4。2。4。Emphasis of the Facts 12

4。2。5。Increasing the Expressive Force 13

Ⅴ。 Significance of Oxymoron—Highlighting the Theme 15

5。1。Emotion and Behavior—Revenge in Hamlet 15

5。2。Feudalism and Humanism—Pursuit of Love in Romeo and Juliet 16

Ⅵ。 Conclusion 17

Bibliography 19

An Analysis of Oxymoron in Shakespeare’s Plays—A Case Study of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet

I。Introduction William Shakespeare is the most famous playwright and poet in Renaissance in Europe, who occupies a very important position in world literature and is known as the Zeus of Mount Olympus in  human literature。 He leaves us 37 classic plays and 154 sonnets in which his words are so enchanting and romantic that they influence future generations deeply。 These works cover a wide range of social topics, and show the author’s genius command of language, unmatched play ideas and many outstanding images。

Besides his wonderful creation talents, Shakespeare is a master of language。 William Shakespeare loves to play with words。 He uses the English language freely and readily。 In his plays, he employs various

figures of speech skillfully，which makes his expression vivid,   colorful,

powerful and grab reader’s eyes。 Readers can clearly know how ingeniously Shakespeare plays with words, how rich his imagination is and why he is regarded not only as the greatest playwright and poet，past and present ， but also as a great master of language after experiencing these rhetorical devices( Tan, 2015; Wei, 2013)。

He often uses simile, pun, parallelism, hyperbole, metaphor and so on in his plays。 As one of the distinct rhetorical devices, oxymoron in which the contrary or inconsistent terms are put together to make expression more powerful ( Li, 2013)．It should be noted that oxymoron occupies a high position in Shakespeare’s plays。 No one can be placed higher than Shakespeare in utterance of oxymoron。 And Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and Hamlet are the classic works of employing oxymoron。

II。Literature Review

From Shakespeare's time to the present, scholars’ passion for Shakespeare has always been kept high。 In the field of research, research issues cover all spheres of life and the works of Shakespeare, in which one of the most primary researches are about Shakespeare’s language features and language utterance skills。 As the idol of many literature authors, Shakespeare’s literature deeply influenced later writers and made an indelible contribution to the development of the world literature (Li, 2002)。

Zhu Shenghao translated The Complete Works of William Shakespeare in 1978 and afterwards several other Chinese translation versions were published。 It is the first time the complete works of a foreign writer hold an important place in literary circle in China。 Since then, more and more Chinese scholars started to study Shakespeare and his works。 In 1991, Luo Zhiye published The Rhetoric Application of Shakespeare; in 1992, Wu Wenquan wrote The Oxymoron in Romeo and Juliet; in 1996, Wu Mingqing wrote Analysis of Figure of Speech in English, Oxymoron and Tan Chunhua wrote The Utterance of Oxymoron in Shakespeare’s Works; in 1998, Sun Jianjun and Chai Xiaolan published An Analysis of Oxymoron in Shakespeare’s Plays; in 1999, Chen Guanya published The Oxymoron in Shakespeare’s Sonnet。 Li Weiming summarized these studies and wrote Research Summary of Shakespeare’s Language。 In 2013, Song Jianying wrote The Language Characteristic of Oxymoron。