The Feud in Romeo and Juliet: A Diagnosis as Diseased Body Politic and Metatheatrical Dramatization

Abstract

The article, starting from the premise of the importance of the concept of ‘body politic’ in the work of Shakespeare and of how it is intrinsically tied to the actual physical body and its diseases, examines the way in which the feud, in Romeo and Juliet, becomes the analogy, within the microcosm of Verona, of the political and social conflicts in the macrocosm of the England of the time. The study evidences the way in which the presentation of the feud in this tragedy makes use of the parameters and effects typical of a disease and of its sequelae and it traces the consequences of this on the characters of the play and their choices. Moreover, the article analyses how the feud also becomes the interface and articulation of three fundamental metatheatrical assertions in the introductory sonnet of the Prologue.