Abstract
The article proposes a reinterpretation in the light of the covid-19 pandemic of the play Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, written between 1591 and 1595. The piece is contextualized from the bibliography that historicizes the impacts of the bubonic plague pandemic in the 16th century, highlighting the nascent health policy that recommended circulation restrictions, with State control, and the impacts it caused on social, economic and political aspects of human life. The article sustains the idea that the play can be read as a cynical social criticism is supported.
Keywords
William Shakespeare; pandemic; bubonic plague; literary criticism; XVI century