Romeo and Juliet – act II – scene II: analysis.

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular among those tragedies written by Shakespeare. Composed around 1595, inspired by the events narrated, again during the Renaissance, from various Italian poets. The events take place in Verona, the two main characters, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet are two guys from two major families of Verona rivals to each other. One evening Romeo sneaks for a challenge, at a party held by the family of Juliet and between the two is love at first sight, an impossible love because of the rivalry between the two families. A cousin of Juliet kills a friend of Romeo, who kills him in turn and for this reason he is send away from Verona. The girl, not wanting to marry others, pretends to be dead by drinking a poison with only effect temporary, when Romeo becomes aware of her death he went on his grave and took his own life. Juliet wakes up, she sees his lover's body and follows him in suicide. It is only after the death of the two young that families decide to cease hostilities.

The title of the poem reports directly the names of the two protagonists, this would indicate to the reader that the facts narrated in the work revolve around the two figures, and that since the two names one male and one female, the main theme is that of love. Another detail that the intelligent reader can infer from the two names is the setting of the story, as the names of the two protagonists are of Italian origin: Juliet comes from Italian Giulietta, diminutive of Giulia; while Romeo remains the same in both languages ​​(Italian and English).

The extract that we analyse describes the time directly after the dance party organized by Capulet: Romeo, at the end of the party, secretly enters the garden of the Capulets and sees Juliet at the window, looking out to the balcony. This part of the work is known as "the balcony scene"; is at this time that the dialogue between the two lovers takes place. A first look at the text allows the reader to notice the difference in length between the first and the second half of the dialogue. Because of this difference, the extract can be divided into two parts: the first consisting of longer gags, and the second containing a faster exchange between the protagonists.

A careful reading allows, however, to notice a further subdivision within the first half of the scene: the dialogue takes place through two soliloquies that are woven together to form a series of jokes. The first is that of Romeo who speaks to Juliet knowing that she does not hear him, the second is that of Juliet, who talks to herself believing not to be heard. These two characteristics that distinguish the two reflections are made ​​visible to the reader through two distinct lines. At the exclamation of Juliet (Ay me) Romeo resumes his praise with the pronoun she, so he is conscious of the fact that she does not hear him, otherwise he would resume referring to the girl with the pronoun you. Juliet, however, is surprised when Romeo speaks to her (I take thee at thy word (...) What man art thou (..)), then we can conclude that she believed to be alone.

In summary, the extract can then be divided, in light of the reasons above proposals, in three distinct sequences:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->The initial Romeo's soliloquy which, as already explained, speaks to Juliet even though she can not hear him;

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->The soliloquy of Juliet, that expresses her thoughts aloud believing that no one can hear them;

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->The dialogue between the two young beginning with the intrusion of Romeo in Juliet's soliloquy and ending in just six gags.

The first judgment delivered by Romeo is a pure reflection of the character, as Juliet has not yet appeared on the balcony. The mood of the young is already recognizable in this first statement: the nouns scars and wound recall something negative, an emotional wound of which the young bears the scar. This gloomy feeling disappears when Juliet appears at the window on the balcony, the light at the end of the second verse of the soliloquy, joined to the immediately preceding exclamation, allows the reader to understand the positive effect played by the appearance of the girl in the heart of Romeo and highlights the love he feels for her. In this first part, there are two major figures of speech divided by two exclamations of Romeo pronounced with a single purpose: to praise, even hyperbolically, both physical and moral beauty of his beloved. Both these rhetoric figures of meaning are metaphors:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->The first deals with the verses from the third to the ninth and takes into consideration the whole figure of the girl; here the young man compares his love to the sun, the star most important of the sky that manages to overshadow even the moon (often seen as an emblem of the same feminine beauty). From this, we can deduce that Romeo refers to the physical beauty of Juliet and that considers it above any other beauty in the world.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->The second line starts at the thirteenth and ends at the eighteenth highlighting the eyes of Juliet: Romeo sees her eyes like two stars brighter than the ones that populate the sky and expresses the doubt that they actually are between them. In this way are placed in the foreground the characteristics of the young woman and his moral purity, higher than that of the stars themselves.

These two metaphors are repeated at the following verses. In this way the narrator ennobles again the characteristics of the girl and puts emphasis on the feelings that Romeo has for her. The love of the young find another explanation in verses twenty-second, twenty-third and twenty-fourth. In these beats Romeo expresses the desire to touch the cheek of Juliet, of Juliet synecdoche, and therefore to establish physical contact with her. After the interruption of the girl, Romeo continues his praise comparing her to an angel messenger of heaven. In this way, he ennobles her figure and makes legitimate and just his love for her. Particular emphasis should be placed on the term white, emphasizing the colour of the angel to whom is compared Juliet and recreating at the same time the idea of the purity of the girl.

Analysing now the second part of the extract, the first thing you notice is the incipitale position of the name of Romeo: this privileged position in the soliloquy, and into the line itself, of the young man's name refers to the position held by the guy in the heart of Juliet. As the name is at the beginning of the verse, so Romeo is the centre of her thoughts. The reason for this centrality of the figure of the young is revealed by the protagonist three verses later, when she invites him to bind to her love. The feeling of love that binds the two main characters is the main theme of the scene. From these first four verses of Juliet's soliloquy, you can see the substantial differences from the previous reflection of his lover:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Romeo, knowing that Juliet can not hear him, talks to her image but always maintaining the third person (She speacks); the young woman, however, believing to be alone speaks confidentially to the imaginary Romeo to which she addresses (wherefore art thou Romeo?)

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->The language used by the poet in the writing of the first soliloquy is composed primarily, if not only, from the figures of speech most of which metaphors; the first part of the soliloquy of Juliet, instead, is made ​​cohesive by the alliteration of the vowel e but does not contain any rhetorical figure of meaning.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->Last difference is the topic of two comments: both have as theme the love that unites the two young but Romeo emphasizes only the feeling, while Juliet captures all the difficulties that this feeling presents (the division of the two families).

The fact that Romeo has heard the first part of the lines of Juliet is explained, by the author, using an aside, when the young man asks whether to intervene, breaking the reflection of the beloved, or continue to listen. After this interruption of a verse, the soliloquy of Juliet continues with the exhibition of her thoughts about the difficulty due to the name of Romeo: Juliet says she loves Romeo regardless of its name and what was not contemplated in the Renaissance era. In medieval and post-medieval, in fact, marriages were real contracts between families, especially if these were of high social rank, and were combined irrespective of the wishes of those involved. This insistence of the girl on the name of him is put in evidence by repetitions and alliterations. The most important of the repetitions is the repetition of the noun name, underlining the main topic of the thoughts of the young woman: the difficulties associated with the names of herself and her beloved, because of which, as she knows, they can never stay together. The second anaphor involves, however, the negation nor, aimed at highlighting the split between the name of Romeo, and therefore his family, and the single figure of the young, with his own identity distinct from that of the family. For what concerns the alliterations there are several engaging various letters (y, o, s, t) components in the foreground again what placed in the foreground from the anaphors.

The third part of the extract, finally, is composed of a dialogue between the two protagonists and begins with an interruption, by Romeo, of the soliloquy of Juliet. At the repeated request of the young girl responds by saying not to feel own his name and at an only word of her he can be renamed (Call me but love, and I'll be baptized now). This verse in particular takes up the previous metaphor, through which Romeo compared Juliet to an angel. The supernatural power, almost divine, of the girl finds a new expression: if before his appearance could be a guide to the eyes of men, now  her words can give a new name, that is a new life, to the one that she wants.

After this interruption by the young, the first beat, spoken by the girl in this third part, makes explicit her belief of solitude: Juliet asks who has spoken, then, as previously mentioned, she was convinced to be alone outside the home and then confided her fears to the nature mute and motionless in the dark of the night. The fact that, also in these two verses, she mentions a secret allows the reader to guess that she did not recognize the voice of her lover and then leaves the reader the chance to imagine the amazement and fear experienced by the girl at the time of the appearance of someone during her confession. The identity of this unknown is revealed by Romeo with a figure of speech different from those of which abounded his reflection: a paraphrase. To reveal his identity the Montague resumes the reflection made by the girl about his name, perhaps fearing that someone other than her can hear his words. In this way does not reveal his identity but makes sure that Juliet can understand it. At this answer Juliet replies with another question, claiming to recognize the voice of the beloved but still asking the confirmation of his identity. Even in this case is resumed the distinction between the proper name of Romeo and HIS surname given to indicate the family to which they belonged. The love of Romeo is said in the last verse, as he says he is not himself even more if this Juliet required.