Marriage and the Law
Politics and Theology inMeasure for Measure
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6211536 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter C Meilaender |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 195-200 |
| Publication date | 2012-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Perspectives on Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1045-7097 • E-ISSN: 1930-5478 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10457097.2012.713263 |
| OpenAlex | W2155274460 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare portrays a clearly political problem: a city whose citizens are so unable to govern themselves that only the most severe legal punishments appear capable of restoring civic order. Yet the play's conclusion, for all its dramatic fireworks, does not obviously resolve this problem. All that happens, it appears, is that everyone gets married. Understanding marriage's political significance, therefore, is key to unraveling the play's political teaching. By carefully framing marriage within Pauline language of sin and grace—and in particular by using the image of death and rebirth through baptism—Shakespeare offers a theological as well as a political image of a kind of self-government capable of easing the city's legal dilemmas and reconciling justice with mercy
Baptism · Economic Justice · Political science · Politics · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2019 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |