Measure for Measure

So...technically this play is a comedy. Yeah...that is billywhacks. It is very tragic. The only thing I can truly discern about this play that keeps it from being a true Shakespearean tragedy is the fact that no one actually loses their lives. I just was so upset about this play because the whole time I am thinking "This is a comedy" but I felt the catharsis of a tragedy, not the lightheartedness of a comedy. It made the experience long and difficult. But aside from all that I want to focus on the exploitation of women in this play. Particularly the exploitation of Isabella.

Poor Isabella. She is a pathetic character nearly on par with Ophelia. She is an innocent character who is thrown into an impossible situation. She will either lose her brother and preserve her virginity, or she will lose her virginity and her future as a nun (it is interesting to note that the name Isabella means "My God is a vow" which is the life that Isabella intended to lead as a nun) and preserve her brother's life. This is an impossible choice that she should not be forced to make. Just when the situation seems most dire for Isabella, the disguised Duke secretlycomes to her aid. His plan to trick Angelo and save Claudio seems like an answer to everyone's prayers--even though Isabella is left in the dark to believe her brother is dead.

And just when everything seems to be turning out for the better, the Duke shows who he really is. The duke demands that Isabella,who seemed set on a chaste life as a nun, marry him. The plot has thrown her from one precarious situation to another, and she is finally left with no real option, but to marry the duke. Shakespeare provides no evidence that Isabella wants this, nor does he allow her any real escape from the duke's demand. In essence, she is in the same position with the duke as she was with Angelo.

The exploitation of women is not uncommon in Shakespeare's plays, but it seems more pathetic and heart breaking in this play because Isabella does not receive the release of death (as Ophelia and Desdemona do) nor does she receive the acceptance and even enjoyment of her fate (as Kate and Hippolyta do), she must simply endure, suffer, and pay for the wrongs of others. 

Since this "comedy" was so tragic, I am in the mood for a true comedy. And I can't decide. So I am putting it for a vote. Help me decide between The Tempest or The Two Gentlemen of Verona. YAY!