Thursday, August 7, 2014

What metaphors appear in Juliet's soliloquy of Act 3, Scene 2 in Romeo and Juliet?

In her soliloquy in Act III, scene ii, Juliet uses metaphors to describe day and night, as she anxiously awaits Romeo's arrival in the night. In the scene, Juliet wishes for the sun to go away so that night may come and she may see her lover.


In the first two lines of the soliloquy, Shakespeare has Juliet use metaphor and allusion to express her desire that the sun go down, marking the end of the day. She commands, "Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, / Towards Phoebus's lodging" (1-2). She imagines horses pulling Phoebus, or Apollo, the sun god, in his chariot toward the horizon as a figurative way of describing day ending as the sun goes down. She continues to characterize day and night throughout the soliloquy and states her preference for night over "the garish sun" (25). 


Juliet desires the darkness of night, both because this is the time Romeo will arrive and because she feels they need the cover that night can provide to express their forbidden love. Juliet asks night to "Spread [its] close curtain" (5) and "Hood [her] unmann'd blood ... / With [its] hooded mantle" (14-15). These lines metaphorically convey Juliet's desire for night to come and hide her meeting with Romeo. Juliet also expresses a tenderness and appreciation for night using phrases like "Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night" (20) to persuade night to give her, Juliet, what she most desires ("Give me my Romeo" [21]). 


Juliet's extended metaphors in this soliloquy primarily serve to emphasize her desperate longing for time with her lover, Romeo, which can occur behind the dark "curtain" of night. 

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