Light And Dark Motifs In Romeo And Juliet

For my essay I chose to describe the light and dark motifs in "Romeo and Juliet". A motif is a term used to describe a passage in literature that has more than one universal meaning. It is used when a character or narrator is comparing one thing to another. For example the light motifs represent light things such as goodness, while dark motifs represent dark things such as death.

One light quote from the story is during the balcony scene when Romeo is talking about Juliet. He says "It is the East and Juliet is the sun" (act II, scene ii, line 4). This motif has more than one meaning. One meaning could possibly be that the sun is very hot and gives off a very strong glow that blocks out all of the stars and the moon, much like Juliet is very beautiful and gives off a glow that makes all other girls disappear as Romeo says. In this motif the tenor would be Juliet, the vehicle would be the sun and the ground would be how their glow blocks out all else.
He says " I have a soul of lead so stakes me to the ground I cannot move" (act I, scene iv, line 15-16). In this motif Romeo is sad and grieving that his girlfriend left him and does not want to do anything but mope about it. Since Romeo called this girl the true love of his life he was very depressed that she left him. His soul is so heavy with the loss of his love that he feels as if he cannot move or do anything at