Literary Elements and Techniques

1. Literary Elements and Techniques Romeo and Juliet

2. Two people falling in love from feuding families • http://youtu.be/qtILb2b_DSU Irony

3. The audience knows that Romeo and Juliet met, fell in love, and got married… The audience knows Juliet’s plan with the Friar; however, most characters in the story do not know these secrets Dramatic Irony

4. A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect: “She is just a poor little rich girl.” • In Romeo and Juliet, this is used to express Romeo’s confused feelings about love and Juliet’s confused feelings about Tybalt’s death • Examples: feather of lead, heavy lightness, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health • http://youtu.be/MmcdK9IKZsY • http://youtu.be/pozV5Kb7kDY Oxymorons

5. All of the dreams that Romeo and Juliet have • Friar Laurence’s advice to Romeo about his marriage to Juliet • The Prince’s warning about the next person to start a fight • Tybalt vowing revenge against Romeo for crashing the party • The Friar’s knowledge about plants, potions, and posions Foreshadowing

6. Light and dark references symbolize Romeo and Juliet’s secrets • Poison/potions symbolize deception and lies • The ring that Juliet gives Romeo before he leaves for Mantua symbolizes their bond/unity/commitment Symbolism

7. 14 lined poem ended with a rhymed couplet • Romeo and Juliet’s first encounter “If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer. O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. Then move not while my prayer's effect I take.” Sonnet

8. Divide between teenagers and parents Fate vs. Free Will Love as a cause of violence Impulsive and Naivety (Irrational thinking) Secrets and deception Themes

9. Comparison of two things over a series of lines • Lady Capulet compares Paris to a perfect book • http://youtu.be/T3E9Wjbq44E Extended Metaphor

10. An uninterrupted speech given by one character • For example: Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech, Friar Laurence’s monologue about plants and herbs, the Prince’s declaration to the two families Soliloquy