Question

Which two lines in this excerpt from act I of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are examples of oxymoron? ROMEO: Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here? 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? BENVOLIO: No, coz, I rather weep. ROMEO: Good heart, at what? BENVOLIO: At thy good heart's oppression.

Answer 1

Loving hate, heavy lightness, cold fire, and sick health are all examples of oxymoron.

Answer 2

Answer:

heavy lightness, loving hate, cold fire, sick health

Explanation:

Oxymoron is the conjunction of incompatible terms. These terms, words or concepts tend to be in opposition, such is the case of love and hate or cold and fire in the passage provided, however, this oppositions are put together to create a different meaning. In the case of Shakespeare's plays, including Romeo and Juliet, oxymoron is constantly present to express despair or another feeling within a character.