Abstract
The article focuses on Shakespeare’s play: Measure for Measure, with the aim of bringing to light the central problem of the play which is that of social reform and marriage in an early modern European society. It is a play that has been located against the background of seventeenth century society of London where it was first performed. However, it is symbolically set in the city of Vienna. Feminist and Historicist critics have been cited in the article in an interpretation of the play which requires a consideration of the role of women and their status in the playworld. The issues of private and public marriages, and the ambiguity governing the laws on marriage, form the complex problem raised in the play. It is the contention of the article that Shakespeare emphasized the need to regulate the legal system with a view to promote greater representation and voice to women who were victimized by the corrupt legal institutions, both religious and official. Thus, the article suggests that the developments in the position of women, and the questions as to whether they were married or single, were the subject of public concern and debate in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe. Marriage was, therefore, felt to be the most crucial issue in this regard and the aim of the dramatists and literary writers was to popularize the difficulties faced by women with a view to raising the consciousness of the public.
Farhana Wazir Khan. (2010) Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: The Problem Of Social Reform and Marriage, Pakistan Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 4, Issue 1.
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