William Shakespeare, Act I, Scene V

Romeo and Juliet’s first meeting: analysis

In Shakespeare’s work, Romeo and Juliet, the meeting of the two lovers doesn’t take place in the beginning of the play, but only in scene V, at the end of the first act. At first, indeed, Romeo doesn’t know Juliet and he suffers because his love for Rosaline is not reciprocated. In order to cheer him up, his cousin Benvolio and his best friend Mercutio invite him to go to a feast in disguise and it is here that he meets for the first time Juliet.

The scene of their first meeting can be divided into two sequences:

·         In the first one, the reader faces Romeo’s consideration about Juliet’s beauty, which distinguish her from other people in the room;

·         In the second sequence there is Romeo and Juliet’s actual meeting and their dialogue.

From the beginning of the sequence, as already said, Romeo is struck by Juliet’s beauty: this is confirmed by the fact that, when Romeo asks the servant for information about her, he identifies Juliet with the word “lady”, which doesn’t indicate a common woman. So, the word “lady” ennobles her, makes her different and more important from other women in the room. Juliet is touching a knight’s hand with her hand and the verb “enrich” used by Romeo emphasizes Juliet’s beauty.

The servant replies to Romeo’s question with a short answer (“I know not, sir), and immediately leaves Romeo thinking, as if he understood his mood.

Romeo still hasn’t made the first step and he keeps looking at Juliet from afar. He continues his soliloquy with a sigh and compares Juliet to a light that shines so much that it teaches the torches “to burn bright”. The alliteration “burn bright” underlines Romeo’s passion towards Juliet. The concept of light recalls the distance between Romeo and Juliet: Romeo is struck by Juliet’s light / beauty and this is possible because the light is something visible also from a certain distance; what’s more, Romeo doesn’t know her yet – just her beauty –  so he is only able to makes considerations about her beauty. In the following line (45), indeed, Romeo emphasizes again Juliet’s beauty by comparing her to a queen of the night and so by creating a contrast between light and darkness. The contrast is recalled by the simile which hints to an Ethiop’s skin and a sparkling jewel: Romeo recalls again the richness of Juliet’s beauty, which is too rich to be used. At line 48, Romeo uses another simile and compares Juliet to a dove, whose color is contrasted by the black of the crows. Romeo has a strong desire that makes him want to be closer to Juliet and so he plans to speak to her after the dance finished. Romeo’s strong feelings is conveyed  by the expression “rude hand”, with which he connotes negatively his own hand. The expression proves that Romeo is already in love with Juliet at this time of the play: when he is in love his centre isn’t himself anymore, but it is Juliet because now it’s her the most important thing to him. So, Romeo moves his centre and therefore he downsizes himself and considers himself a trivial matter (generally speaking, Romeo’s falling in love and the decentralization of his figure corresponds to the opposite of what happened in the transition between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance).

Romeo’s use of a language full of similes, metaphors and, in particular, of contrasts dealing with light / darkness (see also black and white) are used not only to underline Juliet’s beauty, but also to emphasize it and so to distinguish her from the other people in the room. Or better still, Romeo’s language makes the reader understand that he doesn’t consider any other of the people in the room, because his attention is too focused on Juliet to see other people. The only person considered by Romeo is the knight that is with Juliet, but this happens just because he has a direct contact with her.

At the end of the dance, Romeo goes closer to Juliet and starts talking to her with high language, as he did in his soliloquy: indeed he used words belonging to the semantic field of religion, for example “profane”, addressed to himself, and “holy shrine”, addressed to Juliet. From the first cue, Romeo clearly tells Juliet about his desire to kiss her, showing that he is a honest person (he doesn’t lie to her). Juliet answers and she recognizes Romeo’s devotion. Her answer demonstrates a cohesion, because she maintains the use of a religious language. Other words belonging to this field are “saints”, “holy palmers”, etc.

Juliet goes on and explains what is a kiss to her by using the expression “palm to palm”. Romeo is caught unawares by the expression and his answer (“have not saints lips […]?”) clearly underlines his desire to kiss Juliet. On the other hand, Juliet continues and explains the expression, by saying that they are useful not to kiss but to pray: this way Juliet gives to the lips a high function from a religious / spiritual point of view. Romeo understands it and answers: now he compares Juliet to a saint (not a shrine anymore) and insists about the kiss. Juliet says that saints do not move: this sentence doesn’t mean that Juliet recognizes herself as a saint, but it implicitly means that she doesn’t want to make the first step. Juliet is just respecting what the tradition says about courting: in fact, women were not allowed to court men, it was the contrary. Therefore, Juliet’s answer is an incitation for Romeo to make the first step for her, because she can’t. Romeo understands it and, after a few lines, he can finally satisfy his desire. Anyway, Romeo keeps on using a religious language: even after the kiss, he uses words such as “sin” and in the last lines the two protagonists joke about it.

From the analysis, the reader understands that  Romeo and Juliet’s characters are really different from each other. The language used by each character reveals that Romeo is more outgoing, passionate than Juliet, while she looks more attached to traditions and, so, to her family.