The tone of Measure for Measure blends seriousness and comedy in accord with its status as a “problem play” or “tragicomedy.” At times, the tone of the play is tense and serious, befitting the high stakes of the plot and the weighty moral questions that it raises. When Claudio is sentenced to death for impregnating his beloved out of wedlock, for example, the language is tense and difficult as Claudio and his sister discuss their conflicting needs and values. In a speech that is often compared to the famous “to be or not to be” speech in Hamlet, a tragic play, the imprisoned Claudio dwells solemnly upon the topic of death:
Ay, but to die, and go we know not where,
To lie in cold obstruction and to rot,
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod
In this speech he compares the “warm motion” of his own, still-living body to the stationary “clod” of a dead body. His morbid reflections touch upon death both as an abstract concept and also as a physical experience, establishing a dark tone in this scene.
On the other hand, there are moments of comedic relief in the play that stand in stark contrast to those scenes that meditate upon such heavy topics as death, justice, and mortality. Pompey Bum, for example, is a “pimp” and comic character who deflates the otherwise serious tone of the play. Even when he has been imprisoned, he is unable to take his situation seriously, continuing to make light jokes despite the potentially grave circumstances.
