Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene II

Analysis of “The balcony scene”
We are going to analyze the second scene of the second act of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
The extract is addressed to all social classes and is tragedy about two lovers (Romeo and Juliet), who lived a love story full of difficulties because they belonged to two different families in Verona, that were in conflict: the Montagues and the Capulets.

The extract can be divided into three parts:
The first one presents Romeo’s soliloquy;
In the second part Juliet speaks but she does not know that Romeo is listening to her;
The third part is a dialogue between Romeo and Juliet.

After the soliloquy, the layout makes clear the poem is arranged into dialogues between Romeo and Juliet and there are eleven stanzas. The line lengths are compact in all the text except in the first dialogue. There are no rhymes.
As regards the punctuation, an intelligent reader could notice that Shakespeare ranged with question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons and so on.
It goes without saying, this emphasizes what Romeo and Juliet say, and involves the readers creating suspense and curiosity. The language used is poetic language and there are some archaic words that aren’t used in the modern English anymore, for example “thou” that means “you”, or “art” that means “are”, etc.
From Romeo’s soliloquy words, it is possible to understand that the scene is set at night; indeed Romeo compares Juliet to the sun that makes the pale moon envious, because the moon has a cycle destined to end; on the other hand the sun is eternal. Moreover, Romeo compares Juliet to the sun because she cames out on her balcony that is in the east, where the sun raise up. In that period Copernicus spread his theory according to which the sun was considered the center of the universe and the earth and the other planets revolved around in concentric spheres; so Romeo comparing Juliet to the sun puts her to the center of the universe. In the fifty line there is a cataphoric reference (“envious” is a cataphoric adjective), indeed the reader has to read more to understand the sentence and this instils curiosity in him/her. Romeo also compares her to daylight (that is linked with the lighting theory), and compares her eyes to the Heaven; he praises her like an angel. In each line Romeo talks about Juliet’s beauty, and Juliet’s description is a reference with the Heaven and light. Romeo talks more than Juliet. He adds that he would be her glove only to touch her cheek; he desperately waiting for a closer contact with a lady he considers more then anything else surrounding him. This stanza is full of metaphors. Furthermore, in many lines an intelligent reader should notice some run on lines; for example in the second-third line, but also in the fifth-six line, etc. The last line presents a consonance.
After that, Juliet talks for the first time only saying: “Ay me!”
Romeo, amazed to her voice, wants her to talk again and he compares her to a winged angel once more. Here, as in the whole composition, is underlined his high consideration of Juliet’s beauty. The importance that Romeo gives to her is a fundamental characteristic of courtly love.
So, Juliet answers asking him (without knowing that he was there) why was really him. She asks him to swear his love and she will not longer be a Capulet. They wanted to be free to love each other, bacause Capulet is only a name, and a name could not prevent their love.
Romeo asks to himself if he should hear more or talk to her, and it seems like that there is an interruption in which Romeo has a doubt and ask for advice to somebody; then Juliet starts to talk.
Juliet says that even Montague is only a name and a name should not define a man, because Romeo would be himself with any other name. Even here there are three run on lines (the third-fourth line, the sixth-seventh line and the eleventh-twelfth line).
So, after Juliet’s words, Romeo asks her to swear her love and then he could change his name, to freely love her. Romeo’s name is an enemy for him because it is an obstacle for their love.
Juliet wants to listen Romeo to speak again and she asks him if he is not Romeo and a Montague. In this stanza there is a synesthesia (“my ears have not yet drunk a hundred words of that tongue’s utterance…”) and a run on line in the first-second line.
In conclusion, Romeo answers to her with few words ”neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike”.