To begin with Romeos believes that he is in love with Rosaline. Philosophically the uses of oxymoron’s to describe his love for Rosaline symbolises the fact that alternatively he wasn’t truly in love with her he may have been infatuated with her. “Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health.” The oxymorons within the play are used to emphasize what Romeo naivety makes him believes is love for Rosaline, “Oh brawling love! Oh loving hate”. The oxymoron’s intention is to be somewhat contradictory; the philosophical significance of this oxymoron represents Romeos love for Rosaline however despite Rosaline’s constant rejection towards Romeo, Romeo still has feelings for her. From a different perspective Rosaline is a somewhat significant character within the development of the play; the reason being is that without Romeos dedication towards Rosaline he wouldn’t have attended the Capulet ball. The initial impression of Romeo within the play is that he can be deemed as the paragon of childishness, this idea is emphasized by the fact Rosaline won’t except his loving gestures, “From Love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed.” Romeo tells Benvolio that he feels melancholy due to Rosaline remaining chaste the reason why she is remaining chaste is the fact that she is going to become a nun due to her religious values she realizes as she’s becoming a nun relationships are prohibited.
The first balcony scene creates a powerful sense of romance, this is predominantly due to Romeo’s soliloquy at the very beginning of the scene as Romeo enters the Capulet orchard, “As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven, Would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night.” The use of light as a motif emphasizes the fact that love is evident between them and that Romeo has diverted from Rosaline. The audience is given an insight in to the minds of both Romeo and Juliet the soliloquy implemented by Romeo conveys a true sense of emotion as the scene progresses, “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun” aside from contrasting day and night and the light motif, the quote is used to emphasize Juliet’s beauty by comparing her to the sun, as the sun is a lot brighter and superior then any individual it is idiosyncratic that the message conveyed by Shakespeare is that Juliet’s superiority is emphasized; another example were Juliet’s dominance of Romeo is the fact that the stage direction explains that “Juliet appears aloft” The word aloft simply means up in the air, this emphasizes that Juliet is of higher hierarchy then Romeo. The use of dramatic irony is conveyed by Shakespeare as the use of light as a motif is used to describe Juliet when the setting of the orchard is purely darkness, “The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars.” The use of contrasting day and night is philosophical as it describes how Romeo feels about Juliet the language evokes a sense of love, it’s as though Juliet is the only thing worth living for, it’s as though Juliet is an essence Romeo can’t be deprived of.