Time slips in the blink of an eye(clock/blink/eye) *
Towards the end of Romeo and Juliet, the reader sees a glimpse of hope in a story with an obvious fate. Friar Laurence and Juliet form the plan that relies on timing and it falls flat. When Juliet agrees to marry Paris her father is so excited that he bumps up the wedding a day early forcing Juliet to drink the liquid a day early as well. The message of Juliet fake death is not brought to Romeo in time as the messenger stopped to help a sickly boy and Benvolio arrives first to say Juliet is dead. In this entire story, it is perceived that time slips away, in the blink of an eye.
Things can be perceived as good and bad(potion half and half) *
Friar Laurence explains in a short monologue that the plants surrounding him can be a great medicine that heals a person or just as easily poison that can kill someone, it is a fine line. Similar to people a fine line between love and hate a fine line between the families being toxic or healing to their children Romeo and Juliet. This can be looked at in the way of a human as they can be so loving and joyful to one group and to another the exact opposite. Take Tybalt for example as he was so beloved among the Capulets, but a prime enemy to Montagues. The overall look at the symbol shows that Romeo and Juliet were uplifted by their strong love for each other and at the same time they were “poisoned” by their families and brought to their horrific demise.
Light in Darkness(candle in a dark room) *
Romeo’s favorite way to metaphorically speak of Juliet was light and light imagery. Specifically, the one that sticks out is light in the darkness “O, doth teach the torches to burn bright’’ “hangs upon the cheek of night/ As a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear.”. Through many quotes, the reader may learn that Romeo and Juliet’s “light’’ shines most brightly in the darkness. This may be perceived as everyone else around them as darkness while their small light shines through, making it even more powerful.
Birds
Both Rosaline and Juliet are represented by birds at different points during the play. However, the way they are represented separately shows them as complete opposites in reference to Romeo’s love. Rosaline is projected as a swan, but then overturned into a crow, this shows her to be a beautiful person externally and even as a swan conceited and arrogant and the induction of the crow comparison shows that in contrast to Romeo’s initial thoughts of her as a swan she is actually a crow, ugly and destructive, anything but what Romeo should want in the woman he loves. Then we are introduced to Juliet and Romeo says, “So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,” This speaks of her as a beautiful creature inside and out in the midst of people like Rosaline who could not even try to be on her level of perfection. She is also later on described as giving Romeo strength to fly as the beautiful dove she is giving him freedom as birds do
Flowers
Flowers in Romeo and Juliet are used to explain the growth and progression of the couple’s love. In the beginning, the two and their relationship are described as buds on two separate occasions, both of which explaining their love as underdeveloped and having so much longer to go. The further to go would end at a fully blossomed flower of marriage and as we know, death. Further, in the quote it says, “This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath,/may prove a beauteous flower.” The word, ripening, can say a lot about the story to come in it’s two separate meanings. The first is obvious in that their love will be “fresh” at the end of summer. However, the other has a more sinister meaning as in the Elizabethan era the word “ripe” could also refer to the smell of something poisonous. Over the course of the summer, the love of Romeo and Juliet will become deadly and toxic resulting in the deaths of many, foreshadowing the rest of the play.
Conforming(sneakers all black one neon) *
For the longest time, the Montagues and Capulets have been engaged in a fierce feud that no person had tested. Generations are generations passed and not one family member was strong enough to break the chains and not conform to this expectation to have such a strong hatred against another family for seemingly no reason. However, at the moment that Romeo and Juliet had met immediately it was clear that this streak was to be broken. They stuck out from the rest in bright color. They were exposing the greatness of loving one another, while the rest of their family stays in black and white in the dark of how nice it would be to break the lock of hatred and stop conforming to the feud.
Race and Prejudice *
In the town of Maycomb lays a thick undertone of racism from the very beginning of To Kill a Mockingbird. In the incident where Miss Maudie’s house burned down the town turns to the black community to blame them for the simple reason that they’re black, of course they are behind this. When Tom Robinson is introduced the theme grows immensely as the town sees him as a black man, thus he must be guilty of raping a white woman, even though the reader learns that he most likely did not. From the beginning, it is as if Robinson was already in handcuffs because he wasn’t “lucky” enough to be born white. The closed-mindedness of the people of Maycomb will lead to the injustice of his trial in the end.
Mad Dog
The mad dog situation in To Kill A Mockingbird is a symbol of society in itself. Specifically, it represents the people of Maycomb and their ability to jump to conclusions. Atticus at this moment, with ease, shoots the dog who didn’t do anything in their own choice. Tim Johnson, the dog, did not choose to get rabies, it was pushed on him and for that, he was shot in cold blood. This shows Maycomb’s ability to put Tom Robinson in jail even though he did not choose to be framed for such a horrible crime, as Atticus believes he is innocent. Sadly, Maycomb has already pulled the trigger.
Alarm Clock
The alarm clock is presented to the reader in a series of events where Jem and Scout were forced to go to Mrs.Dubose’s house to read to hear after Jem ruined her Camelias. Every meeting would end with an alarm clock ringing which would go off later and later every time, later we learn that the alarm clock was for Mrs.Dubose’s morphine fix. She knew well she was getting close to death and did not want to die a morphine addict, her dedication led her to the success of quitting, dying soon after. Mrs. Dubose was the true embodiment of courage, true courage. She stood up to the power of addiction no matter how hard it would be and even with the fact that she was going to die soon against any action she took.
Radley House
The Radley house is a place that sparks mystery and curiosity into the souls of the children in the story. Even further it represents prejudice among all citizens of Maycomb, because of the appearance of the home they assume the story of Boo Radley. All people see the Radley house as a place of evil and bad occurrences. No one goes in intentionally as the rumors tell that it would end in death. In this, the people believe Boo Radley to be an evil murderous type, despite truly knowing anything about him as a person. They simply judged because of what they saw on the outside, a creepy house.
Mockingbird
The mockingbird in the book To Kill A Mockingbird symbolizes innocence and innocent things being destroyed by evil corruption. Atticus tells his children not to shoot mockingbirds because they are innocent creatures who do nothing but sing for the pleasure of human ears. Throughout the book, there can be quite a few mockingbirds to be identified including Jem, Scout, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. All start off as naive, kind, caring, and gentle, however as the story goes on each is corrupted by Maycomb and the horrid events that take place during the plot and thus “shot”.
Books/Education
Education can be seen as one of the most prominent themes throughout the entire book of To Kill a Mockingbird. In most cases, the theme is not even displayed within the school, in a way conveying the message that the most valuable education a person can learn in the one’s learned outside of school. In this, it may be seen that Atticus is the true teacher, especially as Miss Caroline attempts to shut down Scout’s love for reading. Through part 1 of the book, time and time again Atticus teaches his children the most important lessons of life. This includes the first in the story of compassion where Scout is told to look at the situation from Miss Caroline’s perspective before she blames her. Atticus also conveys the theme of the mockingbird when he says that the kids can shoot whatever they want, but never a mockingbird because all they do is sing and entertain, they are pure and innocent.