Light and Dark Imagery in Romeo and Juliet

“Romeo and Juliet,” by William Shakespeare, is perhaps the most beautiful love story ever written. The two lovers in this play, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, have become widely known for their brightly magical but tragically ended love. Throughout the play, William Shakespeare used light and dark imagery to compare the romance between Romeo and Juliet. This imagery is used continuously throughout the play, and each use has a slightly different meaning. The light and dark imagery plays an important role in creating mood, symbolizing love, and foreshadowing action and fate.

Shakespeare first used light and dark imagery during the Capulet ball (Act I, Scene 5), when Romeo and Juliet fall in love with each other across the dance floor. Romeo says,

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear—

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows

As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows….

When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time, her stunning beauty amazes him. Romeo describes Juliet as a source of light, like a star, in the darkness. He also compares her to a bright jewel against the dark skin of an Ethi

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Secondly, throughout the play, Romeo and Juliet’s love flourishes at night, such as during the balcony scene, their agreement to marriage, the daytime marriage in the darkness of Friar Lawrence’s cell, their honeymoon night, and, eventually, their deaths. However, these images of brightness also suggest a spiritual and joyful light that may surround the couple beyond death. Romeo states,

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she. Ironically, Romeo had previously compared Rosaline to Diana, the goddess of the moon. The two lovers will continue to provide this enchanting “light” for one other during the course of the play.

This comparison to the stars represents the timeless and rare quality of Romeo and Juliet’s love for one another, as well as the uniqueness of the light that the two give each other. In addition, Juliet’s brightness saves Romeo from his dark troubles with Rosaline. Previously in the play, Romeo and Juliet’s relationship flourished at night, and each provided the other with warming light. This makes the ending of Romeo and Juliet’s bright love in darkness much more dramatic. What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars as daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night.

Romeo and Juliet often compare one another to the sun in the sky or bright stars in the night sky, even though light has become their enemy. In his final speech (Act IV, Scene 3) Romeo once again uses light and dark imagery to describe Juliet as she acts as source of light in the darkness of tomb. This symbolism is used repeatedly in the play, and represents many aspects of the love story. Shakespeare continuously compares the lovers to the stars in the sky to reinforce the theme that the two are “star cross’d lovers” who will only truly be united in death. Also, as Romeo steps from the moonlit darkness into the light from Juliet’s balcony, he has left behind his dark, dramatic problems and woes over Rosaline and moved toward a more genuine and mature love with Juliet.

Approximate Word count = 1015
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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