‘Measure for Measure’: The Bed-trick

Summary

Helena won Bertram by a trick; in response he submitted formally to the contract, told his bride how he despised her and fled, preferring the grim visage of war to Helena’s fair face; she pursued him and, by another trick, won him once more, and at last acquainted him with the felicity he seemed unable to perceive for himself.

Claudio got Juliet with child before their marriage contract had been solemnized, and so became liable to the biting laws of Vienna. Isabel conceded the viciousness of his act but interceded on his behalf to Angelo. Angelo in return made Isabel an offer: ' Submit to my lust and your brother lives.' The Duke suggested that Mariana, whose contract with Angelo had not been solemnized, should secretly take the place of Isabel in Angelo's bed. Isabel welcomed this suggestion. And so the knot of the comedy is untied.

Both of these stories, told thus in the barest language, are already tense and uncomfortable, before we endow the agents with any richness of character or psychological depth. I therefore reject the view that all our disgust in watching or reading these plays arises from an illicit, post-romantic urge to psychologize the agents. At the same time, it is equally clear that if we do allow the agents any richness of personality, the disgust becomes more acute.