Shakespeare's Measure for Measure

Measure for measure seems to dramatise structurally its own retreat from comedy. By moving from a genre where women characters are vocal and dramatically powerful, we get to a genre in which women are virtually silenced or at least puppeted by male characters. Here the gender politics can be layered onto the genre politics of comedy and tragedy. On the one hand that's to say the marriages at the end of measure for measure affirm one of the traditions of comedy endings. But on the other hand, by silencing one of the genre's most prominent characters, the active woman, the end of the play seems to negate comic expectations.