Death as Masquerade in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Romeo and Juliet (1597) is the most famous romantic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. Like other Shakespearean plays, it offers complicated personalities whose psychic intentions and motivations can only be unveiled through a deep psychoanalytic reading. As such, this article is an attempt to analyse the play in the light of Lacanian psychoanalytic theories such as the phallus, the Other, the split subject, objet a and the masquerade. We argue that while Juliet's faked death initially appears as an act of rebellion against the oppressive structures of her male-dominated society, it ultimately transforms her into a passive and silenced object of beauty, admired and objectified by both Renaissance patriarchal society and contemporary audiences. Through this portrayal, Shakespeare invites readers and audiences to reflect on how women's identities were shaped and constrained by Renaissance social expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]