Question

Read the excerpt from Act II, scene vi of Romeo and Juliet.

Friar Laurence: These violent delights have violent ends,
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite:
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.

Which is an example of a paradox within the excerpt?

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss consume:
the sweetest honey / Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
Therefore love moderately; long love doth so;

Answer 1

"The sweetest honey / Is loathsome in his own deliciousness" is a clear paradox — it asserts that something normally pleasant (sweetest honey) can be disgusting when experienced to excess, a self-contradictory idea that reveals a deeper truth about excess. (Note: “Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow” is similarly paradoxical.)