Romeo and Juliet by William

¶ … Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Specifically it will identify how Shakespeare uses imagery to develop the themes of forbidden love, tragedy, isolation, and loss within the play. Shakespeare, perhaps one of the greatest playwrights of all time, skillfully utilizes imagery throughout this tragic play to develop the themes woven through the play. By using imagery, Shakespeare brings the themes to life and makes the tragic outcome of this play even more realistic and devastating for the reader or viewer.

William Shakespeare was quite fond of images and imagery, and he includes them in many of his most famous works, including "Romeo and Juliet." He uses them to develop themes and flesh out the characters, and this complicated play is much more than just a tragic tale of love and loss. It is a story of forbidden love, isolation, and loss, and these themes come forward as Shakespeare's imagery makes the story and the people come alive on stage. Many literary critics note Shakespeare's reliance on imagery throughout his works, and especially in this one. A critic notes, "Pack writes for 'the reader who has the patience to delight in the minute details of Shakespeare's patterns of imagery as well as to admire the overall structure of the plays'" (Platt 2008). A study of imagery in this play indicates Shakespeare has a great understanding of how to use words to convey the senses, making the words come alive for the reader.

Shakespeare weaves the natural world throughout the play, with references to everything from the stars and astrology to the weather and the wind. A Shakespeare critic offers an example, "Which is as thin of substance as the air, / and more inconstant than the wind, who woos / Even now the frozen bosom of the north, ' and being angered puffs away from thence, / Turning his side to the dew-dropping south (ll. 96-103)" (Halio 1998, 57). Somehow, this passage conveys the feeling of loss and isolation, invoking images of the cold winter, a time of isolation, and the loss of light and warmth for much of the world.

Often, Shakespeare mates imagery from more than one source to bring the themes to life. Here, he writes of the natural world and the theme of light, merging them to create one vivid image. He writes, "The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, / Check'ring the Eastern clouds with streaks of light, / and fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels / From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels (2.2.191ff. And 2.3.1)" (Hager 1999, 101). In this passage, morning lights up the "frowning night," with "streaks of light," darkness "reels," and "Titan's fiery wheels" invokes images of Heaven and Hell, blending many different images to create a coherent and beautiful description of one of nature's most stunning creations, sunrise and the dawn of a new day. This image illustrates the stark contrast between the young lovers' hope for the future and the darkness of the reality of their dreams.

Shakespeare uses other images from the natural world, as well, to describe the love and loss themes throughout the play. Another critic notes, "Juliet describes Cupid, with whom Romeo is associated, in terms of birds as well: "nimble-pinion'd doves draw Love, / and therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings" (II.v.7-8)" (Brown 1996). Thus, the beauty and grace of the natural world, including birds and flight, represent love and forbidden love in the play, relating their love to the love of Cupid (a god), making it almost a religious experience. Using imagery like this makes the character's thoughts and dreams more vivid and concrete to the reader, but it paints beautiful word pictures, as well, that add to the overall impact of the play. There is another aspect of this bird imagery as it relates to Juliet and forbidden love. Critic Brown continues, "The bird imagery equates Juliet with a trapped bird, wanting to exercise its natural freedom of flight but confined - imagery that embodies the state of women and Juliet, in particular, in a patriarchal society that 'mews' them up" (Brown 1996). This is especially relevant in the forbidden love theme woven throughout the play. Their love is forbidden because of their families, but also because unlike today, when children can defy their parents and even leave their custody, women of Shakespeare's time had few rights, so even if her family had not opposed Romeo's family, it is doubtful Juliet could have simply secretly wed her family's rival and gotten away with it. Women had few rights in those times, and were in fact like the caged birds Shakespeare implies in his imagery.

Stars and astrology play an important part in this play, as well. The lovers are known as "star-crossed" from the beginning of the play, Juliet meets Romeo on her balcony under a starry canopy, and Romeo sees the daylight as their enemy, when their love can be discovered and their nighttime under the stars as their friend. He says, "More light and light it grows, more dark and dark our woes!" (Shakespeare 3.5.35-36). This illustrates their star-crossed fate, a central theme of the play, but also, it indicates that the play is becoming darker and their fate more ominous. Romeo continues, "My mind misgives / Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begin this fearful date / With this night's revels, and expire the term / of a dispised life, clos'd in my breast, / by some vile forfeit of untimely death: / but he that hath the steerage of my course / Direct my sail! (Shakespeare 1.4.106). Thus, the stars and fate are intertwined in the play, which ties this theme directly to astrology, as the planets and their messages were often thought to control fate and life during Shakespeare's time. In a sense, Shakespeare shows that the sun, moon, stars, and planets all conspire against the "star-crossed lovers," and that their love never really had a chance to shine like the stars.

Light (and its opposing darkness), may be some of the strongest imagery in this play. The characters often refer to each other in terms of light, or bright. One Shakespeare critic writes, "As soon as he sees Juliet, he is captivated by her: 'O she doth teach the torches to burn bright!' (1.5.43). Not only does his imagery become more concrete and fresh, but he experiences a revolution in his emotion: 'Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! / for I ne'er saw true beauty till this night' (1.5.51-52)" (Halio 1998, 27). Throughout the play, Romeo refers to Juliet's light, and even mentions it at the end of the play when he refers to her beauty lighting up her tomb, the perfect blend of lightness and darkness to bring the play to a close.

Light is one of the central images in the play, and that is because light represents several different themes of the play. Critic Harold Bloom notes, "What it amounts to is that Romeo and Juliet are possessed of the light. And they alone are possessed of the light, in a Verona to whom the light is beyond comprehension" (Bloom 2000, 82). In the play, light represents beauty, of course, as in Romeo's assessment of Juliet, but it represents knowledge, as well. Knowledge they have not really loved until now, and knowledge that their love can never be consummated. In the traditional sense, darkness represents death and the darkness of the tomb, but it also represents ignorance in this play - such as the ignorance of the families who keep them apart, and even the ignorance of youth to believe that miracles like love and "forever" are possible at all.

Many people believe that Shakespeare is subtly condemning some of the facets of organized religion in the book, but the voices are mixed. When Romeo learns of his fate from the Friar, he equates banishment from Verona to death in Hell. Shakespeare writes, "But Purgatory, torture, Hell itself. / Hence banished is banish'd from the world, / and world's exile is death. / Then 'banished' Is death misterm'd. / Calling death 'banished' Thou cut'st my head off with a golden ax / and smil'st upon the stroke that murders me" (Shakespeare 3.3.18-23). In direct opposite, Romeo often refers to Juliet in terms of heaven, particularly in the balcony scene, when she is indeed located above him, as if she resides in Heaven. This imagery applies not only to the images of religion and piousness in the play, through the character of the Friar and others, but to the ultimate fate of the lovers, who will surely meet in heaven, or so the audience could hope. (Interestingly, the sin of suicide does not seem to play into this as a theme, even though the lovers both commit suicide, which in many religions would condemn them to a life apart in Purgatory or Hell.)

However, there is another critical response to the imagery of religion in the play, and that is that it equates to the theme of love or forbidden love, as intense love can be a type of religions. Critic Bloom continues, "But it could be said also that the audience would understand that Romeo, as a lover-hero, really belongs to another religion, the religion of love, which doesn't collide with Christianity or prevent him from confessing to Friar Laurence, but nonetheless has different standards of what's good and bad" (Bloom 2000, 159). Thus, a strong love like Romeo and Julie profess for each other, is like a drug or religion, creating another link to a theme of this play. Just as a religious zealot can become immersed in their beliefs, zealous lovers can become immersed in each other, with fateful results, as this play clearly shows.

Birth and death play a central role in the imagery of the play, too. Early in the play, Romeo refers to his love for Rosaline as a living death. Critic Hager continues, "Romeo says: 'She hath forsworn to love, and in that vow / Do I live dead, that live to tell it now' (1.1.223)" (Hager 1999, 108). Of course, birth and death represent the promise of the future and the reality of the end, but they also represent the senseless deaths of the two young lovers, kept apart by family and fate, and the use of vivid imagery represents the senseless waste of these two young lives. They also represent the passion these two young people develop for each other, and that the only true thing that can keep them apart, (and ultimately together) is death.

Clearly, this play's themes of tragedy, loss, isolation, and forbidden love all come alive in Shakespeare's vivid imagery. There are so many passages in the play that bring up strong emotion and vivid pictures; it is difficult to choose from them all. Woven throughout the text, that seems so promising for the young people at the start, are the themes of loss, isolation, forbidden love, and tragedy. Even in the most memorable of the play's scenes, such as the balcony scene, these themes are present. The young lovers must meet under cover of darkness, they are isolated from one another, and fate has brought them together when their families have been feuding for years. These themes continue throughout their courtship and love. Romeo is eventually banished from Verona over the death of Tybalt, and kills himself as soon as he hears of Juliet's "death." Death is the ultimate form of isolation and loss in this play, and the ultimate tragedy, since the implication is that since they killed themselves, they will be isolated in death, as well as in life. Without the imagery, and the many different types of images, this play simply would not be the same. It would not be a romantic, it would not be as tragic, and it would probably not still be on the bookshelves of millions of people around the world. Shakespeare knew how to manipulate words into themes by using poetic and vibrant images that stick in the mind's of the audience, and that is one of the most important elements of this complex play.