Monday, June 27, 2011

What does the quote "And he will make the face of heaven so fine" mean in Romeo and Juliet?

Act III, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet opens with Juliet's soliloquy (a long speech delivered directly to the audience without other characters on stage) anticipating the arrival of Romeo for their honeymoon night. His plan had been to climb into her bedroom with a tackled stair he had provided the Nurse earlier in the day. Throughout Juliet's speech, she is praising and personifying the night, calling it "gentle" and "loving." She wants the night to be recognized as greater than the day, as she imagines that when Romeo dies he will be cut "out in little stars/ And he will make the face of heaven so fine/ That all the world will be in love with the night/ And pay no worship to the garish sun." In other words, she believes Romeo is so striking and impressive that his image in the stars will make the night sky more attractive than the sun. She goes on to lament that although she is already married she has yet to enjoy the physical pleasures which marriage brings. Unfortunately, these amorous reveries are interrupted when the Nurse brings news that Juliet's cousin Tybalt was killed by Romeo.

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