ROMEO AND JULIET – THE FIRST KISS

The present extract belongs to Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Act I, scene IV. The scene represents the first kiss between the two lovers, speaking a moment earlier than the kiss. It is one of the most important moment during the play.

Considering the structure, one can immediately notice how the first part of the piece of dialogue is only made of two lined by Romeo and Juliet, while the second part is “faster”, as it is composed of shorter lines. The dialogue starts with Romeo speaking. The core of the dialogue is immediately exposed by Romeo: it consists in a metaphor, with which the kiss between the two is compared to the hands of a “pilgrim”. Their kiss is strictly linked to religion, as one can notice from the word “profane” in the first line. Romeo feels ashamed (“blushing pilgrims”) and he’s worried to be indiscreet to Juliet, but she reassures him saying that pilgrims make their hands touch after they showed devotion to the saints (Juliet in the metaphor) after their journey, right as their lips do after Romeo’s hand showed devotion to Juliet.

Therefore, in the second part of the extract, a fast exchange of lines take place. The growing suggestion is so expressed by the climax, that ends when Romeo kisses Juliet. Indeed, a moment earlier, Romeo puts an end to the metaphor, asking Juliet to “let lips do what hands do”, and as the saints, who are compared to Juliet who is given devotion by Romeo, do not move during the pilgrims’ prayers, so Juliet does, waiting for her lover’s kiss.

To conclude, the entire extract is a metaphor which links love to religion, as the many words belonging to the semantic field of religion suggest: “profane”, “holy shrine”, “pilgrims”, “saints”, “prayer”.