What It Is
The opposition between light and darkness that the play distributes among torches, sun, moon, stars, and in the song of the lark and the nightingale. The lovers meet at night, and the day brings the feud, the law and the parting.
Where It Appears
In Scene 1 of Act I, Montague says that his son flees from the daylight and locks himself in his room, as if he made an artificial night for himself.
In Scene 4 of Act I, on the way to the ball, Romeo refuses to dance and wants only to carry the torch. He senses, in the stars, some consequence yet to come.
my mind misgives / Some consequence yet hanging in the stars(I.4)
In Scene 5 of Act I, on seeing Juliet at the ball, Romeo says she teaches the torches to burn and that she hangs on the cheek of the night like a jewel.
In Scene 2 of Act II, Romeo sees the light at the window and calls Juliet the sun. The night is the cloak that hides him from the Capulets, and Juliet compares their pact to a lightning flash that is gone before anyone says it has flashed.
In Scene 2 of Act III, Juliet calls on the night to bring Romeo, and asks that when he dies he be cut into stars, so that the world will fall in love with the night and stop worshiping the sun.
In Scene 5 of Act III, the lovers argue over whether what they hear is the nightingale or the lark, the night or the day. As the light grows, the pain grows with it.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark(III.5)
In Scene 3 of Act V, Romeo carries a torch into the cemetery, and Paris orders his page to put out his torch so as not to be seen. Romeo calls the tomb a lantern full of the light of Juliet's beauty. At the end, the Prince says that the sun, out of sorrow, will not show its head.
What It Means
The night is the shelter of the lovers: it hides their names, their faces and the wall, and allows the dialogue of the garden. The day is the side of the families and the law: in it there is fighting, banishment and parting. Light also appears as beauty, in the torches Juliet teaches to burn, and as warning, in the stars Romeo distrusts before the ball.
The two exist together only while the night lasts, and the play measures time by that limit: every morning, in Scene 5 of Act III, is a threat. In the tomb, the light becomes theirs again, but only after the day can no longer part them.
Relationships
- Standard themes: Love, Passion, Fate and free will.
- Characters: Romeo, Juliet, Benvolio.
- Related symbols: the Capulet tomb, where light and death meet.