Romeo and Juliet: Nocturnal World

Shakespeare uses many techniques to create and describe the nocturnal life of Romeo and Juliet. He replaces the light of the sun with the moon and stars and personifies the night as a protector. Also he uses images of light within night describing them as light, high and winged.

In the night time the moon and stars replace the sun as the main source of light and imagery. Romeo uses imagery about the moon to evoke his love for Juliet. Juliet though, continuing her words about being truthful, says she does not want Romeo to “swear by the inconstant moon”. This is because the moon is not constant because it waxes and wanes throughout the year, it is sometimes strong and others it disappears. Romeo uses the moon as a symbol of prayer as he vows on the “blessed moon” which gives us a nocturnal image and shows that the sun has been replaced by the moon in this private nocturnal world.

As Romeo sees Juliet at her balcony, Romeo connects the pale moonlight with sickness and grief and says that only fools have anything to do with it. He says the moon is “envious” of the light of the sun and is “sick and green”. The whole love scene in act 2 scene 2 is based in a moonlit garden which is the night time’s sun.

The night is often used as a protector for them from their parents and the trouble they could find themselves in. This is shown after they meet for the first time when Romeo says “I have the nights cloak to hide me from their eyes”. This is showing how the darkness is like a cloak, hiding them from their parents eyes. Romeo and Juliet speak of the darkness as something which hides them from the outside world and the feud between their families. They call it a “cloak” and later on a “curtain” which keeps them secret in their private nocturnal world.

The night is their friend as it allows them to be together. However Romeo says that as more and more light appears their sadness grows greater and greater. The night is not just used as a protector but as a hiding place and a secret world for Romeo and Juliet to meet in and to get away from the trouble of their lives.

Shakespeare uses a lot of mythical characters in his play for example in scene two Mercutio talks about Cupid and Venus, two pagan symbols of love as if he knows them by character. Also In act 3 Juliet’s long soliloquy, spoken in beautiful poetry, begins with images of galloping horses, fire and speed. She calls upon Phaeton, a character from mythology who almost destroyed the universe by recklessly driving the suns chariot too close to the earth, to “bring in cloudy night” quickly so she can secretly meet Romeo. Juliet also mentions Jupiter, the king of classical gods, as she talks about trust with Romeo. “They say Jove laughs” referring to Jupiter, at lovers who do not trust each other and she does not want them to fall in to the same category.

As well as using mythical characters in this play Shakespeare uses birds to portray changing love. In act three scene five Juliet claims that it “was the nightingale, and not the lark” she hears as she wants Romeo to stay, however Romeo says “it was the lark the herald of the morn”. This animal imagery is used to underline their feelings. Juliet does not want the light in the sky to be that of daybreak because Romeo will have to leave for exile in Mantua. Romeo says that he will agree it is not day if Juliet wishes but that this would mean his death if he were to stay and be discovered. Juliet also uses imagery of birds and flight in act two scenes two and how if Romeo was a bird she would kill him “with much cherishing” which shows dramatic irony.

Romeo and Juliet’s experience of time is often fast paced and forward looking as when true love occurs time goes slowly. Romeo complains of the light showing that he does not want the day to come. He says “the worse to want thy light” because it shows that their time together is coming to an end as the days fly by. Romeo is afraid that this meeting with Juliet has only been a dream. In act two scene five, Juliet is anxious why the Nurse has been so long. She says love’s messengers should travel as fast as fast as the sun when clouds blow over it. She asks the nurse “what says he of our marriage, what of that?” This image connects the themes of haste and light and reminds us of Juliet’s observation that some forms of love appear and disappear as quickly as lightning.

There are many images of light within the night especially of that when Romeo meets Juliet and describes her as a “bright angel”. This shows that she gives him the thought that she is the light he was looking for and that she is so light and beautiful. The imagery of light and seeing is made obvious in act two scene two when Romeo’s love for Juliet is often expressed in terms of light shining within the darkness. The light imagery reaches its climax in this love scene when he says that she, “Juliet is the sun”, the source of all light.

Throughout the whole play the nocturnal world is where Romeo and Juliet can seek refuge from their parents and the commotion of the outside world. Shakespeare uses lots of imagery with the light to create the light within night where the moon and stars replace the sun. To show the importance of the nocturnal world, in the whole of the play the lovers only ever meet together at night time.