Read the excerpt below from Act I, Scene 5 and answer the question.

ROMEO If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

ROMEO Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

JULIET Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

ROMEO Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.

JULIET Then have my lips the sin that they have took.

ROMEO Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.

JULIET You kiss by the book..



What is the significance of Romeo and Juliet’s first interaction taking place within the form of a sonnet? What does the use of an extended religious metaphor indicate about their feelings? analyze why Shakespeare chose to structure Romeo and Juliet’s initial meeting this way and what he intended to convey about the characters and their relationship. Include at least three specific references to the text.