Abstract
ABSTRACTThis essay examines the architectural antecedents for and cultural significance of Juliet’s balcony. The exchange between Juliet and Romeo colloquially known as “the balcony scene” is the most famous scene in Shakespeare, and perhaps the most famous in all of English-language drama, yet it is paradoxically almost always misremembered. Reading architectural history against gender history, the essay reveals how the balcony serves as a locus for emerging intersections of gender, desire and the tensions between privacy and public display in the Renaissance city. Tracing the persistent, prominent and erroneous place of Juliet’s balcony in cultural memory suggests how audience desires shape our collective perception of Juliet as a desirable and desiring female.
Published Version
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