Question

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I need an essay about the uses of oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet

Answer 1

The prologue of Romeo and Juliet warns the audience of an unhappy ending to its tale of “star-crossed lovers.” Throughout Acts I and II, oxymorons remind us of the prologue’s message: these opposing forces will not end peacefully. They reflect the characters’ ambivalent attitudes, torn loyalties, and misaligned goals.

Civil Brawls

One of the most famous oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet comes from the Prince’s admonition to the Montagues and Capulets on the streets of Verona. He warns them about further quarrels disturbing the city’s peace:

Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,

By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,

Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets…

(Romeo and Juliet 1.1 91-93)

The word “civil” in the phrase “civil brawls” implies that the brawls are friendly. The idea of a “friendly fight” is a clear oxymoron that contradicts itself.

O Brawling Love, O Loving Hate

Before Romeo set eyes on Juliet, he was head over heels for Rosaline. But Rosaline’s rejection has set him into a moody tailspin. Now faced with news of the most recent Capulet-Montague brawl, Romeo laments to Benvolio:

“Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.

Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love.

Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate

O any thing, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.”

Oxymorons dealing with the fight – “O brawling love, O loving hate” – show Romeo’s ambivalent attitude toward the families’ animosity. He also uses oxymorons to describe how out-of-sorts he feels in his love toward Rosaline (“cold fire, sick health, still-waking sleep”).

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

In the opening Prologue of Romeo and Juliet, the Chorus refers to the title characters as “star-crossed lovers,” an allusion to the belief that stars and planets have the power to control events on Earth. This line leads many readers to believe that Romeo and Juliet are inescapably destined to fall in love and equally destined to have that love destroyed. However, though Shakespeare’s play raises the possibility that some impersonal, supernatural force shapes Romeo and Juliet’s lives, by the end of the play it becomes clear that the characters bear more of the responsibility than Fortune does.

Though the Prologue offers the first and perhaps most famous example of celestial imagery in Romeo and Juliet, references to the stars, sun, moon, and heavens run throughout the play, and taken as a whole that imagery seems to express a different view of human responsibility. In Act 1, scene 4, Romeo says that he fears “some consequence yet hanging in the stars” when he and his gang approach the Capulet’s ball. In his next mention of stars, however, Romeo doesn’t refer to their astrological power. Rather, he uses the image of stars to describe Juliet’s otherworldly beauty. Most of the subsequent celestial images in the play follow in this vein, from Romeo’s love-struck comparison of Juliet to the sun to Juliet’s own wish to “cut [Romeo] out into little stars” when he dies. Throughout the play, these astral images are more often associated with the two lovers than with divine fate, emphasizing that, as the play’s action escalates, we cannot simply place the blame for the tragedy on some impersonal external force.

Explanation: just did a essay for it at my school got a 100%