Courtney Lomax 2005
Americans of the twenty first century typically view marriage as a sacred union between a man and a woman. Marriage is a tradition that many people choose as a part of their lifestyle because of want for security or love of a life partner. At the same time, if one chooses not to marry, one is not held at a lower standard by society than another who does marry. Marriage in Renaissance England was a very important custom as people, especially women, were expected to marry. Shakespeare wrote comedies during the Renaissance that used marriage as one of the main themes. In his comedies, characters may long for marriage but are unable to easily achieve it because of familial pressures. Measure for Measure, written in 1604, is considered a dark comedy where the characters are punished due to illicit sexual relations and their failure to marry. The play focuses on the looseness of a society and a Duke’s attempt to fix society’s bad habits. Even though the Duke attempts to fix society’s problems, the audience is forced to question his motives. The last scene of the play involves the seemingly forced marriage of Isabella to the Duke, Mariana to Angelo, and Juliet to Claudio. Although marriage was a solution to pregnancy prior to marriage, the ending of this play is not consistent with the opinions of the Renaissance society, as forced marriage was not looked highly upon. The contemporary audience understands the importance of marriage in the Renaissance, yet is disturbed by this last scene where female characters are tricked or forced to marry men in order to improve the man’s reputation or status. English Renaissance society wanted people to marry in order to promote decency and honesty. Although the characters of Measure for Measure marry for similar reasons, their rash ways of attaining these marriages are inconsistent with Renaissance England societal ideas towards marriage.
The driving plot of the play involves punishment for improper relations before marriage: sex. Claudio is in jail because although he planned on marrying Juliet, she becomes pregnant before a marriage is possible. Ironically, the only way for Claudio’s sister, Isabella, to save him from jail is to lose her virginity to the acting Duke, Angelo. Isabella refuses to lose her chastity so Mariana acts as Isabella and meets with the Angelo whom she was previously engaged thus making him her husband. In order for a Renaissance woman to be considered a good wife, she should obey her husband, which, inevitably leads to few freedoms for a woman. A man should look for virtue in a wife for “[…] there is nothing more goodly then virtue […]” (Camden 68). But, a wife should not be proud and thus should submit to the desires of her husband (70). In this case, Isabella would be seen as a bad prospective wife as it is her pride in her chastity that keeps her from saving her brother. Yet, supposedly relinquishing this virginity to a man that she is not married to also makes her unfit to be a wife.
Isabella’s restraint from sexual relations, even to save her brother, allows the audience to view her more highly than the other female characters of the play who do not seem to value their virginity. It is her reluctance to give up her virginity and chaste lifestyle that also makes the audience feel uneasy when she is basically forced to marry the Duke at the end of the play. Isabella shows no desire to marry throughout the play yet, according to Renaissance values, it seems logical that Isabella, or any other character, would want to marry as marriage is: “one of the most important strategies in one’s life chances” was marriage (Desens 230). This is literally true in the final scene of the play where both Claudio and Angelo are pardoned from death and sentenced to marriage. Marriage then, appears to be more of a punishment to these men, particularly Angelo, than death. Where the male characters of this play literally gain freedom through marriage, females of the Renaissance lose freedom when they marry: “But sure eyther you know more then all, or else say more then you know: for not onely the common people, but also the most learned hath thought maryage to be such a restraint of libertie, as it feeleth no sparke of freedome:” (Camden 83).
Despite this lack of freedom that some women felt was their destiny with marriage, people of the Renaissance found marriage an important institution. Marriage was necessary for women as they were unable to own property without a husband. Also, marriage played a large role in succession and the continuing of a family or a monarchy, in some cases. (Garner 210) Money and wealth were other reasons why people married in the Renaissance (Hufton 29). But, according to Carol Camden there were four main reasons why people married: continue the species and their name, avoid premarital sex, give men companionship, and do as God would want them to do (80).
In the last scene of Measure for Measure, The Duke asks Isabella to marry him most likely to gain a companion. Mariana and Juliet marry Angelo and Claudio, respectively, in order to avoid more cases of premarital sex. Although some people in society tolerated sex before marriage, sex was the last of the four steps in marriage. Constables “conducted house – to – house midnight bed checks to scout out illicit sexuality” (Marcus 173). Typically people would have a private promise of marriage, followed by a public contract, then an actual marriage, and finally consummation (172). Shakespeare seems to be making a comment against the social contracts of the Renaissance, as his characters do not follow the traditional steps to marriage.
Not only do the characters of Measure for Measure not follow the correct order of marriage, their marriages may also not be valid according to Renaissance standards. New laws of marriage came about in 1604, the same year that Measure for Measure was written. These laws made it easier for people to marry so that fewer people would be living in sin by having sex before marriage. Both parties, under these new laws, had to consent to marriage in order to make it legal. (Marcus 172) The Duke basically forces Angelo to marry Mariana to make her an honest woman. This marriage is not lawful since consent was not mutual. Also, the unlawful fact that Mariana and Isabella tricked Angelo into thinking Mariana was Isabella makes the marriage invalid. (182) The Duke requests that Angelo and Marianna be married immediately, which is inconsistent with the marriage laws of 1604 that required a license from the bishop before a marriage took place (179). Thus, a marriage between Marianna and Angelo would be invalid. Even if the audience does not view this marriage invalid, Angelo’s pardon may disturb the audience, as it seems unfair to Mariana that the only reason Angelo is marrying her, is to save him from death (Coleridge 511).
Angelo’s marriage to Mariana is not the only invalid relationship presented to the audience in the last scene of the play. The Duke’s proposal or request for Isabella to marry him is an absurd request as forced matrimony was considered to make a marriage invalid, according to William Harrington. (Camden 94) Isabella had made a vow of chastity earlier in the play which also makes the marriage between the two invalid. Harrington points out that a “formal vow of chastity” was one of the fifteen ways in which a marriage could be invalid. (94) The marriage request is invalid as well as disturbing for the audience who watches as Isabella remains silent after the request: “Give me your hand, and say you will be mine” (5.1.486). The footnote tells the reader Isabella’s response to the Duke is unclear. Her silence could mean that she consents to the marriage. In modern productions, Isabella walks off the stage proving her refusal. (Marcus 183) The contemporary viewer would like this ending as it keeps Isabella consistent with her chastity vow and ability to resist temptation.
Two conflicts with marriage during the Renaissance Period were “desire and purity” and “love and duty” (Garner 210). These conflicts appear in the play as the audience wonders if it is Isabella’s duty to marry the Duke because he pardoned her brother. Does the Duke’s desire for Isabella outweigh her desire to be pure? The play does not answer these questions leaving the last scene open-ended and dark. It is clear that Angelo has a duty to marry Mariana as the two were previously betrothed and he took her maidenhood. Thus, Mariana needs Angelo to marry her to save her reputation. She also asks the Duke to spare Angelo from death because she knows that a widow is unfit to be married (Camden 64). Mariana protests the death of Angelo, “Oh my gracious lord, / I hope you will not mock me with a husband!” (5.1.408-409). Oddly, Juliet and Claudio are punished because Juliet is pregnant even though they planned to be married. This proves how important virginity until marriage was. Virginity instead of marriage, however, was seen as inferior (Camden 80). If Isabella keeps her virginity rather than marrying the Duke, she will be viewed as inferior according to Renaissance social codes.
As the contemporary audience wonders what Isabella’s response to the Duke’s request of marriage, the Renaissance audience is confident that despite his being untruthful to her about his identity, she will marry him. Isabella marrying the Duke is consistent with Renaissance values as women had a duty to submit to men’s request of marriage. Yet, with the new laws of 1604, both parties were required to consent to marriage before the ceremony took place. Even the Renaissance audience cannot ignore the fact that neither Isabella nor Angelo consented to the marriages they are destined. If Angelo’s marriage to Mariana is make her an honest woman and he a living man, then the audience can accept it, but not without questioning the validity of the marriage. The disturbing ending of Measure for Measure for the contemporary audience is attributed to the forced marriages of the two couples and the lack of uniformity with the marriage customs of the Renaissance.
Works Cited
Camden, Carroll. The Elizabethan Woman. New York: Paul P Appel, 1975.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. “Measure for Measure: Selected Criticism.” The Reader’s Encyclopedia of Shakespeare. Ed. Oscar James Campbell. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1966. 511.
Desens, Marliss C. “Marrying Down: Negotiating a More Equal Marriage on the English Renaissance Stage.” Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. vol. 14. New York: AMS Press, 2001. 227-255.
Garner, Shirley Nelson, and Madelon Sprengnether, eds. Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender. Bloomington: IU Press, 1996.
Hufton, Owen. “Women, Work, and Family.” Ed. Natalie Zemon Davis and Arletter Forge. A History of Women in the West: III Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes. Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 1993. 15-45.
Marcus, Leah. Puzzling Shakespeare: Local Reading and Its Discontents. California: UP of California, 1988.
Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure. The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition. Eds. Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor. New York: WW Norton and Co., 1997. 2021-2089.