SOURCE: "Introduction: Wooing, Wedding, and Repenting," in Broken Nuptials in Shakespeare's Plays, Yale University Press, 1985, pp. 1-23.

In the following essay, Neely examines the way in which marriage—achieved and postponed or destroyed—influences the structure and themes of Shakespeare's plays. Neely maintains that marriage becomes the focal point for relationships, both social and emotional, for men and women in the plays.

Marriage in Shakespeare's plays is a crucial dramatic action and a focus for tensions and reconciliations between the sexes. Movements toward marriage constitute the subject of the comedies; disrupted marriages are prominent in many of the tragedies; the establishment or reestablishment of marriage in one or two generations is the symbol of harmony in the late romances. The plays' marriages are counterpointed by what I call broken nuptials, extending Leo Salingar's use of the term.¹ These are parodic or irregular wedding ceremonies, premature or postponed consummations...