Shakespeare loved using rich sensory imagery and does so lavishly in this play. For instance, when Romeo first sees Juliet, it's not enough for him to say she's beautiful. He describes her visually as bright like a jewel, brighter than a torch, a person who stands out in her brightness against others. The rest of the room seems like "the cheek of night" (dark) in contrast. This shows how, to Romeo, Juliet stands out and sparkles:
O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear ...
(I, v)
Later Romeo dwells again on Juliet's brightness, wanting us to visualize her as much brighter than the stars in heaven, a person who would so light up the night sky that the birds would think it was morning and start to sing. This is a powerful image: we now associate Juliet with bright light and the sun:
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night (II, ii)
Shakespeare uses a more complex set of images to convey Juliet's mixed emotions when she learns that Romeo, now her husband and the man she loves, has killed Tybalt, a cousin she loves. Juliet juxtaposes opposing images to show the mix of love and anger warring in her soul, calling Romeo
Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! (III, ii)
A dove is an emblem of love and peace--and Romeo is that to Juliet. A raven is a bird of prey--and now that Romeo has killed Tybalt, he is also that to her. Likewise, a wolf is an animal that preys on others, which is how Romeo seems to her for what he has down, but he is also a "lamb," to her, gentle and loving. (She will come down on Romeo's side when her first shock passes.)
She also likens Romeo to stars and offers a beautiful image of him, after death cut "out in little stars" that hang in the night sky and make heaven so beautiful that people fall in love with night:
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night (III, ii)
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