SOURCE: Wallace, Nathaniel. “Cultural Tropology in Romeo and Juliet.” Studies in Philology 88, no. 18 (summer 1991): 329-44.

In the following essay, Wallace analyzes the theme of family conflict between the feuding Montagues and Capulets of Verona in Romeo and Juliet, concentrating on the process of semiotic revolt in which new cultural metaphors appear to replace the old.

Shakespeare's Verona in Romeo and Juliet has been perceived as moribund and stylized, and the lovers' relationship has been contrasted to the city's decadence as an uncorrupted preserve.¹ Yet a reassessment of Verona and its celebrated lovers reveals that the city is hardly static and that Romeo and Juliet cannot extricate themselves from the determinations of their culture. This literary Verona, neither cityscape nor actual place but rather a repository of cultural representations, is undergoing a multifaceted transition from feudalism to a stage of civic prosperity and cooperation implied but never fully defined...