Question

How does Act II, Scene 3, when Romeo goes to Friar Laurence’s cell at dawn, contrast with the action of the night before, when Romeo and Juliet declare their love? What do dawn and daytime signify to Romeo and Juliet’s relationship, and how does this scene tie into the light/darkness visual motif of the play? In the space below, write a minimum 150-word response analyzing the scene’s importance in these respects. Use specific details from the text to support your analysis.

Answer 1

Since the couples love happens at night it denotes secrecy and the excitement (due to their age/immaturity) as in the night you can hide things. In broad daylight they must be proper and dignified. Romeo constantly compares Juliet to the sun, perhaps showing that she is the light of his life and nothing can outshine her, ironically we see in the previous acts that he compared Rosalind to the moon, the use of contrasting he two females shows Romeos immaturity and lust, as he was worshipping the moon (Rosaline) but now the sun has come out (Juliet) showing that he’ll change view in an instant. We see that Juliet is the more mature one when she tells Romeo ‘do not swear by the moon, the inconsistent moon,’ showing that she wants something concrete out of the relationship unlike Romeo who is governed by lust and plays the typical Elizabethan young lover after one thing only.

Don’t think it was 150 words but that’s the general gist of the light and dark motif. There’s tonnes of it in Act 1 scene 5. When they first meet- it’s analysis gold.