Skip to main content

What does the "poison" foreshadow in Romeo and Juliet?

In Act 2, Scene 3, just prior to Romeo's arrival at his cell, Friar Lawrence is working with his plants.  He says that within one "weak flower / Poison hath residence and medicine power" (2.3.23-24).  In other words, one plant has the ability to help or harm, depending on the dosage.  This seems to foreshadow the plan that the Friar will later make, where he will provide Juliet with a medicinal potion that will make her seem dead.  The plan is to use this distillation to allow Juliet to fake her own death and run away with Romeo.


However, the Friar also says that the flower is also like a person because "Two such opposed kings encamp them still / In man as well as herbs -- grace and rude will; / And where the worser is predominant, / Full soon the canker death eats up that plant" (2.3.28-31).  He draws attention to humankind's ability to be both loving and hateful, and where hatred rules, there can only be destruction.  This seems to foreshadow that, although Romeo and Juliet love each other, showing the better side of humanity, the hatred with which they are surrounded will eventually overcome and destroy them, showing the worse.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more