Literary Devices in Shakespeare’s Romeo

and Juliet

Mrs. Collins’s English Class

 1. Figurative Language
 Definition: All
language not
intended to be taken
literally.

Includes PMS:
Personification
Metaphor
Simile…and Analogy:
 1a. Figurative Language:
Personification
Definition: To assign human qualities
to something that isn’t human

Example: “I’ll say yon

gray is not the
morning’s eye.”
(III, v, 19)
 1b. Figurative Language:
Metaphor
 Definition: Comparison between two
unlike things
 Example: “Whiter than new snow
upon a raven’s back.” (III, ii, 19)
 1c. Figurative Language:
Simile
Definition:
A comparison
between two
unlike things
using like or as.

Example:
“And to’ t they go
like lightning” (III, i, 166)
 1d. Figurative Language:
Analogy
 An EXTENDED comparison
showing the similarities
between two things.

Example: Juliet’s comparison

of Romeo and a rose in her
soliloquy.
 Allusion
 An indirect reference to another person,
place, or event in literature, history, art, or
music.

Example: “Tis but the

pale reflex of
Cynthia’s brow.” (III, v,
20)

(Cynthia was a name for the moon

 Epithet
 A descriptive adjective or phrase
used to characterize someone or
something.

Example:
“Romeo! Humors! Madman!
Passion! Lover! (II.i.7)
 Meter
 Definition: The pattern of syllables in
a poem.

 Notes:
 Iambic Pentameter is one form of meter.

 An iamb’s emphasis is
unstressed, stressed

 Pentameter refers to the fact there

are five feet, or
sets of syllables
in the line. That makes ten in total.

 Example:
“Two house 1
holds both 2
a like 3
in dig 4
ni ty…” 5
 Repetition
 The return of a word,
phrase, stanza form, or
effect in any form of
literature.

 Some types: Alliteration,

rhyme, repeating words,
refrains.

Example: “Romeo, Romeo,

Wherefore art thou Romeo?”
 Rhyme
 Definition: A word answering in sound to
another word.

 Example: “Would
through the airy region
stream so bright /
That birds would sing
and think it were not
night.” (II, ii, 21-22)
 Dialogue
 Definition: A conversation between two or more
people

 Example:
Lady Capulet: “Speak
briefly, can you like
Of Paris’s love?”

Juliet: “I’ll look to like if

looking liking move…”
(I, iii, 11-12)
 Characterization
 Definition: The
Personality a character
displays, also the way
the author reveals it.

 Example: “Enough
of this, I pray thee
hold thy peace.” –Lady
Capulet, I, iii, 49
 Foreshadowing
 Definition:
The use of clues or hints
To suggest what action
is to come.

 Example:
Romeo: “By some vile
forfeit of the untimely
death…” (I, v, 111)
 Imagery
 Language that appeals
to any sense (sight, hearing,
taste, touch, or smell) or
any combination of these.

 Example: “Many a morning

hath he there be seen, with
tears augmenting the fresh
morning’s dew.” (I, i, 122-23)
 Oxymoron
 Definition: A figure of speech that
combines apparently contradictory
(opposite) terms

Examples:
“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
“Oh loving hate”