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How Does Shakespeare Use Direct Characterization In Romeo And Juliet

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Writing is an amazing thing. People learn a lot about the characters through the diction and the way the author presents his/her characters. Whether the author is telling the audience something directly or indirectly, the audience can characterize the characters either way with the information given. Another way that can help out with characterization is with figures of speech.William Shakespeare never uses direct characterization on any of his characters in his play Romeo and Juliet. To find out what a character is like, the reader must read in between the lines of the play. The reader can also use the speeches, thoughts, effects on others, actions, and looks in the play to indirectly characterize them. Shakespeare uses indirect characterization when he uses oxymorons, paradoxes, and juxtaposition to describe Romeo and Juliet’s complex star crossed love.
William Shakespeare uses oxymorons to emphasize how Romeo’s romantic nature leads to tragedy. Romeo, in one of his speeches, is talking about loving Juliet with “serious vanity”(1.1.171). The deeper Romeo falls in love, the …show more content…
The Friar is indirectly characterised by free will with the idea of fate. When he is giving the young couple of adolescents his advice, he says,“in their triumph die, like fire and powder”(2.6.10). In this quote, Shakespeare is showing fate with dramatic irony. It is already foretold from the prologue that they are going to die, so this is ironic, and at the same time it is fate. At the same time it is saying that Juliet should be careful with her decision to marry Romeo. Shakespeare is directly talking about fate in this quote:“too swift arrives as tardy as too slow”(2.6.15). This paradox shows that free will can come late, but fate will come out of anywhere. Whether someone is too fast or too slow, there is no avoiding fate. Friar Laurence is indirectly characterised as the fate in this story, rather than being free

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