ACT 2 SCENE 2 – ANALYSIS

In the scene Romeo met Juliet at Capulet’s garden. Juliet was in her bedroom’s balcony and Romeo went here at night because he didn’t want to be disclosed.

Considering their speech, their love has the features of the courtly love.

The verb “to appear” is the first sign which explains the woman’s supernatural nature. According to the courtly love, women throws off words by men and makes them sighing. In the text the several invocation (“0”) recall this feature.

The main semantic field is the light, which allows to raise Juliet into a divine layer. Inside this semantic field, it may be possible to find some words such as “sun”, “star”, “brightness”, “daylight”, “lamp”... Moreover, there is the alliteration of the sound “s” in the words “sun” and “star”, which connect the two metaphors of Juliet/sun and Juliet/star, with the function to strengthen Juliet’s brightness.

The contrast between darkness and daylight is connected to the theme of light. If the light is the divine love between Romeo and Juliet, darkness represents the place where this love can be realized. They come from two rival families so their love wouldn’t been accepted, that’s the reason why they meet each  other at night.     

The problem of the social’s identity is pointed out by the alliteration of the sound “t” (“thou”, “thy”, “‘tis”, “thee”, “tell”): the two characters love each other despite their name. Juliet compares Romeo to a rose, which wouldn’t stop  its scent  even if its name changed, therefore they overtake the problem thanks to their love.

Finally, considering the textual elements Juliet is quite similar to an angel. She is a supernatural woman illuminated by the light of the room and she is in an higher position than Romeo. She is able to raise men as suggested by the word “baptized”, spoke by Romeo. So their love is divine and it follows Dolce Stilnovo’s features.