Shakespeare employs puns, metaphor, personification, simile, couplets, oxymorons, hyperbole and allusion in Act I, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet.
A pun is a play on words and often uses homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings. In the opening four lines, the Capulet servants Gregory and Sampson use a pun on the words colliers, choler and collar. A collier is someone who deals in coal, choler can mean anger and collar...
Shakespeare employs puns, metaphor, personification, simile, couplets, oxymorons, hyperbole and allusion in Act I, Scene 1 of Romeo and Juliet.
A pun is a play on words and often uses homophones, words that sound the same but have different meanings. In the opening four lines, the Capulet servants Gregory and Sampson use a pun on the words colliers, choler and collar. A collier is someone who deals in coal, choler can mean anger and collar is the hangman's noose.
A metaphor is a comparison of two things to show the particular quality of one of those things. When Tybalt enters the scene during the opening fight he compares the servants to female deer. He's basically saying they are cowardly and womanly (for an excellent discussion of this line see the link below):
What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds?
When the Prince breaks up the fight between the Montagues and Capulets he uses a metaphor to describe the bloody feud. He compares bleeding to a fountain:
With purple fountains issuing from your veins
Personification is when a non-human thing is given human qualities. After the fight, while Benvolio is talking to Lady Montague about Romeo, he personifies the sun as he tells her about the last time he saw Romeo:
Madam, an hour before the worshiped sun
Peered forth the golden window of the east
He also uses a metaphor to describe the sky as the sun comes up (golden window).
A simile, like a metaphor, is a comparison of two things, but uses the words like or as. Lord Montague is worried about Romeo because his son is sad and moody. He compares him to a flower that has been affected by a parasite:
As is the bud bit with an envious worm
A couplet involves two consecutive lines which rhyme. Several of the characters in the play use couplets. Notice the upper class characters often use couplets, but the servants never do. Lord Montague uses a couplet at the end of his speech about Romeo:
Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
We would as willingly give cure as know.
Oxymorons use contrasting or contradictory concepts placed together. Romeo uses several oxymorons when he is describing his failed love for Rosaline. They help the audience to understand the confusion and sadness Romeo is experiencing:
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health
For excellent examples of hyperbole and allusion in Act I, Scene 1 see the links below to other discussions.
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