JUSTICE AND SUBJECTIVITY IN MEASURE BY MEASURE: BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON LAW AND LITERATURE

Abstract

The article explores the complexities between justice, power, and subjectivity in Shakespeare's work, with a focus on Measure for Measure. The analysis connects Shakespearean themes to philosophical and legal traditions emerging in early modernity, particularly in tensions over authority and social order. The play intertwines with the views of Hobbes, Machiavelli, and Sir Edward Coke, who debate the role of law and central authority. Seventeenth-century England, in transition between feudalism and absolutism, provides the backdrop for this reflection. Hobbes, in Leviathan, advocated a strong central government, while Coke upheld the primacy of the Common Law and judicial control over Parliament. This judicial restraint is reflected in the moral and legal conflict of Measure for Measure, where the intersections between right and subjectivity emerge vividly. Shakespeare, although he does not present a partisan position, articulates dilemmas that echo as concerns of modernity about the use of force and the flexibility of the law, opening the door to interpretations about the role of judges and the manipulation of laws in favor of private interests. These debates are deepened by the Shakespearean reading of themes such as honor, virtue, and the tension between freedom and order, linking the work to an ongoing dialogue between literature, law, and politics.