Style

One of the ideas that the main characters in Romeo and Juliet aim to express is their utter love for one another. However, these expressions of love seem to always be shadowed by their dark opposites. “She hangs upon the cheek of night” demonstrates Romeo’s love for Juliet, but it is not a pure expression; it is tainted by the reference to the night as something dark and ominous. Juliet has a very similar expression of Romeo’s beauty: “thou wilt lie upon the wings of night.” Here is it clear that love as an emotion and an experience can never be pure. In the poisonous setting of Verona, nothing can escape the dark backdrop that is the feuding families and the characters’ penchant for rebelling against societal norms. Brightness is never free from the dark, just as the lead characters are never free from the grips of their head strong families. It is clear from this that every moment of their relationship is shadowed by the opposite. For example, the place where they finally come together after their wedding, excluding their wedding night, is a tomb where all of the tragic events of the play take place. From the beginning it is clear that both Romeo and Juliet are doomed to fail in their mission to unite the two families, not just because of their social roles but also because of the fragile nature of love itself.