ABSTRACT
Shakespeare’s plays often have purity problems. In Hamlet , the hero is appalled by his mother’s sexual life, while Ophelia hints at the loss of her virginity as she loses her mind. In Measure for Measure , Angelo attempts to enforce a law against fornication while being tempted into offering an exchange of Isabella’s virginity for Claudio’s life. In All’s Well That Ends Well Helena manages to consummate her marriage while her husband thinks he is visiting a prostitute. It is no coincidence that these are three of the four ‘problem plays’ discussed in E.M.W. Tillyard’s (1949) well-known book. The fourth, Troilus and Cressida , has a different sort of purity problem: everything there is pervaded by sexuality and tends towards purity’s opposites, fi lth, corruption and disgust. This chapter considers the link between ‘purity’ and ‘problem’, and how these plays work with, and test, their audiences’ responses to both.
