One striking example of a simile in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet occurs in Act 3, Scene 2, when Juliet expresses her frustration and longing for Romeo. She says, “O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!” Here, Juliet compares Romeo’s outward appearance, which she once thought was beautiful and loving (the ‘flowering face’), to that of a serpent, which symbolizes deceit and treachery.
This simile effectively captures Juliet’s emotional turmoil as she grapples with the duality of love and hate. The imagery of a serpent highlights her feelings of betrayal and confusion after learning about Romeo’s involvement in Tybalt’s death. It illustrates the complexity of her emotions as she struggles between her love for Romeo and her anger at his actions.