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

The first part of the article briefly analyzes the importance of the concept of “body politic” for Shakespeare and documents the way in which the body and its diseases function as reflection of the problems of the nation and of the state. The feud in Romeo and Juliet is then read as the analogy, in the microcosm of Verona, of the political conflicts in the macrocosm of the England of the time. The study evidences the way in which, in Shakespeare’s presentation of the feud, parameters and effects typical of diseases and of their sequelae are adopted, and the consequences of these on the characters and their choices are identified. In the second part of the article three important metatheatrical premises are identified, as announced in the introductory sonnet of the Prologue, and the feud is read as the practical manifestations of these three exigencies.