Saturday, May 3, 2014

Does Romeo ever compliment Juliet on her personality and not just her appearance?

Romeo and Juliet are together three times during the course of the play. It's actually four, but it's hard to count Act V, Scene 3 because they don't really speak to each other. Throughout the scenes when they do speak, Romeo mainly concentrates on Juliet's looks and says virtually nothing about her personality. A good reason for that could be that he really doesn't know her very well and most of their discussions are pronouncements of love or, in Act III, Scene 5, a debate over which bird is singing outside of Juliet's bedroom in the morning after their honeymoon night. Romeo, however, does attempt to compliment something other than Juliet's appearance in the wedding scene, Act II, Scene 6. When Juliet arrives at Friar Laurence's cell, Romeo suggests that Juliet has more ability than he does to put into words the future happiness the two will share:



Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy


Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more


To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath


This neighbor air, and let rich music’s tongue


Unfold the imagined happiness that both


Receive in either by this dear encounter.



Juliet replies that she is now so rich because of their love that she cannot even count half of that wealth.

No comments:

Post a Comment

What are hearing tests?

Indications and Procedures Hearing tests are done to establish the presence, type, and sever...