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Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries$
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Eric Langley

Print publication date: 2009

Print ISBN-13: 9780199541232

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2010

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541232.001.0001

Narcissism to Suicide: Romeo and Juliet

Chapter:
(p. 108 ) 3 Narcissism to Suicide: Romeo and Juliet
Source:
Narcissism and Suicide in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries
Author(s):

Eric Langley (Contributor Webpage)

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199541232.003.0004

This chapter moves discussion from the self‐reflections of Narcissus to the self‐destructive action of the suicidal subject. It examines rhetorical figures of repetition in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and its source‐texts to show how a dynamic of sympathy, reciprocation, or bandying has dangerous and aggressive potential. The eroticized suicide of the loving couple is understood in relation to its civil war context, blurring distinctions between the martial and erotic.

Keywords:   Narcissus, suicide, rhetoric, repetition, Romeo and Juliet, source‐texts, sympathy, bandy, civil war

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