Abstract

This study analyses the Shakespearean tragicomedy Measure for Measure through Hanns Sachs’ psychoanalytical reading. First, by bringing the author closer to the figure of the dreamer, artistic creation is compared to a daydream, a shared reverie, according to what Sachs called mutual daydream. Then, some key concepts of the play will be analysed in the terms postulated by Sachs, that will allow the understanding of Shakespeare’s aim to restore an order. Therefore, the ending would confirm the intrinsic need of human nature to find the right balance between one’s own internal conflicts and the demands of external reality, while at the same time trying to reaffirm one’s internal law, which necessarily longs for a measure to put an end to the disorder typical of a tragedy.