Read the excerpt from Act I, scene i of Romeo and Juliet.

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love:
Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing! of nothing first create.
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?

The oxymorons in Romeo’s dialogue emphasize

the anger he feels toward a certain woman.
his certainty about his romantic fate.
the extreme emotions that he is feeling.
his confusion about Benvolio’s advice.

1 answer

The oxymorons in Romeo’s dialogue emphasize the extreme emotions that he is feeling. They highlight the contradictory nature of love and the turmoil he is experiencing as he grapples with feelings of love and pain simultaneously.