Juxtaposition In Romeo And Juliet

Juxtaposition is a tried and true example of how opposites attract, they are essential in making potentially good work extraordinary. To understand and grasp their glory, one must read in between the lines. In said extraordinary works lies Romeo and Juliet. To say that Romeo and Juliet is simply a love story about a forbidden love between two star-crossed lovers is at best an ill attempted summary and at worst an insult to Shakespeare’s work and the characters as well. This is a complex story ,with complex characters, about love, loss, and just about everything in between, it is a story about two lovers that will live on forever in their death This story would not be what it is without the complex characters that inhibit it such as Juliet, Romeo and Friar Laurence.
In the theme of lightness and dark, Juliet says: “Come night; Come Romeo, Come; thou day in night”(3.2.73). In this scene she is waiting for Romeo to return and deflower her, she refers to him as the day in night while he often refers to her as all things associated with light. This is representing her eagerness as well as how much she is in awe of romeo. Yet all of that love and idolization can easily be reversed. She yells the following at Romeo:“O serpent heart, hid a flowering face”(3.2.73) This line is said when Juliet finds out that Romeo killed her cousin Tybalt. She is cursing him for his actions as well as herself for being naive. These juxtapositions allow for Juliet to a complex three dimensional character who is a love struck teenager but also beginning to come of age and due to aforementioned events, realize her own