Romeo+Juliet

1. The quatrains are divided between Romeo and Juliet, with Romeo having a separate quatrain of his own and Juliet one of her own as they talk. Afterwards they share a quatrain which shows that they’re getting closer and falling in love.   Eventually though, Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets, with Romeo and Juliet saying each sentence to show that they’re love is true and real.

When Romeo and Juliet are speaking together, Romeo speaks first and Juliet replies, Romeo trying to find ways to allow him and Juliet to kiss, and Juliet always finding a clever but gentle way to reject him. With Romeo saying things like Juliet is a saint and he’s a pilgrim.

The person who has the majority of power during the sonnet is Juliet, because she is always deflecting his approaches toward her very cleverly. However during the last approach from Romeo, he has more power because he is saying that he will commit suicide. This is so powerful because in those days, to commit suicide would be giving up your faith in God which was the ultimate sin! So Juliet has to then give in to him and allow him to kiss her.
The rhyme scheme links very well to the play because at times of love and hate Shakespeare uses rhyming couplets to show the contrast between the two. He also does it to show that the play is about two people, because Shakespeare could’ve chosen any number of rhyming couplets to do, but he chose couplets to symbolise that the play is based on the couple Romeo and Juliet.
  2. The first conversation between Romeo and Juliet is an extended Christian metaphor. Using this metaphor, Romeo ingeniously manages to convince Juliet to let him kiss her. But the metaphor holds many further functions. The religious overtones of the conversation clearly implies that their love that can be described only through the vocabulary of religion, that pure association with God. In this way, their love becomes associated with the purity and passion of the divine. But there is another side to this...