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Oxymoron
Explanation and Analysis—Friar Laurence's Warning:
In Act 2, Scene 6, as Friar Laurence prepares to marry Romeo and Juliet, he unknowingly foreshadows their future deaths and uses oxymorons to characterize their passion for each other:
These violent delights have violent ends.
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
"Violent delights" is an oxymoronic phrase that emphasizes the danger inherent in Romeo and Juliet's relationship and serves as a warning to the soon-to-be-married couple. Though Friar Laurence cannot know that Romeo and Juliet's relationship will lead to their deaths, he instinctively understands how dangerous (or "violent") their union, though outwardly tender and loving (provoking "delights"), may be, given the constraints they face as members of rival houses. Their love, Friar Laurence says, is like "the sweetest honey" that is also "loathsome" in its "deliciousness" and whose "taste" ends up contradicting one's original "appetite": it is extremely alluring, but potentially poisonous. (Indeed, Romeo will later kill himself by ingesting poison.)
As a voice of adult reason, Friar Laurence urges Romeo to "love moderately," expressing his concern about the intensity of the young lovers' passion for each other. Such passion, he suggests, cannot realistically be sustained. Yet at the same time, Friar Laurence consents to marrying Romeo and Juliet, believing that their union is worth the risk if it can bring about peace between their warring families—demonstrating both his divided mindset and his desperate commitment to ending the feud.
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