Language of Extremes in Romeo and Juliet :: Free Essay Writer

Language of Extremes in Romeo and JulietI have no joy of this contract tonight.It is too rash, too sudden,Too like the lightning which doth forfeit to beEre one can say it lightens. (2.1.159-162)Juliet prophesies her own doom from her balcony, an acknowledgment that does nothing to curb the rashness she identifies in their twenty-four hour meeting, engagement, and marriage. It is of course unrealizable to gauge Shakespeares personal interpretations of his characters actions, and since the action of the story comes directly from a long narrative poem by Arthur Broke, and Broke got his material from a French story, which was adapted from an Italian work by Bandello, who was working from earlier texts, Shakespeare cannot exactly be looked to as the final authority for the moral worth of Romeo and Juliets actions anyway.Since Shakespeares feeling cannot be evaluated, theories about Romeo and Juliets actions can be weighed without worrying about original intent. One argument is that Rom eo and Juliet were actually quite misled in their actions, that quite of a celebration of uncontrollable passion, the play should be seen as a condemnation of rashness. Toward this, Juliets admission on the balcony is very important. The line betrays not still a rational apprehension of the impetuousness of their acts, but a supernatural misgiving, a portent of impending doom, which Romeo also betrays before the Capulet party ...My mind misgives few consequence yet hanging in the starsShall bitterly begin his fearful dateWith this nights revels, and expire the termOf a despised life, unlikeable in my breast,By some vile forfeit of untimely death. (1.4.106-111)The idea of fate is hard to pin down in this play. Fate as a fact of life or a deity is not found in the Italian context like it would be in Greek cataclysm or Greek and ancient Roman settings, but these lines from the two young heroes show that fate is there, undefined, but present and deadly still.Friar Laurence, at in on e case both a religious icon and a humanistic one, seems to dispute the supernatural power of fate These violent delights have violent ends,And in their endure die like fire and powder,Which as they kiss consume. The sweetest honeyIs loathsome in his own deliciousness,And in the taste confounds the appetite.Therefore, love moderately. Long love doth so. (2.5.9-14)His linguistic communication throws the responsibility of moderation on the lovers, not to fate or heaven (as the Prince will in the final scene of the play).