The Use of Literary Devices to Create Humor in Romeo and Juliet Olivia Xie 11th Grade

In dark and dire situations, humor is often needed to lighten the atmosphere in order to ensure sanity. This proves to be very true in William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Romeo and Juliet. As the plot of the play continues to develop, tragic and unnecessary deaths start to occur one by one, leading to a strenuous atmosphere being created. This results in a bitter, depressing taste being left in the audience’s mouth. The use of comedic characters and their witty plays on various literary devices, helps to relieve the tension that is created throughout the story, and makes the play more enjoyable, rather than somber. In Romeo and Juliet, humor is effectively created through diverse literary devices, and plays a large role in creating comic relief and characterizing important comedic characters.

Shakespeare effectively uses literary devices in a humorous fashion, to create comedic relief during scenes with overshadowing, dark and depressing content. A prevailing device to create humor in this play is the pun, and is often used by comedic characters to lighten the dark atmosphere of a scene. An example of this is when Romeo is on his way to the Capulets’ party, accompanied by Benvolio and Mercutio, “And we mean well in going to this...