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How could I create an illustration that would represent an example of paradox in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet?

After Juliet learns that the young man with whom she's fallen in love at first sight is the son of her father's great enemy, she says, "My only love sprung from my only hate!" (1.5.152).  This is a paradox (a statement or situation that appears to be contradictory but is nonetheless true).  What she means is that she has neither loved before she saw Romeo nor hated anyone other than a Montague, and now the...

After Juliet learns that the young man with whom she's fallen in love at first sight is the son of her father's great enemy, she says, "My only love sprung from my only hate!" (1.5.152).  This is a paradox (a statement or situation that appears to be contradictory but is nonetheless true).  What she means is that she has neither loved before she saw Romeo nor hated anyone other than a Montague, and now the two -- love and hate -- have converged in one person.  You could, perhaps, draw Romeo -- one half of him looking lovable and smiling, hand extended, the other half of him looking devilish, angry and frowning, hand curled into a fist.


Juliet voices another paradox after she learns that it was Romeo who killed her cousin, Tybalt.  She asks, "Was ever book containing such vile matter / So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell / In such a gorgeous palace!" (3.2.89-91).  She marvels that Romeo could be a murderer and yet seem so good and sweet and be so handsome.  For this, you could draw a book with a beautiful cover, and then draw the same book, open to a page that shows someone doing something terrible, like killing another person in a sword fight, as Romeo has done.  Or, you could draw Romeo looking into a mirror: the real him is handsome and happy, but his reflection is nasty and awful. 

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