Monday, June 11, 2012

In the play Romeo and Juliet, what are three quotes that show love is heavenly; explain why each works for this metaphor?

Beginning with the Balcony scene, Romeo and Juliet are
ecstatic with each other's love.  There are many more than three places to quote; Romeo,
especially, is always describing Juliet as heavenly or
celestial:


readability="22">

But, soft! what light through yonder window
breaks?


It is the east, and Juliet is the
sun.


(- - -)


. . . her eyes in
heaven


Would through the airy region stream so
bright


That birds would sing and think it were not
night.


(- - -)


She
speaks:


O, speak again, bright angel! for thou
art


As glorious to this night, being o'er my
head


As is a winged messenger of
heaven



Juliet
replies:



My
bounty is as boundless as the sea,


My love as deep; the
more I give to thee,


The more I have, for both are
infinite.



Romeo and Juliet
are married, but Romeo encounters Tybault, is attacked, and winds up killing him.  For
his crime he is banished from Verona.


That evening, Juliet
is in her room with her
nurse.


Juliet:


readability="21">

Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd
night,


Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall
die,


Take him and cut him out in little
stars,


And he will make the face of heaven so
fine


That all the world will be in love with
night



readability="5">

And pay no worship to the garish
sun.



Again, not to belabor
the point, Juliet in her excitement sends Romeo to
heaven.


Then the Nurse tells her that Romeo is banished. 
Romeo himself learns from Father Laurence.  Romeo makes his way, unobserved, to Juliet's
room and they have their only night together.


Romeo is
rather somber for a man who has just spent the first night with his
love:



It was
the lark, the herald of the morn,


No nightingale: look,
love, what envious streaks


Do lace the severing clouds in
yonder east:


Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund
day


Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain
tops.


I must be gone and live, or stay and
die.



From this point,
although they are still in love, both are living in Hell.  There is no more talk of
Heaven.


The time when Romeo and Juliet are first
discovering their love is, I think, about the most beautiful scene in literature.  Their
happiness soars to Heaven, which makes their descent into tragedy the more painful to
see.

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