Measure for Measure by

"Since the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions early this century, admiration for Measure for Measure has steadily risen. It is now a favourite with the critics and has attracted widely different styles of performance. At one extreme, the play is seen as a religious allegory; at the other, it has been interpreted as a comedy protesting against power and privilege. Brian Gibbons focuses on the unique tragi-comic experience of watching the play, the intensity and excitement offered by its dramatic rhythm, the reversals and surprises which shock the audience even to the end. His introduction considers how the play's critical reception and stage history have varied according to prevailing social, moral and religious issues, which have remained highly sensitive. This updated edition contains a new introductory section by Angela Stock, which describes recent stage, film and critical interpretations, and an updated reading list."--BOOK JACKET.

What a terrible, irritating, profound failure of a play. It's no wonder this is considered one of Shakespeare's “problem” plays–no one knows what to do with it. Unless it is meant to be some farce or subversive allegory which I have deeply missed, this play has so little redeeming qualities going for it. It begins with an interesting abstract philosophical idea–not a premise, not a question, not a story. Just the idea of a society built on the black and white enforcement of the law to its extremis with no mercy in sight. He then tries to build some odd house of cards of a plot around this idea to turn it into a play and ends up saying nothing to the central premise. He belittles and treats sloppily what ought be treated with great care and seriousness, and treats seriously and with gravitas characters and plot points that are utterly ridiculous, distracting, and silly, lacking any resemblance to the actual human condition.

Maybe that's the my problem here. There's simply no humanity in this play. It is like a bunch of college stoners getting high and trying to write a play about a profound idea and failing miserably. It is “dumb” in every sense of that word. This play does not deserve finer language than that. Until I read something that makes me see this play in an entirely new light (which hey, it's Shakespeare–it's a real possibility) this will go down as my most disliked play in his canon.

I liked it, but it was certainly not spectacular like Shakespeare's big plays. The plot has more issues than most of his other plays; what is really most interesting about it is how problematic it is. Still, the plot, though not original, brings up a great deal of questions that are still relevant today, and the characters (namely Isabella) are pretty good for how short this is. Three stars simply because I really dislike how he ended up throwing everything together at the end, but the themes are nice.