The focus of these classes will be to look in detail at the complex ways in which the theme of justice, and the closely associated theme of mercy, are handled in The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure. In order to help us on our way, we will begin by thinking in more general terms about the various possible meanings of justice, about the expectations of justice that we may bring to a play, and about the ways and reasons a particular play might fulfill or frustrate such expectations. In doing so, we shall touch on some ideas about poetic, legal, social, natural and divine justice that were current in Shakespeare’s time, as well as on some of those that have made themselves felt in Shakespeare criticism through the centuries.
Three questions to which we shall give particular attention are the following. Firstly, what kinds of justice, or what degree of justice, might we expect to see enacted in a comedy (as opposed to a tragedy or a history play, for example), and how do Shakespeare’s plays exploit and revise those expectations? Secondly, what, in the world as it is seen in these plays, is the relationship between justice and political authority? Do they properly go hand in hand or are they intrinsically at odds? Thirdly, what bearing do Christian ideas of justice have on the worlds depicted by Shakespeare? Are they represented as supplying answers, or as themselves being thrown into question?
The course will involve extensive close reading of the set plays, so students must bring copies of the two set plays to all lectures (preferably the editions specified on the reading list), and they should become as familiar as possible with them in advance.
