Graduation Year
2024
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Tessie Prakas
Reader 2
Aaron Matz
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2024 Alyssa Wend
Abstract
William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and Titus Andronicus explore the value of a human body through the act of bargaining. Throughout both plays, characters use each other’s bodies to bargain, whether for sex, revenge, or to escape death. While these plays demonstrate different aspects of bargaining, both ask profound questions of morality through the commodification of bodies. Characters manipulate the bargaining process with what agency is available to them in order to maintain the concept of equal exchange for themselves. Using the context of each play’s sequence of actions and the characters’ reactions to each other, Shakespeare emphasizes the importance of individual values within the complex question of morality.
Recommended Citation
Wend, Alyssa, "Bargaining with Bodies in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" and "Titus Andronicus"" (2024). Scripps Senior Theses. 2329.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2329
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
