From Vienna with Love: William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure

Neither a full-scale tragedy nor a full-fledged comedy, William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure is a catego-ry-defying “problem play” which has baffled critics and audience alike for centuries. Shakespeare’s last, unfestive comedy, one of his most debated and misread plays, has become a favourite among (post) modern spectactors, after years of comparative neglect and disfigurement. Despite the title’s symmetry, drawing from the formulation of Talionic law, there is no such thing as “measure for measure”, if only because the source of measure or judgment is itself biased. The present text-centered study aims at testing the validity of this axiom on a thematic, dramatic and linguistic level, and at providing lines of enquiry into a play which can ultimately be read as a celebration of drama—drama being the sole force to escape from the grip of this black, threatening comedy and come out strenghtened.