Romeo and Juliet literary term examples

blank verse Shakespeare’s plays are written in blank verse
iambic pentameter (5)
oxymoron “O brawling love! O loving hate!””O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!”
personification “Come gentle night, come, loving, black-brow’d night.”
pun Mercutio- “Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.”Romeo- “Not I, believe me. You have dancing shoes/ With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead…” (Act I, scene 4)
foreshadowing “as civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”
allusion “hath Dian’s wit.” He is saying she would not marry him since Diana vowed never to marry.(Act I, scene 1)
imagery “So shows a dove trooping with crows/ As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows.”
light/dark imagery “More light and light, more dark and dark our woes.”
dramatic irony On the balcony, Juliet talks about Romeo but does not know that he is there.
setting Although no specific date is given, most scholars say the action of the play probably takes place around 1200 or 1300 A.D, when Italian families were feuding.
paradox “less is more.” Juliet expresses a paradox when she speaks of Romeo, saying, “My only love sprung from my only hate.”
metaphor “It is the east and Juliet is the sun.”
soliloquy “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks.”
aside “Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?”
hyperbole “bounty is as boundless as the sea.”
simile “These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume.”
protagonist Romeo and Juliet are the the protagonists.
antagonist Tybalt is the one antagonist in the play, because he opposes Romeo.
sonnet There is an embedded sonnet in Act 1, scene 5 when Romeo and Juliet meet.
foil Benvolio and Tybalt are foils in Act I.
July 30, 2019