DEFINITIONS Simile = (the use of) an expression comparing one thing with another, always including the words ‘as’ or ‘like’: a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another. Oxymorons = two words used together which have, or seem to have, opposite meanings. [P. 14]It was fashionable in the love poetry of Shakespeare’s time to put together such contradictory words, these strange oppositions are called oxymorons (ex. ‘loving hate’). Putting together words which seem to contradict one another ex.
bitter sweet. RESOURCES/EXAMPLES IN R&J Oxymorons [resource]ssp. 212 — Romeo has a dozen (12) at Act 1 Scene 1, lines 167-72 — Juliet has seven at Act 3 Scene 2, lines 75-9 Oxymorons [examples]: – 1. Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health [p. 15, line 171, Romeo’s] Simile [resource] ssp. 212 Simile [examples]: – 1.
A bump as big as a young cockerel’s stone [p. 27, line 54, Nurse’s] EXPLANATIONS Oxymorons: – 1. Romeo tells Benvolio that he loves a girl (Rosa line), but she rejected him. He feels sad / unhappy and despair, the four pairs of oxymorons suggests what he thinks of love.
He describes love as feather, bright, fire and health when it is good, because feather means his heart becomes light and joyful without any burden, bright is when he feels happy and thinking openly, fire means it is getting exciting and health is when love is doing good to him; on the other side, he describes love as lead, smoke, cold and sick when it is going bad because lead indicates that all the unhappiness is dragging on him, smoke is when he chokes in love where it is going really bad, cold is when his partner doesn’t care about him and the relationship is getting worst and sick is when love is harmful to him in some ways. All together Romeo thinks that love can vary a lot, it can also be confusing, mixed up and becomes chaos, so he is really disturbed. Similes: – 1. This is one of the lines of Juliet’s nurse, she is trying tell how she took care of Juliet, and here she talks about something that happened to Juliet when she was small many years ago. This is the story of Juliet running around when she was a baby, but Juliet tripped and fell on the ground face first and ended up with a big bruise on her forehead and she was crying.
So the nurse compares the bruise as big as a cockerel’s stone (or cockerel’s testicles). She uses this kind of foul language because she is less educated.