Background
The play is commonly called a problem play because its comic resolution sits beside serious questions about power, sexual coercion, mercy, and public morality. Its disguises make private motives difficult to separate from official roles.
Reading notes
- Ask how each character defines justice, and whose interests that definition serves.
- Notice the difference between the Duke’s public disguise and his private control of events.
- Read the final pairings with the play’s unresolved moral tensions in mind.
Version note
Text source: the Standard Ebooks EPUB edition identified on this page. This site extracted the English text and retained the source edition’s chapter order. Public-domain status must be checked for the territory where the text will be distributed.