The oxymoron "feather of lead" (I.i.173) is spoken by Romeo when he discovers that his cousin, Benvolio, has just been in a fight with some Capulets. He's frustrated with the Montagues and Capulets fighting, and he's upset that Rosaline recently rejected him to join a convent. Romeo is surrounded by love and hate! As a result, he spits out a few oxymorons to express his frustrations, but also as a way to tell his cousin...
The oxymoron "feather of lead" (I.i.173) is spoken by Romeo when he discovers that his cousin, Benvolio, has just been in a fight with some Capulets. He's frustrated with the Montagues and Capulets fighting, and he's upset that Rosaline recently rejected him to join a convent. Romeo is surrounded by love and hate! As a result, he spits out a few oxymorons to express his frustrations, but also as a way to tell his cousin how futile all the fighting is. The full passage reads as follows:
"Here's much to do with hate, but more with love.
Why then, O brawling love, O loving hate,
O anything of nothing first create;
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this" (I.i.168-175).
Oxymorons are created by combining two opposing words together that create verbal irony when placed together. The unexpected combination asks the audience to stop and think about how two opposites can exist together. It's as if Romeo is asking how love and hate can exist together. If so, love and hate can be paired like "feather" and "lead." One is light and can tickle like a laugh, but the other is heavy like a burden. Therefore, life and love can be happy and fun one minute, but tremendous burdens the next.
Another way to look at the oxymoron "feather of lead" is to recognize that nothing is as it seems. One minute Romeo thinks he is in love with the love of his life, but then reality hits him with disappointment. The love he felt for Rosaline made his life light and happy like a feather, but losing her is like the weight of lead upon his shoulders.
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