1984. Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in
a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay
in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the
work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness.
Speaking from experience, it is incredibly easy to forget things. Names,
faces, birthdays, mathematical formulas, atomic numbers, phone numbers, and
appointment times all slip easily through the cracks in the human mind. In
order for something to be memorable, it needs to hold emotional weight or
personal relevance; the brain doesn’t hold on to details that the subconscious
finds unimportant. Storage space is limited, so when a line from a work sticks
in deeply, it must be highly relevant. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has worked its way into the collective consciousness
of Western culture, but the lines exchanged between the two lovers as Romeo
departs after wooing Juliet on her balcony are especially memorable because
they serve not only to characterize the pair, but also to heavily foreshadow
their fate.
The average person could probably recite ‘parting is such sweet sorrow,’
but in this case, the lines directly preceding it are far more notable:
ROMEO: I would I were
thy bird
JULIET:
Sweet, so would I.
Yet I should kill
thee with much cherishing.
They are exchanged at an emotionally loaded moment. Juliet
and Romeo have just declared their love, and since Juliet is constantly interrupted
and fluttering to and from the conversation, their farewell is extended for
quite some time. Romeo’s tendency
to variance and mood swings has already been established by the time this scene
arrives, but it is still an instrumental indicator that he is far too
headstrong for his own good. Having met and kissed Juliet only once previously,
he sneaks onto the grounds of his family’s sworn enemy and proposes to marry
her, which is enough proof on its own. The way he does it also contributes to
the image- for example, swearing his love on the moon which (as Juliet is quick
to point out) is ever changing, and often used as an excuse for reckless and
crazy behavior. He shows a slavish devotion to Juliet, throwing himself totally
at her feet and wishing to be her pet bird, completely on her string and ruled
by her entirely. The balcony scene shows Romeo for what he is- a young boy who
is completely ruled by his emotions. He is willing to be governed, not only by
his own whims, but by those of his lady-love, coming at her call and vowing to
stay until she dismisses him.
Juliet, for her part, is
established as the more practical one, demanding that Romeo ‘swear not by the
moon’ and worrying that she will seem too forward and make him lose interest
her. She is also the one, in the end, to suggest he marry her if his love is
true and faithful- ensuring her own security. Sadly, she falls to Romeo’s
charms and converts to his whimsy, her initial fears transforming to a proposal
of marriage and the same verbose adulation that Romeo uses so often. Juliet’s
practicality can partially be attributed to the location of this exchange. If
she were caught with a man in her room at night un-chaperoned, the consequences
for her would be devastating. While Romeo is unbothered by the risk, Juliet
does much to conceal him, and worries than Romeo thought it through in the
first place. It is she, after all, who delivers the death stroke of
foreshadowing “I should kill thee with much cherishing.” With that line alone,
she reveals her own introspective abilities, and a clearer eye to the future
than Romeo.
The phrase ‘kill thee with much cherishing’ is a massive clue
that everything will not go smoothly for our star-crossed lovers. It is grim
language for a thirteen-year-old girl, and it also proves that Juliet is highly
cognizant of her own nature. Having just agreed to marry him, Juliet suddenly
expresses fear that she would love Romeo too much, as a spoiled child loves its
pet bird, that she would kill him because of it. They are her parting words to
him- a warning- that her emotions will come to be too strong, and destroy him.
Romeo answers with a wish for her to sleep and be at peace, which is eerily
reminiscent of their ultimate fate when Juliet’s fake sleep takes on the appearance
of death (or, eternal peace) and leads him to his death- another sentiment
expressed in this grim farewell.
Of course, from the beginning of the narrator’s introduction to ‘fair
Verona’ the audience knows the fate of Romeo and Juliet, but there are still
clues sprinkled throughout the play that the pair is doomed. Without those
intermittent hints, the play would not have survived as a piece of literature,
because it would have bored audiences to tears. A fated death is tragic, but one
in which the reasons are evident earns the interest, and therefore the memory
of the audience. While Shakespeare could have left all of the explanation and
subtle reasoning out of his play and attributed it all to fate, he was wise
enough to see that clever characterization and beautiful language would also be
necessary to make not only the balcony scene, but Romeo and Juliet as a whole,
worthy of remembrance.
