William Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet is fraught with metaphors! A metaphor is a form of figurative language which applies non-literal descriptions in order to draw comparisons between two otherwise unrelated things. We see many metaphors in the first few acts of the play as Romeo and Juliet meet and fall in love. One might argue that the use of this kind of language is more artful, more poetic, and heightens the emotional and dramatic stakes of the dialogue.
In Act One, Scene Five, Romeo has crashed the Capulet family's celebration. It is here that he first sees the lovely Juliet and remarks:
...It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear..."
Romeo uses this metaphor to compare Juliet's appearance to that of beautiful jewelry, rendering her as exotic and mysterious with his reference to Africa.
When Romeo and Juliet finally do meet later in this same scene, Romeo proclaims:
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Again, Romeo uses metaphor to compare Juliet's hand to a holy place (implying that touching her is a spiritual experience) and to identify his lips a"pilgrims" (a word which refers to a person who travels to a sacred location). The impression that this leaves us with is that Romeo and Juliet's connection is almost religious or a matter of destiny.
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