Romeo and Juliet Literary Elements

Tragedy

English

Verona, Italy in the fourteenth century

There is no singular narrator in the play, but the plot most closely follows the relationship between Romeo and Juliet. One could argue that Mercutio is a type of critical third-person narrator until he is killed halfway through the play.

The tone of the play is passionate and hopeful. The mood of the play is romantic and unfortunate.

The central protagonists of the play are Romeo and Juliet, while the antagonists are their families who continue to spar with one another.

The major conflict in the play is that Romeo and Juliet are members of two feuding families but, when they fall in love, resolve to marry anyway despite their families' wishes.

The climax of the play occurs when Romeo arrives at the tomb to find what he thinks is his dead wife. In a fit of grief, Romeo takes his own life just moments before Juliet awakens and discovers him dead.

The deaths of Romeo and Juliet are foreshadowed throughout the play, including in the prologue when the chorus explains that the lovers' deaths are what usher in peace between the two families. Both Romeo and Juliet tell Friar Lawrence that they will commit suicide if they cannot be together. The nurse recalls that Juliet's life has been peppered with bad omens, and Romeo himself speculates that attending the Capulet ball will bring severe consequences.

When Mercutio is stabbed in Act Three, he downplays his injury by saying, "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch. Marry, 'tis enough" (3.1). Of course, after Mercutio is stabbed by Tybalt, he dies, ushering in the second and much darker half of the play.

Like many of Shakespeare's plays, Romeo and Juliet contains multiple allusions to Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, most frequently when characters are thinking about the sky, the sun, the stars, and other astronomical phenomena. Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech also alludes to a figure from English folklore.

Romeo and Juliet is best known for its repeated use of light/dark imagery. Characters frequently compare one another to different light-bearing objects like the sun or the stars. Furthermore, darkness comes to signify freedom in the play, as it is only at night that Romeo and Juliet can safely be together.

The central paradox of the play is the tragedy itself: two young lovers are sacrificed in the name of a petty feud that ultimately ends after their deaths.

N/A

Romeo famously personifies the moon as a pale and envious woman. He simultaneously compares Juliet to the sun, suggesting that she is so beautiful that, if the moon were a woman, she would be jealous of Juliet.

The central dramatic device that the play uses, especially in the second half, is dramatic irony. The audience is privy to much more information than the characters themselves, and therein lies the most tragic occurrence of the play: Romeo, believing Juliet to be dead when she is really just in a deep sleep, kills himself. This prompts Juliet to take her own life after she emerges from her catatonic state.