Romeo’s first glimpse of Juliet takes place at the Capulet’s Ball, where their masked presence allows them to fall in love and adds a deliciously provocative aspect to the scene. This setting is highly charged as Romeo is a Montague and Juliet a Capulet and therefore their attraction is taboo. Surely then, love in such a context is likely to be explosive, memorable and original? This is revealed by Romeo’s reflection: ‘ Did my heart love till now? ..I never saw true beauty till this night.’ Romeo’s self-questioning here, reveals the dramatic, life-changing nature of his attraction to Juliet. Even Romeo is shocked by his change, and this is emphasised through the use of the word’now’ which revises his previous certainties about love and sweeps them away! The audience perhaps senses a new maturity in Romeo as he questions his previous ‘love’ and the epiphany is further explored by the use of the word, ‘true’ which relegates Rosaline to the past, as his love for her must be’ false’ by implication. Ironically, the bitter, depressed language of love with which Romeo expressed his attachment to Rosaline, (remember Romeo’s reliance upon oxymoron) has now become replaced by a language of wonder and ecstatic surprise. Even the word ‘night’ has a romantic edge, ‘now’. The challenging context of this encounter adds to the excitement and exultation of the romantic attraction and Romeo finds a new rhapsodic language with which to declare his feelings for the mystery woman at the ball. Another example…
