True Story about Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare is a drama based on love. The drama is about how two foes find love despite an old grudge. The two central motifs throughout the play are light and dark. In Romeo and Juliet the light and dark concepts also exemplify life and death.

The two protagonists, Romeo and Juliet, portray the motifs of light and dark. The two motifs in the play emphasize the theme of how love conquers all the senses.The motif of darkness is expressed throughout Act I Scene I. From the beginning of the play, Montague compares Romeo to things of darkness or death, Montague says, "Many a morning hath he there been seen with tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, adding to clouds and more clouds with his deep sighs; But all so soon as the all-cheering sun should in the farthest east began to draw the shady curtains from Aurora's bed, away from light steals home my heavy son and private in his chamber pens himself, shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, and makes himself an artificial night," (I.i.

125-133) in this passage Montague is trying to explain to Benvolio and Lady Montague that whenever the sun comes up Romeo shuts the curtains so that he may create an "artificial night" but nobody has an understanding of why he must do this.The dark motif is also present throughout Mercutio's Queen Mab speech. Towards the begging of Act I scene IV, Mercutio tries to convince Romeo push his lovesickness over Rosaline aside and to come along to the Capulet feast. When Romeo says that he is depressed because of a dream, Mercutio begins his speech of Queen Mab and he implies that she is the "mastermind of dreams." Queen Mab is a fairy who brings dreams to sleeping humans and throughout Mercutio's speech of Queen Mab he rambles on about nonsense, he is trying to describe to us that Queen Mab and her carriage aren't just symbolizing the dreams of people, they also symbolize the power of desire.

Mercutio states, "And in this state she gallops night by night, through lovers brains and then they think of love," (I.iv.74-75) the central idea of the passage is that the dreams Queen Mab brings are directly related to the person who dreams them, lover's dream of love and lawyers dream of fees, etc. Through the imagery of Queen Mab, Mercutio is attempting to say that all desires are filled with as much nonsense and are as fragile as Queen Mab and they are usually unbecoming.

This point of view is speaking of how Romeo and Juliet are the only ones who see their love real.There is light imagery present throughout Act II Scene II. While Juliet is on the balcony, Romeo is stricken by Juliet’s beauty. “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”(II.ii.

2-3) Romeo is filled with happiness. He compares her eyes to stars, saying if they were set in heaven, birds would think it was daylight by their brightness. Romeo’s speech includes many images that express light. The sun. The moon.

The stars. Juliet becomes light in the middle of Romeo’s alleged darkness. When Juliet finally speaks, she is desolate. She asks herself why Romeo? Why a Montague? How can she love an enemy? Romeo’s “light” stands on the balcony wrapped in “darkness.” Due to the darkness she thought she was alone and then, Juliet admits her love for Romeo. After she realized that she wasn't alone, and that Romeo is there, Juliet is overcome with feeling.

She compares love to a brief flash of lightning in the darkness. Romeo, begins to bless the night, for bringing him joy. Both Romeo and Juliet love the night because it lets their love come alive, but they sense a danger in it as well. During the night they are able to display their “love,” but with midnight abroad, the world must begin again.During the “light" and the “darkness” which accompanies all those involved in the Capulet and Montague feud reigns.

The imagery of light and dark, has begun to take shape and effect the action. Evil, fate, and the realities of the outside world are becoming connected to the daytime. Romeo and Juliet's “light,” is only possible at night. In the end, Shakespeare utilized the images of light and dark, as well as the themes of life and death, to illustrate that basically all contraries become one. I believe that Shakespeare was trying to say that love conquers all the senses.