them are most innocently and happily in love.
As is seen in the above-quoted passage, although the relationship between Romeo and Juliet may be destroyed by other plot and psychological factors, such as the unnecessary difficulties posed by the rivalries between the young people's families, Juliet's language suggests that there are potential problems are inherent to the romance, outside of such factors. She says that their love is "too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;/Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be/Ere one can say 'It lightens.'" (II.2) In other words, it is a lightening-quick romance, formed at first sight, without the two individuals getting to know one another first, or of being introduced by their parents.

Rather than formed in the day, the implication is of Juliet's metaphor is that the romance came in the darkness, illuminated by the dangerous light of lightening, rather than the more stable light of the sun. One cannot really see…