“The Play’s the Thing”: Problem Plays and Social Critique

There are two posters that I’ve carried with me throughout my Dartmouth Career. I’ve schlepped them from room to room, rolled them up every ten weeks and then unrolled them, flattened them out, and pinned them up. One is my dad’s poster of John Belushi as Senator Blutarsky, and the other is the final stage direction from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.

A Doll’s House famously ends with Nora, the protagonist of the play, leaving her husband and children with the door slamming behind her. I adore A Doll’s House, and find the ending deliciously satisfying in a way that I could never find the ending to Measure for Measure.

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Vincentio’s Talents

Louise Schleiner, in her essay “Providential Improvisation in Measure for Measure”, takes a closer look at the play’s Duke Vincentio. In doing so, Schleiner examines biblical parallels and allusions within the play and their implications on the characterization of the duke, as well as the insinuations about Shakespeare’s society that stem from the duke’s character. Continue reading →

Comic “Mystery”

The brief exchange between Pompey the clown and Abhorson the hangman, though primarily intended for comic relief, actually speaks to the serious issues that permeate Measure for Measure. Shakespeare uses their argument over Abhorson’s claim that hanging is a “mystery” to mirror the central issue of Angelo’s presumed stance as a moral authority figure. Continue reading →

What Goes Around Comes Back Around

There’s a saying in the fashion world that talks about how the things that are in style come back in cycles; what was fashionable once comes back years later as stylish. Such cyclical trends are true of history as well. Despite all of our history lessons, it repeats itself. While Measure for Measure is considered one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, it retains a robust performance history.

During the Restoration period, the play was appropriately adapted to fit the culture of the time. Restoration plays were known to be incredibly flamboyant, making use of elaborate costumes and set designs with sophisticated moving parts. Additionally, they included plenty of dancing and singing to add to the merriment of the play. One particular production during this time period blended Measure for Measure with another Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, creating an entirely new plot dubbed The Law Against Lovers. The Law Against Lovers, and no doubt other performances of Measure for Measure, followed the Restoration trends by being visually extravagant. The memorable musical numbers and stunning visuals tried to compensate for the more problematic issues within Measure for Measure. The translation from text to stage focused more upon catering to the audience’s tastes through interpretation and focus upon the superficial to garner higher praise.

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Sacro-Masochism

Isabella’s response to Angelo’s sexual proposition in Act 2 Scene 4 of Measure for Measure displays Shakespeare’s true genius and lexical prowess. After reading this passage numerous times, I found myself rethinking the sexual state of women who “endure the livery of a nun” in “austerity and single life” (I.1.70/90), as Theseus described in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Critics claim that Isabella’s refusal of Angelo’s advances is a testament to her “pathological sexual repression.” One Shakespearian surmises, “beneath the habit of the nun there is a narrow-minded but passionate girl afflicted with an irrational terror of sex which she has never admitted to herself” (Barton, 580). However, I believe Isabella’s sexual desire is not repressed, but satisfied through alternative means with an unseen partner, the man she has devoted her body and soul to: Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

Competitions of Ethics

Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure has been popularly referred to as a “problematic play” because of its seemingly convoluted plot. The play has earned this title because the Claudio’s punishment does not fit his supposed crime, because Angelo’s offer to spare Claudio comes at a perverse and indecent trade, and because the way in which Claudio is finally saved is a kind of underhanded operation conceived by the Duke. In each of these three major points of the play, there is some subversion of the ethics understood by an audience. The questions are, then: why create this tension? With what ideas of morality or conduct is Shakespeare playing? How does the play resolve, if at all, the conflict between the ideas it thematically explores throughout its course? Continue reading →

Kirk’s “Measure for Measure – Act V, Scene 1”

Shakespeare - Measure For Measure - Act V, Scene I.

In the English painter Thomas Kirk’s “Measure For Measure – Act V, Scene I” painting, he renders the last dramatic scene of the play as a powerful moment of moral vindication. By the end of Act 1, the themes of mercy and justice, vice and piety, appearance and reality have been established but collide in the last scene of the play. Kirk expresses this sense of dramatic tension by capturing the moment of the Duke’s reveal, if the Duke’s bared head and the looks of shock or shame on the faces of the bystander are anything to go by.

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It’s a Duke’s World and We’re All Just Living in it

The Duke in Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure plays a role in nearly every affair between characters throughout the play. Whether he is explicitly fulfilling his role as the Duke of Vienna or in disguise as a friar, the Duke acts as a puppeteer and pulls most of the strings throughout the play. Continue reading →