“Sad Hours Seem Long”: Clock Time in Romeo and Juliet

Abstract

Abstract: Romeo and Juliet contains a great many time references. By distinguishing his characters' different measurement of time, Shakespeare demonstrated, in the context of history, the conflict between the old and new concepts of time during the Renaissance period, while reflecting on the time rhetoric as a whole beyond historical realities. A careful exploration of how the “clock time” within the cultural construct of Renaissance is used in this play may lead us to a discovery that while highlighting the triple cultural implications symbolized by the “clock”, namely, the strong sense of individualism, the great precision of information, and the confidence in science, Shakespeare goes beyond the mode of “mechanical metaphor”, which is generated through the image of the clockwork and characterized by “mechanical” and “circular” motions, to confront the human alienation due to the fast-approaching era of reason by preserving his characters' rich sensibilities toward time and confirming “Dasein”, the meaning of existence, thus opening up the space of aesthetic imagination for the time rhetoric.

Key words: Romeo and Juliet, clock time, mechanical metaphor

Yin Lanxi. “Sad Hours Seem Long”: Clock Time in Romeo and Juliet[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2020, 42(4): 76-90.

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