Redeeming Comedy

William Shakespeare is one of the first people we think of when theater comes to mind. He made a name for himself in the world by becoming a playwright and writing comedies as well as tragedies for people’s entertainment that are still used today. However, Shakespeare is not one of the names that immediately come to mind when we consider the world of theology and religion. Yet the basic themes of Christianity play a foundational role in many of the classic scenes found in Shakespeare’s most famous works. We can examine this through the Shakespearian element of redemption, a view of taking kindness on humanity that academics believe was his own. Shakespeare’s plays still have relevance today because of his redemptive view of the world and of human experiences, particularly in the comedies The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and All’s Well That Ends Well.
Much has been made of Shakespeare’s religious and theological grounding. The issues have been centered primarily on whether Shakespeare was Protestant or Catholic. Many prominent Roman Catholic scholars, including the Rev. David Beauregard, have gone to great lengths to assert that Shakespeare was in fact Roman Catholic. Beauregard says a now-lost eighteenth-century document suggested that Shakespeare’s father, John, was a devout Catholics and his mother, Mary, was a member of the staunchly Catholic Arden family of Park Hall. Beauregard points to very Catholic theological concepts found in Shakespeare’s plays, including the use of the concept of Purgatory in Hamlet, a uniquely Catholic idea. Still, many scholars maintain the generally accepted view that Shakespeare was a member of the official Church of England, the Anglican Church (Barlow).
Why is Shakespeare’s religion important to those studying his work? Given the surplus of religious references found in his plays, having an understanding of Shakespeare’s religious views is imperative to fully understand his writing. Additionally, scholars find many references to the religious tensions of sixteenth-century England between the Anglican Protestants and the Roman Catholics as evidenced in the drama of the Tudor era of England’s monarchy and the animus between Elizabeth I and her sister Mary I, known as Bloody Mary.
Shakespeare uses his view of redemption in The Merchant of Venice, where the character Portia becomes a prize in her father’s contest and is won by Bassanio, a young and self-indulgent man who is tempted by wealth and feminine beauty. Bassanio says to Antonio, “In Belmont is a lady richly left, / And she is fair, and, fairer than that word, / Of wondrous virtues”(I.i.168-170). She undertakes a mission to test his loyalty to her by disguising herself as Balthasar, a male lawyer, and upon obtaining the wedding ring from her oblivious husband, she leads him into a process of redemption for having done so. Bevington encapsulates the scenario, saying, “Bassanio is teased and tortured into acting out a fantasy of marital inconstancy from which Portia can release him by revealing that she herself was the learned doctor who played such a trick on him” (Bevington 26). The intellect and wit of Portia allow her to be a vessel of redemption through which Bassanio can become a better person. Hence, the choosing of the casket, the trial, and the surrender of the ring carry him away from his preoccupation, and Bassanio becomes different than he was when he started (Bryant 87).
Near the finale of the play, Bassanio and Gratiano express their views on the chastity of their marriages. Gratiano states, “Well, while I live, I’ll fear no other thing / So sore as keeping safe Nerissa’s ring” (V.i.328-329). Rings are used to symbolize chaste marriages. Furthermore, many citizens of London endorsed the church’s view of fidelity in marriage and sexual restraint in the pre-marital part of courtship. As this is the audience that Shakespeare and his acting troupe (Lord Chamberlain’s Men) relied upon for their livelihoods, such approval would have been vital to the profitability of his performances. Shakespeare wrote for his audiences, and it is probable he would adopt the popular attitudes toward sex and gender in order to make his plays more appealing to the general populace, and thus more economically profitable, evidenced by his tendency to support family values (Bevington 16). Shakespeare is a dramatist who shows that human relationships mean one person is dependent on another. Bevington asserts, “Shakespeare seemingly manifests a need, as a dramatic artist, to portray women who can either save men from their worst selves… or at least endure for ever in literary art as tokens of a redemptive goodness in the human race” (Bevington 36). Generally, in the Shakespearean comedies of the late sixteenth century, women are often superior and men have many lessons to learn from women (Bevington 40). In The Merchant of Venice, Portia and Nerissa play their roles in accordance with what is expected of them in a patriarchal world, but that is not to say they do not end up in mutually beneficial relationships with men by the play’s end. Men being capable of reform their guided towards enlightenment and redemption (Bryant 86).
Shakespeare, during the late sixteenth century, often included in his comedies a positive, redeeming concept that can be found in the characters of Much Ado About Nothing. The title contains a homophonic pun that eludes most people and was first noted by an eighteenth-century editor, Lewis Theobald, as well as a number of commentators that in Shakespeare’s English “nothing” was pronounced very similar to “noting” (Macdonald 73). Hence, the play is not about nothing at all, as people are likely to suspect from the title; It is “…about no less a crucial topic than the way we go about interpreting and understanding the world and one another, what sort of assumptions are made about the constant flow of information, true, and false, that experience provides” (Macdonald 73). Shakespeare makes Much Ado About Nothing to be about the serious matters of human relationships, especially where courtship is concerned and where a lesson is to be learned as Don Pedro suggests to Claudio, “My love is thine to teach. Teach it but how, /And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn /Any hard lesson that may do thee good” (I.i.285-287). Since Shakespeare’s comedies are often about men and women and their pursuance of each other, many of his redemptive themes are attributed to the problems and potentials of sex and gender. “If Much Ado represents something of an evolution in his thought about courtship, as compared with the earlier Taming,” Bevington says, “then perhaps Shakespeare is thinking his way through to a less paternalistic and less male-dominated idea about men and women” (Bevington 31). Shakespeare’s speculation of a guilty feeling about masculine aggressiveness is seen in many of the comedies he wrote, but it is more so displayed in his idealized portraits of women, such as Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. Her quality of being an ultimately forgiving individual intent on saving Claudio from his obtrusively crass behavior at least fulfills Shakespeare’s need to manifest the idea that men or women need to atone or redeem themselves of something (Bevington 36). Unlike in the Shakespearean tragedy Othello, where Desdemona dies from Othello’s misperception, the accusation of cuckolding attached to Hero by Claudio and Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing does not lead to her tragic end. The friar proposes that her death be faked so Claudio and Don Pedro will perhaps be remorseful and reveal who put such a thought into their minds. At least in Beatrice’s eyes, Benedick’s defense of Hero becomes a redemptive act when he puts aside his misogynistic view of women and his friendship with Claudio to prove Hero’s innocence. With Claudio and Don Pedro’s eyes now open, Claudio remarks “…sinned I not / But in mistaking” (V.i.286-287). Up to the point of their confession, it is difficult to accept their excuses, and Hero’s death in their “mistaking” would take a lifetime to atone for. Dogberry, in a phrase, best describes their atonement by saying that they are “…condemned into everlasting redemption for this!” (IV.ii.59).
Dogberry frequently says what appears to be nonsense, but Shakespeare “…frequently put words of wisdom, intentional or otherwise, into the mouths of children and fools” (Allen 37). Dogberry is undoubtedly a fool and his line seems to be nonsense however it reflects the situation between the other characters. Marriage in that time was a woman’s induction into male society as well as her salvation because it was a fate dictated from birth. Conventional male wisdom lets men think that women are not to be trusted. Since women are responsible for their sins and must prove they can bear the responsibility of upholding honor and reputation, any accusations jeopardize not only themselves but their entire family. Hero is accused of adultery, which confirms what Leonato, Claudio, and the Prince believe already, and the “everlasting redemption” part of the line is referring to the complete moral confusion of the situation. The sense of moral superiority to Hero is touted by Claudio when he says, “But, as a brother to his sister, showed / Bashful sincerity and comely love” (IV.i.54-55). Also, it can be argued further that it is a Christian paradox in which a sinner’s heart becomes a boon that can be applied to Borachio showing signs of going straight after being caught red-handed (Allen 37). Nonetheless, Shakespeare’s idealization of women allows Hero to forgive Claudio and to marry him for a happy ending as well as to compound Shakespeare’s redemptive theme of human relationships.
Redemption plays a recurring role in Shakespearean comedies and is most often showcased through human relationships, as found in the relationship between the two central characters of All’s Well That Ends Well: Helena and Bertram. Although at first independent of and oblivious to each other’s efforts, Helena and Bertram proceed to redeem themselves through each other by the play’s end. They are parallel to each other in the play because of their circumstances and come to depend upon each other after they first prove themselves worthy of their legacies to King Lafew. Once Helena and Bertram finally fulfill their tasks, receiving the distinction they deserve, Helena’s curing of the King grants her Bertram as a husband, although he refuses her. She mistakes him as a prize for her efforts but remains persistent in pursuing him even after realizing this misconception. Bertram has other ideas, however, such as sleeping with Diana, a maid. Helena’s desperation drives her to bribe Diana to switch places with her, becoming pregnant with Bertram’s child and thus fulfilling Bertram’s impossible challenge: “…show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to…” (III.ii.59-60). Although such an action might be considered unbelievable, Bertram forgives her deception and even goes so far as to ask her forgiveness for his perversions. Shapiro states, “Helena’s relinquishing of her claim to be Bertram’s wife and Bertram’s validation of that claim are mutually redemptive acts of love and lead them out of the morass they have made of their own lives and onto the high ground of mutual forgiveness, where they can sustain the nobler parts of their natures” (Shapiro 522). Shakespeare has brought All’s Well That Ends Well to earth by placing the full responsibility of validating their marriage and forgiving each other on the lovers themselves (Bryant 214). Shakespeare also makes it clear that their redemptive acts are actually based on human sexuality. Bertram thinks he is bedding Diana, but Helena’s bed-trick prevents him from circumventing the wedding vows because Christian regulation says that marriage sanctifies the bed. Helena, being legally married to the man she sleeps with and has a child with, would deserve no blame (Bryant 211).
Bertram’s child is the living proof of their marriage bond, which can redeem them both; since love is not exclusively romantic or sexual, children can also be agents of redemption in order to redeem a husband and wife (Shapiro 526). Bertram’s pattern of failure leading up to the bed-trick began as a rebellion against Helena’s desire for marriage and is typical of a youth who wants to be free and independent. In addition, her rank is below his, and he expresses his reservations about marrying Helena by saying, “A poor physician’s daughter my wife? Disdain / Rather corrupts me ever!”(II.iii.126-127). Yet in the scene with Diana, he essentially throws away his honor, but Helena saves him and conceives a child against all hope as a result of the bed-trick, thereby healing both the King and Bertram and becomes deserving of the man she wants (Pearce 84). Their reconciliation as a result of Helena’s having fulfilled the impossible tasks set to her and Bertram having committed to a redeeming relationship reinforces the contemporary morals of Shakespearean society and his own religious views.
Shakespeare’s element of redemption in his plays helps display their similarities between one another as well as demonstrate a humanistic view of mankind. Shakespeare’s redemptive views let his comedies end happily because by the end one character or another has achieved what he or she wanted in the first place. In The Merchant of Venice, Bassanio is redeemed by Portia. In Much Ado About Nothing, Claudio by Hero. And in All’s Well That Ends Well, Bertram and Helena redeem each other. Essentially, Shakespeare makes the ending reachable because his characters are set on a journey to prove themselves and be redeemed for any human folly, which makes a romantic ending realistic as well. Shakespeare’s view of mankind is still relevant and the worlds he has created in The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and All’s Well That Ends Well are not so different from our own today, they are just seen through another lens of time because much of what was seen going on then is still is what is going on now and worth redeeming.