Mean Girls Open responce

Romeo and Juliet Open Response Throughout the play, William Shakespeare connects his work to symbolic and thematic patterns. He uses personification, metaphors, similes, and other forms of figurative language, to emphasize how he relates certain parts of the play to themes in the story. In act 2, scene 3 Friar Lawrence enters the play. William Shakespeare uses several forms of figurative language in Friars dialogue. By using foreshadowing, motifs, and symbols in this passage, William relates Friar’s speech to other themes, that later tie in to the rest of the play. Friar Lawrence is a kind, Catholic man, who is clever and always has a plan. In this scene, Friar is talking to himself while tending to his plants. Friar says, “The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light, and fleckled darkness like a drunkard reels” (2.3 1-3). William uses this quote as a motif, using light vs. dark. In the play, darkness is a good thing, while light is bad. After Romeo is banded from Verona, Romeo and Juliet aren’t allowed to see each other, considering he is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. Since the two can’t be seen with each other, darkness is their only hope. It is the only time they can be with each other. Although, when the moon sets and the sun rises, Romeo must leave his love and set off to Mantua. William Shakespeare uses thematic patterns in Friars first speech connecting good versus evil. In lines 9-10, Friar says, “The earth, that’s nature’s mother, is her tomb. What is her burying, grave that is her womb. And from her womb children of divers kind we sucking natural bosom find, many for many virtues excellent, none but for some and yet all different” (2.3 9-11). Friar is explaining how Earth provides her children with many excellent forms of nourishment. Some of this nourishment is bad but some is good. The theme of this quote shows the good vs. evil in the play. For example, Romeo and Juliet are madly in love which resembles the good, while their families tear them apart since Capulet’s and Montague’s are enemies, which resembles the evil. In the play, poison is a major symbol that can relate to the thematic text in Friar’s passage. “In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities/ poison hath residence and medicine power/ in man as well as herbs- grace and rude will” (2.3 16-28). William uses foreshadowing here, relating to the poison Juliet took to be with Romeo. This poison was supposed to help Juliet be with Romeo forever. It did, but not in the way they had hoped. It was obvious to the reader, that when Juliet drank the poison, something was going to go wrong. William Shakespeare uses the Friar’s first speech, as one of the many passages to connect to larger symbolic and thematic patterns in the play. By using the specific motifs, symbols and foreshadowing in the given passage, the Friars speech connects to the rest of the play.