Shakespeare often used metaphorical writing eg a line given to the character mercutio:
True, I talk of dreams,
Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy,
Which is as thin of substance as the air
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.
The my understanding of the quotation assigned to Mercutio “true I talk of dreams” means that true I talk of dreams or illusions “and more inconstant than the wind, who wooes” but they are very inconstant so he should not be “hooked” on rosalind
November 23, 2012 at 4:20 pm
I would encourage you to explain the metaphor a bit more methodically: The metaphor compares dreams to air – suggesting that they are as insubstantial and formless. This strengthens Mercutio’s point, that Romeo should move on from Rosiline.