Uncomfortable time in Romeo and Juliet

English Studies

Volumn 82, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 115-126

  Lucking, David ^a  

^a NONE   (Italy)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 13044276989     PISSN: 0013838X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1076/enst.82.2.115.9595     Document Type: Review

References (19)

1. Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVI.
2. John Donne, 'The Sunne Rising'.
3. All references to Romeo and Juliet are to the Arden Edition of the play edited by Brian Gibbons (1980; rpt. London and New York, 1993).
4. This unconscious participation in what is perceived as alien to the self assumes various forms in Romeo and Juliet, though they are all mutually implicating. I have discussed the linguistic codes that constitute Romeo and Juliet as individuals, while at the same time frustrating the fulfilment of that individuality, in my paper 'That Which We Call a Name: The Balcony Scene in Romeo and Juliet', English 44 (Spring 1995), 1-16. Catherine Belsey examines the manner in which Romeo and Juliet's 'own account of love, while it displays a longing to escape the constraints of the symbolic order, reveals in practice precisely the degree to which it is culture that enables love to make sense'. 'The Name of the Rose in Romeo and Juliet', Yearbook of English Studies 23 (1993), 126-42, p. 127. Susan Snyder analyzes the fundamental role played by ideology in the constitution of the subject, and hence the impossibility for Romeo and Juliet to liberate themselves from the constraints of ideology, in 'Ideology and the Feud in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 49 (1996), 87-96.
5. This unconscious participation in what is perceived as alien to the self assumes various forms in Romeo and Juliet, though they are all mutually implicating. I have discussed the linguistic codes that constitute Romeo and Juliet as individuals, while at the same time frustrating the fulfilment of that individuality, in my paper 'That Which We Call a Name: The Balcony Scene in Romeo and Juliet', English 44 (Spring 1995), 1-16. Catherine Belsey examines the manner in which Romeo and Juliet's 'own account of love, while it displays a longing to escape the constraints of the symbolic order, reveals in practice precisely the degree to which it is culture that enables love to make sense'. 'The Name of the Rose in Romeo and Juliet', Yearbook of English Studies 23 (1993), 126-42, p. 127. Susan Snyder analyzes the fundamental role played by ideology in the constitution of the subject, and hence the impossibility for Romeo and Juliet to liberate themselves from the constraints of ideology, in 'Ideology and the Feud in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 49 (1996), 87-96.
6. This unconscious participation in what is perceived as alien to the self assumes various forms in Romeo and Juliet, though they are all mutually implicating. I have discussed the linguistic codes that constitute Romeo and Juliet as individuals, while at the same time frustrating the fulfilment of that individuality, in my paper 'That Which We Call a Name: The Balcony Scene in Romeo and Juliet', English 44 (Spring 1995), 1-16. Catherine Belsey examines the manner in which Romeo and Juliet's 'own account of love, while it displays a longing to escape the constraints of the symbolic order, reveals in practice precisely the degree to which it is culture that enables love to make sense'. 'The Name of the Rose in Romeo and Juliet', Yearbook of English Studies 23 (1993), 126-42, p. 127. Susan Snyder analyzes the fundamental role played by ideology in the constitution of the subject, and hence the impossibility for Romeo and Juliet to liberate themselves from the constraints of ideology, in 'Ideology and the Feud in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 49 (1996), 87-96.
7. Cf. for instance Joseph S. M. J. Chang, who argues that 'there are in the play two schemes of time, that of the real world … and that measured by the lovers'. 'The Language of Paradox in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Studies 3 (1967), 22-42, p. 35. Brian Gibbons agues in a related vein that 'as the play develops Shakespeare sustains the emphasis on the continuous counterpoint between extended periods and an exactly stipulated day, hour, moment'. 'Introduction', The Arden Edition of Romeo and Juliet (1980; rpt. London and New York, 1993), p. 53. Lloyd Davis similarly comments on the fact that 'the drama alternates between instants of passion, when time seems to stand still, and inevitable returns to the ongoing rush of events'. Davis, '"Death-Marked Love": Desire and Presence in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 49 (1996), 57-67, p. 60.
8. Cf. for instance Joseph S. M. J. Chang, who argues that 'there are in the play two schemes of time, that of the real world … and that measured by the lovers'. 'The Language of Paradox in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Studies 3 (1967), 22-42, p. 35. Brian Gibbons agues in a related vein that 'as the play develops Shakespeare sustains the emphasis on the continuous counterpoint between extended periods and an exactly stipulated day, hour, moment'. 'Introduction', The Arden Edition of Romeo and Juliet (1980; rpt. London and New York, 1993), p. 53. Lloyd Davis similarly comments on the fact that 'the drama alternates between instants of passion, when time seems to stand still, and inevitable returns to the ongoing rush of events'. Davis, '"Death-Marked Love": Desire and Presence in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 49 (1996), 57-67, p. 60.
9. Cf. for instance Joseph S. M. J. Chang, who argues that 'there are in the play two schemes of time, that of the real world … and that measured by the lovers'. 'The Language of Paradox in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Studies 3 (1967), 22-42, p. 35. Brian Gibbons agues in a related vein that 'as the play develops Shakespeare sustains the emphasis on the continuous counterpoint between extended periods and an exactly stipulated day, hour, moment'. 'Introduction', The Arden Edition of Romeo and Juliet (1980; rpt. London and New York, 1993), p. 53. Lloyd Davis similarly comments on the fact that 'the drama alternates between instants of passion, when time seems to stand still, and inevitable returns to the ongoing rush of events'. Davis, '"Death-Marked Love": Desire and Presence in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 49 (1996), 57-67, p. 60.
10. Gibbons, op. cit., p. 55.
11. Mahood, Shakespeare's Wordplay (1957; rpt. London, 1988), p. 62.
12. Petrarch is explicitly mentioned by Mercutio in II.iv.40. For discussions of the Petrarchan elements in this play, see Chang, op. cit., Jill L. Levenson, The Definition of Love: Shakespeare's Phrasing in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Studies 15 (1982), 21-36, and Luisa Conti Camaiora, 'Romeo and Juliet: the Tragedy of a Petrarchan Hero', in Rileggere/Re-Reading Romeo and Juliet, ed. Angelo Righetti (Verona, 1999), 55-74.
13. Petrarch is explicitly mentioned by Mercutio in II.iv.40. For discussions of the Petrarchan elements in this play, see Chang, op. cit., Jill L. Levenson, The Definition of Love: Shakespeare's Phrasing in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Studies 15 (1982), 21-36, and Luisa Conti Camaiora, 'Romeo and Juliet: the Tragedy of a Petrarchan Hero', in Rileggere/Re-Reading Romeo and Juliet, ed. Angelo Righetti (Verona, 1999), 55-74.
14. Petrarch is explicitly mentioned by Mercutio in II.iv.40. For discussions of the Petrarchan elements in this play, see Chang, op. cit., Jill L. Levenson, The Definition of Love: Shakespeare's Phrasing in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Studies 15 (1982), 21-36, and Luisa Conti Camaiora, 'Romeo and Juliet: the Tragedy of a Petrarchan Hero', in Rileggere/Re-Reading Romeo and Juliet, ed. Angelo Righetti (Verona, 1999), 55-74.
15. Levin, 'Form and Formality in Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Quarterly 11 (1960), 3-11, p. 3.
16. For a discussion of Romeo and Juliet in terms of its adherence to the tenets of Renaissance Platonism, as expressed in particular in the teachings of Ficino, see T. J. Cribb, 'The Unity of Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare Survey 34 (1981), 93-104.
17. The relation between mechanical time and the mechanical sex which seems to be the only coception of physical love of which Mercutio is capable is another latent theme of this play.
18. This is another way of formulating the ambivalence to which Mahood refers when she suggests that 'the play's fundamental question' is 'is its ending frustration or fulfilment? Does Death choose the lovers or do they elect to die?' Mahood, op. cit., p. 57.
19. Sonnet CXV.