It is difficult to assess the extent to which Measure for Measure is a satisfactory play as one is constantly made to feel uncertain and perplexed by the problems and issues of the play and this must be weighed against the conventions of Elizabethan drama and what makes a play enjoyable and successful. It is as though Shakespeare was weighing the issues of the play on a scale himself as it was written in the sense that moral questions are constantly thrown against each other.

In order to argue my case for the above question, I must first define what a problem play entails. Measure for Measure is difficult to classify either as comedy or tragedy, as it does not comply fully with the...