How would Juliets illness have been viewed in the arts?
Juliet was right on the money: her illnesses were, quite literally, very Romantic. Literary figures from the classical romantic period often suffered vague, consumptive illnesses that made them waste away and become closer to death, more aethereal, more spiritual and more alluring. For examples, see Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights,” Poe’s stories and poetry, especially his sublime, alliterative “Annabel Lee,” Collins’ “The Woman in White,” or Stoker’s “Dracula.” Or, for that matter, some of Anne Perry’s Victorian crime novels (see 7.11). There are connections between Juliet’s diseases and the music used in the film, too (see 3.1.19).
