Monday, September 5, 2011

What are some similes in Romeo and Juliet and where are they located in the text?

In Act II, scene 2 (the famous balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet), there are several similes. For example, Romeo says, "bright angel! for thou art/As glorious to this night, being o’er my head/As is a winged messenger of heaven/Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes/ Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him" (lines 26-30). In other words, Romeo compares Juliet, who is standing on her balcony above him, to an angel who people fall backwards to gaze at in the heavens. Later in the scene, Romeo says, "Yet, wert thou as far/ As that vast shore washed with the farthest sea,/ I would adventure for such merchandise" (lines 82-84). Here, Romeo says that were Juliet as far away as the farther shore, he would still try to reach her. 


Later, in Act IV, scene 3, Juliet uses similes when she speaks about her fear of being closed in a tomb to fake death. She describes the yells she might hear while in the tomb as, "shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth" (line 48). In this line, she is comparing the screams of the dead to the supposed screams of a root called a mandrake, which, according to legend, was supposed to yell when it was torn from the earth.

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