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Compare Juliet's use of oxymora in 3.2 with Romeo's use of them in 1.1. How is Juliet's attitude now like Romeo's then? Are there any significant...

In Act 1 scene 1 of Shakespeare's tragedy, Romeo & Juliet, Romeo is brooding over the lost affections of Rosaline and sees the evidence of a brawl in the streets. This begins his famous soliloquy in which he says:



"Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,


Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!


Where shall we dine?—O me! What fray was here?


Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.


Here’s much to do with hate but more with love.


Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,


O anything of nothing first created!


O heavy lightness, serious vanity,


Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!


Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,


Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!


This love feel I, that feel no love in this."



Romeo's use of oxymora declares love to be "loving hate," "heavy lightness," "serious vanity," "cold fire," "sick health," "bright smoke," "still-waking sleep," and a "feather of lead." He supposes that love is what incites people to violence, and as beautiful as it is, it also creates chaos and ugliness. 



In Act 3 scene 2, Juliet learns that her cousin Tybalt is dead at Romeo's hand. She uses many oxymora in her speech:




"O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!


Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?


Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical!


Dove-feathered raven, wolvish-ravening lamb!


Despisèd substance of divinest show,


Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st.


A damnèd saint, an honorable villain!


O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell


When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend


In moral paradise of such sweet flesh?


Was ever book containing such vile matter


So fairly bound? Oh, that deceit should dwell


In such a gorgeous palace!"





She uses opposites to describe Romeo and express her grief at his vile actions. She calls him a "fiend angelical" and a "dove-feathered raven," among other comparisons. 



In these soliloquies, both characters express a shattered view of love. They have held an idealistic view of the beauty of love prior to this. Romeo's use of oxymora is of a more general nature. In saying "What fray is this? yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate, but more with love." He shows a jaded view of love as the cause of much heartache and loss. Juliet's use of oxymora is much more personal in nature. She has not previously discussed any disappointment in actions committed in the name of love. The first thing that shatters her idealism is her own true love murdering her dear cousin. Her use of oxymora points to the disappointment and pain Romeo has caused her. She insinuates that he is not what he seemed. She says that there has never been a book containing such vile content that was so fairly bound, suggesting that his beauty exists only superficially and that she didn't know his character.  



In comparing the speeches of both Romeo and Juliet in Act 1 scene 1, and in Act 3 scene 2, the similarities exist in each character's shattered illusions of love, and their use of oxymora to express that loss of idealism. The differences are that Romeo's use of oxymora are of a general nature, while Juliet's are more personal. Romeo expresses his feelings at the evidence of a general brawl, whose victims are not named. Juliet's expressions of grief are very personal in nature. Her husband of three hours has murdered her dear cousin.





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