Imagery: Shakespeare Paints Pictures With Words

Tonight's reading takes you through the rest of scene one. As the Prince leaves the stage with the Capulets, the focus shifts to the Montagues, Romeo's parents. Naturally, they are wondering where on earth Romeo is; afterall, the rest of his peers were out in the middle of the brawl at the crack of dawn. As luck would have it, they see Romeo's friend Benvolio, and he agrees to ask Romeo what he's been up to. Lord Montague explains to Benvolio that he has noticed that Romeo is often up before dawn and that when Romeo comes home, he closes himself up in his room, drawing the curtains to keep out the light. Lord Capulet agrees to slip off with his wife so that Benvolio have a private talk with Romeo and try to find out what's bothering him.



What does this sound like to you? Is it normal for a teenage boy to get up early in the morning? Sounds like trouble to me! He's either sick or can't sleep because something is on his mind...maybe a girl? Do you know any guys who always have to have a girlfriend? Romeo might be the kind of guy who is always in love. The funny thing is that it seems like Romeo enjoys being sad about being in love, and as he explains to Benvolio, he's in love with someone who won't love him back. His poetry sounds silly, too. He uses oxymorons - words that don't make sense together- like cold fire- to explain his confused feelings of love.



Hang in there on the reading. Act I of Romeo and Juliet is the exposition or set up. We meet most of the characters and learn what the story will be about. Right now we see that Romeo really doesn't know what true love is all about. Seeing him as a love sick young man in the beginning of the play is a nice contrast to the way we see Romeo when he meets his true love, Juliet.


Shakespeare's use of imagery creates some of the most beautiful lines of poetry, particularly in the famous balcony scene. On Friday we'll look closely at imagery in other poetry, and as a way of expressing our impressions of the images, we'll create photo stories to display our interpretations.



So...adieu. Parting is such sweet sorrow. Keep reading. By the way, our readers today were awesome.