A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as. The comparison tends to enhance the qualities of one of those things. Immediately after seeing Juliet at Capulet's party in Act I, Scene 5, Romeo compares her beauty (it is definitely her looks he is speaking of here because he has yet to meet her) to a precious jewel:
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of nightAs a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear
This comparison needs a bit of explanation because one might not understand what Romeo is speaking of. It was probably common in Renaissance Italy for men from Ethiopia to act as traders and to visit Italian cities. Romeo may have seen just such a man, or maybe read about them. These Ethiopians were often wealthy and would have adorned themselves in elaborate jewelry such as diamonds, emeralds or rubies.
Later, in Act II, Scene 2, Romeo once again uses a simile to describe Juliet. Here he may also be speaking of her personality and not just her beauty because he has spoken to her briefly in the waning moments of Capulet's party. He compares her to an angel coming down from heaven as a messenger to bring happiness and light to Romeo's life (which, by his own admittance, had been darkened by his unrequited love for Rosaline):
O, speak again, bright angel, for thou artAs glorious to this night, being o’er my head,As is a wingèd messenger of heaven
This comparison to a "bright angel" is very in much in keeping with Shakespeare's recurring motif of light and dark which pervades the tragedy.
Friday, February 15, 2013
What similes does Romeo use to convey Juliet's beauty?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
Polysyndeton refers to using several conjunctions in a row to achieve a dramatic effect. That can be seen in this sentence about the child: ...
-
Both boys are very charismatic and use their charisma to persuade others to follow them. The key difference of course is that Ralph uses his...
-
At the most basic level, thunderstorms and blizzards are specific weather phenomena that occur most frequently within particular seasonal cl...
-
Equation of a tangent line to the graph of function f at point (x_0,y_0) is given by y=y_0+f'(x_0)(x-x_0). The first step to finding eq...
-
Population policy is any kind of government policy that is designed to somehow regulate or control the rate of population growth. It include...
-
Gulliver cooperates with the Lilliputians because he is so interested in them. He could, obviously, squash them underfoot, but he seems to b...
No comments:
Post a Comment