Compare the Way Shakespeare Creates a Sense of Sorrow in Romeo’s Speech and ‘After A Journey’ by Thomas Hardy
The poem ‘After a Journey’ by Thomas Hardy, is an ‘Emma Poem’ where Hardy mourns the death of his wife, Emma, showing his regrets about how he treated her when she was alive. Both the Shakespeare play and the poem have a strong sense of sorrow, Romeo’s sorrow is created by the use of dramatic irony throughout his last speech, whilst ‘After a Journey’ contains a lot of contrasting imagery of Emma when she was alive and then later as a ghost.
In Act 5 scene 3, Romeo has just found Juliet in the tomb following her funeral. Romeo is struck by the way Juliet's beauty appears to defy death she still looks alive to him, "Why art thou yet so fair?
Shall I believe
That unsubstantial Death is so amorous?"
These rhetorical questions create a sense of sorrow for Romeo as he appears to believe that her beauty preserves her from dying. The dramatic tension is emphasised by the reader’s awareness that Romeo is seeing the physical signs of Juliet's recovery from her sleep. Secondly, Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to create a feeling of horror and despair. For example ‘Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide.
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark.
Here’s to my love!’
The reader is aware that Juliet is not dead and can only watch with horror when Romeo is drinking the poison. ‘The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark’ foreshadows Romeo’s death, as in Act 1 Scene 1 Romeo also mentions a boat knowing that this boat will not be guided well by God if he went to the Capulet’s party. Now, his bark has been destroyed into pieces as God has guided him into ‘the dashing rocks’ meaning that his life is now left in shatters and will come to a tragic end. On the other hand, the poem creates a sense of sorrow for Hardy