「자에는 자로」에 드러난 비희극의 반어적 비전

Abstract

There are two critical discussions of Measure for Measure. Seen from the point of view of the character, including Duke, Measure for Measure is a problem play, but from the point of view of the implied dramatist it is a tragicomedy. The play has affinities with Ibsenite problem plays of a much later period but in many important respects Measure for Measure conforms to tragicomedy as it was defined by Italian tragicomedy theorist Guarini. The Duke in some sense stands in for the dramatist. As manipulator of the play's action and thus its quasi‐author, the Duke exists at the border of the play's internal and mediating communication systems, his role is never quite clearly defined by these two genres. His presence throughout the play certainly provides assurance of a formally comic ending. But as a controlling artist figure he is unreliable, and our attempt to see things from his point of view is repeatedly frustrated by his imperfect problem‐solving. Shakespeare creates the full expectation of a comic rather than a tragic conclusion in Measure for Measure, and at the same time he problematizes the tragic means by which it will be produced. The chief problem is Duke, the guarantor of a happy ending, whose flawed and comedic problem‐solving, at odds with the seriousness of the character’s difficulties, produces much of the play’s discomfort. But it is this dissonance that produces Measure for Measure as a darkly ironic version of tragicomedy, and in particular as a tragicomedy whose indeterminacy links it with modern versions of the genre. In Measure for Measure Shakespeare dramatizes the instability of human experience, the imperfect resolutions that can pervade in this world and expose the hypocrisy and contradiction of the Duke in a satirical mode. The discomfort and dissatisfaction aroused by Measure for Measure, especially by it’s ending, are not the product of flaws in the play’s design; they are part of tragicomedy’s inherent aesthetic and the validation of tragicomic integrity in Measure for Measure.