Shakespeare's Measure for Measure: Exhaustive Study Guide

Theme of Justice and Mercy in Measure for Measure

  • Composition and Central Theme: Written in 1604, Shakespeare uses Measure for Measure to conduct a focused study on the complex relationship between justice and mercy.

  • Comparison to The Merchant of Venice: Shakespeare had addressed the tension between justice and mercy in The Merchant of Venice, but handled it inconsistently. In that play, Portia demanded mercy from Shylock, yet refused to extend mercy to him once she gained judicial advantage.

  • Consistency of Mercy: Human nature naturally favors showing mercy to those who elicit sympathy, while resisting mercy for those who are despised. In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare pursues the concept of mercy to its ultimate logical limit by offering pardon to the play's primary villain.

  • Critical Reception: Extending mercy to an unrepentant villain creates a deeply uncomfortable situation for audiences and critics alike. Consequently, Measure for Measure is traditionally categorized among Shakespeare's "unpleasant comedies" (or problem plays), alongside All's Well That Ends Well.

Geographical and Historical Settings

  • Literary Source (Cynthius): The setting and foundational plot are adapted from a narrative by Italian writer Cynthius (Giraldi Cinthio). Less than a year prior, Shakespeare drew the plot of Othello from the same story collection.

  • Cynthius' Setting vs. Shakespeare's Shift:

    • Cynthius' tale begins with Roman Emperor Maximian appointing a new judge over the town of Innsbruck in western Austria.

    • Shakespeare shifts the scene from the provincial town of Innsbruck to Vienna, the capital of Austria.

    • Despite the Austrian setting, the play follows Renaissance romance conventions by giving all characters Italian names (e.g., the Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor is named Vincentio, referred to simply as "the Duke").

  • Historical Figures Named Maximian and Maximilian:

    • Emperor Maximian: Co-ruled the Roman Empire alongside Diocletian from 286 to 305 AD. However, the play contains no indications of being set in Roman times.

    • Maximilian I: Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 to 1519.

    • Maximilian II: Holy Roman Emperor who ascended the throne in 1564 and was reigning when Cynthius published his collection in 1565.

    • House of Habsburg: Both Maximilians, like all Holy Roman Emperors after 1438, belonged to the House of Habsburg, who ruled specifically as Archdukes of Austria.

Act I Plot Developments and Character Dynamics

  • Act I, Scene I: The Delegation of Power:

    • Duke Vincentio announces plans to temporarily withdraw from governing and appoints a deputy to wield full state authority.

    • The Duke consults the senior lord, Escalus, who endorses the proposed candidate:

      • Quote: // any in Vienna be of worth / To undergo such ample grace and honor / It is Lord Angela. (Act I, scene i, lines 22-24)

    • Angelo accepts the post reluctantly, after which the Duke departs in extreme haste.

  • Act I, Scene II: Street Life and External Politics:

    • Introduces Lucio, designated in the cast list as "a fantastic"—an avant-garde, extravagantly dressed, witty gentleman-about-town.

    • Lucio discusses international diplomacy with two unnamed Gentlemen:

      • Quote: // the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the King of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the King. (Act I, scene ii, lines 1-3)

    • Historical Context of Hungary:

      • Hungary sits directly east of Austria. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was a powerful kingdom constantly destabilized by a turbulent, feuding aristocracy.

      • Reached its political height under Mathias Corvinus (ruled 1458–1490), who suppressed the nobility, expanded power over Slovakia and Silesia, conquered Vienna in 1485, and established Vienna as his capital.

      • Following Corvinus' death in 1490, weak successors allowed the nobility to regain control.

      • In 1526, the Ottoman Empire invaded and destroyed the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohacs. By 1540, the majority of Hungary was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while the western fringe came under Austrian Duke Ferdinand I.

  • Puritanical Crackdown in Vienna:

    • A wave of puritanism sweeps Vienna, prompting a severe moral enforcement campaign. Long-lapsed laws governing sexual immorality are revived, and suburban brothels are targeted for closure.

    • Claudio, a young nobleman, is arrested for premarital intercourse with his fiancée, Juliet. Their formal marriage had been delayed due to extended dowry negotiations, during which Juliet became pregnant.

    • Angelo enforces the law to its absolute limit, condemning Claudio to execution.

    • Claudio complains to Lucio about the sudden revival of dormant statutes:

      • Quote: Which have, like unscoured armor, hung by th'wall / So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round / And none of them been worn . . . (Act I, scene ii, lines 168-74)

      • Explanation: One complete passage of the sun through the zodiac equals one year; nineteen zodiacs represent nineteen years of non-enforcement.

    • Claudio instructs Lucio to locate his sister, Isabella, who is entering a convent, so she can intercede with Angelo.

  • Act I, Scene III: The Duke's Secret Plan:

    • The Duke reveals to Friar Thomas (a monk) that he has not left the state. Instead, he intends to remain in Vienna disguised as a friar to observe how the moral reform unfolds under Angelo.

    • The Duke deliberately spread a false rumor regarding his destination:

      • Quote: . . . he supposes me traveled to Poland; / For so I have strewed it in the common ear, (Act I, scene iii, lines 13-15)

    • Historical Context of Poland: In the early 17th century, Poland was far larger than today, bordering Austria and former Hungarian territory to the northeast and stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Despite its vast size, its central government was kept weak by an uncontrollable aristocracy.

  • Act I, Scene IV: Lucio's Appeal to Isabella:

    • Lucio finds Isabella at the nunnery before she has taken her final vows.

    • Lucio describes Angelo's cold, unfeeling temperament:

      • Quote: a man whose blood Is / very snow-broth . . . (Act I, scene iv, lines 57-59)

    • Lucio explains that Angelo cannot feel passion or sympathize with human weakness, driving him to enforce a rigid, cruel justice.

    • In the subsequent scene, Angelo rejects Escalus's pleas for mercy and orders Claudio's execution for 9 A.M. the following morning.

Comic Interludes and Historical/Literary Allusions

  • Act II, Scene I: The Trial of Pompey and Froth:

    • Comic constable Elbow arrests Pompey (a servant in a brothel) and Froth (a customer), bringing them before Angelo and Escalus.

    • Pompey offers rambling, indirect testimony that detours into the exact time of the death of Froth's father:

      • Pompey: Was't not at Hallowmas, Master Froth? (Act II, scene i, lines 123-24)

      • Froth: All-hallond Eve. (Act II, scene i, line 125)

    • Etymology and History of Hallowmas and Halloween:

      • Hallowmas (All Hallows' Day or All Saints' Day) falls on November 1, adapting ancient Celtic pastoral festival traditions.

      • Ancient timekeeping (such as Jewish tradition) calculated a 24-hour day as beginning on the preceding evening. Thus, the night of October 31—All Hallows' Eve, All Saints' Eve, or Halloween—was regarded as the primary time for nocturnal spirits.

  • Angelo's Departure and Russia Allusion:

    • Lacking humor and patience, Angelo abandons the trial to Escalus, stating:

      • Quote: This will last out a night in Russia, / When nights are longest there. (Act II, scene i, lines 133-34)

    • Historical Context of Russia in English Thought: In 1553, an English trade expedition led by Richard Chancellor reached Russia via Archangel on the Arctic shore—the only port open to Western sea powers. Archangel lies 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, leading Elizabethans to view Russia as an entirely Arctic nation where winter nights in December and January exceed 23 hours in length.

  • Escalus's Sentence and Caesar Allusion:

    • Escalus lets Pompey and Froth off with a stern warning, cautioning Pompey:

      • Quote: // I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar to you; (Act II, scene i, lines 247-49)

    • Historical Context: Refers to Roman general Pompey the Great and his defeat by Julius Caesar.

Absolute Virtue, Sexual Extortion, and Fear of Death

  • Act II, Scene II: Isabella's Initial Plea:

    • Isabella meets Angelo to request leniency for Claudio, but her own rigid virtue causes her to feel initial aversion toward her brother's offense:

      • Quote: There is a vice that most I do abhor, / And most desire should meet the blow of justice, (Act II, scene ii, lines 29-30)

    • Lucio (who serves as a good-hearted, flawed contrast to Angelo and Isabella's rigid, marble-hearted virtue) prompts her to plead with genuine passion.

    • Isabella delivers a renowned defense of mercy:

      • Quote: No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, / Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe, / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does. (Act II, scene ii, lines 59-63)

    • Isabella's passionate eloquence fails to move Angelo toward mercy, but instead thaws his cold nature by awakening strong sexual desire for Isabella herself.

  • Act III, Scene I: Angelo's Ultimatum and Claudio's Terror:

    • At their second meeting, Angelo offers to pardon Claudio solely on the condition that Isabella surrenders her virginity to him.

    • Isabella unbendingly rejects the bargain, choosing her spiritual and moral purity over her brother's physical life, and goes to inform Claudio.

    • Claudio initially agrees that she should not sacrifice her honor, but panics upon confronting the reality of execution:

      • Quote: 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; and the delighted spirit / To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside / In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice; / To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, / And blown with restless violence round about / The pendant world; or to be worse than worst / Of those that lawless and incertain thought / Imagine howling—'tis too horrible! / The weariest and most loathed worldly life / That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment / Can lay on nature is a paradise / To what we fear of death. (Act III, scene i, lines 118-32)

      • Literary Parallel: Claudio's description of post-mortem torment closely mirrors the visions of the damned in Dante's Divine Comedy.

    • Claudio begs Isabella to yield her body to save him. Isabella responds without sympathy or forgiveness for his weakness:

      • Quote: Die, perish! Might but my bending down / Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed. / I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death, / No word to save thee. (Act III, scene i, lines 144-47)

The Bed Trick and Subplots of Deception

  • The Duke's Countermeasure (Mariana of the Moated Grange):

    • Overhearing the exchange in the prison, the disguised Duke intervenes and proposes the "bed trick" (the same plot mechanism Shakespeare utilized in All's Well That Ends Well).

    • The Duke introduces Mariana:

      • Quote: Have you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great soldier who miscarried at sea? (Act III, scene i, lines 212-14)

      • Historical Context of Frederick: Likely alludes to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (ruled 1152–1190), a powerful medieval emperor who drowned in a river in Asia Minor during the Third Crusade.

    • Mariana was betrothed to Angelo, but when her brother died at sea and lost her dowry, Angelo coldly broke the marriage contract.

    • Under the Duke's plan, Isabella pretends to agree to Angelo's demands on condition of absolute darkness and silence. Mariana takes Isabella's place in bed, binding Angelo legally and morally.

  • Act III, Scene II: Pompey, Lucio, and Slander:

    • Pompey is rearrested for brothel keeping. When he asks Lucio to post bail, Lucio refuses and mocks him:

      • Quote: How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of Caesar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting it clutched? (Act III, scene ii, lines 44-48)

      • Literary and Historical Analysis: Lucio's statement that Pompey was led in triumph behind Caesar's chariot is historically inaccurate, as Pompey died before Caesar's triumph, and Romans did not grant triumphs for victories over fellow Roman generals. Pygmalion (from Ovid's Metamorphoses) was a King of Cyprus who fell in love with a statue he carved, which Aphrodite brought to life. Lucio's phrase "newly made woman" functions as a double entendre referring both to Pygmalion's animated statue and to prostitutes who have just completed a turn and possess cash Pompey could use for a bribe.

    • Lucio approaches the disguised Duke and repeats rumors regarding the Duke's whereabouts:

      • Quote: Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia, (Act III, scene ii, line 89)

      • Historical Context of Tsar: In 1472, Ivan III of Muscovy married Sophia (niece of the last Byzantine Emperor), claimed the imperial throne, and assumed the title Tsar ("Caesar"), which Western Europe translated as "Emperor."

    • Lucio maliciously slanders the Duke to his face, accusing him of gross ignorance, drunkenness, and unbridled sexual lust.

    • Mistress Overdone (proprietress of a bawdy-house) is arrested and informs Escalus that Lucio fathered a child with a prostitute named Kate Keepdown:

      • Quote: Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the Duke's time; he promised her marriage; his child is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob; I have kept it myself . . . (Act III, scene ii, lines 202-5)

      • Explanation: Apostles St. Philip and St. James (whose Hebrew name is Jacob) are commemorated together on May 1. "Come Philip and Jacob" signifies "next May 1."

Prison Complications and Moral Pedagogy

  • Act IV, Scene II: Angelo's Treachery and Barnardine:

    • The bed trick is executed successfully. However, fearing exposure if Claudio lives to speak, Angelo breaks his promise and orders Claudio's execution alongside an unrepentant murderer named Barnardine.

    • The Provost describes Barnardine's origin:

      • Quote: A Bohemian born, but here nursed up and bred; (Act IV, scene ii, lines 133-34)

      • Historical Context of Bohemia: Westernmost Slavic region of Europe (modern Czechia). Reached its golden age in the 14th century under King Charles I (Holy Roman Emperor 1347–1378). Ruled by Hungary after 1462, and incorporated into the Habsburg realm following the Ottoman victory in 1526.

  • Act IV, Scene III: Execution Substitution and Isabella's Grief:

    • Barnardine has been imprisoned nine years for murder, but because he is heavily intoxicated and unprepared for death, the Duke refuses to execute him.

    • A pirate named Ragozzine dies of fever that morning in prison. Because his appearance closely resembles Claudio, his severed head is sent to Angelo instead.

    • The Duke conceals Claudio's survival from Isabella, informing her that Claudio was executed. Isabella reacts with rage:

      • Quote: O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes! (Act IV, scene iii, line 121)

    • Purpose of the Duke's Deception: Having witnessed Isabella's harsh condemnation of her brother's fear of death, the Duke lets her experience grief so she can learn the true meaning of justice and mercy.

The Denouement, Biblical Foundations, and Ultimate Mercy

  • Act V, Scene I: Public Unmasking:

    • The Duke formally returns to Vienna. Isabella and Mariana publicly accuse Angelo of extortion and murder. The Duke pretends to disbelieve them and orders them detained.

    • Lucio falsely claims the Friar slandered the Duke. When the Duke returns disguised as the Friar, Lucio physically pulls off his hood, revealing the Duke's identity to the assembled court.

    • The Duke pardons Escalus for ordering the Friar's arrest, forces Angelo to marry Mariana immediately to preserve her social standing, and pardons Isabella for her prior disrespect toward his religious guise.

  • Ethical and Biblical Foundations of "Measure for Measure":

    • Returning as a married man, Angelo receives sentence from the Duke:

      • Quote: "An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!" / Haste still [always] pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; / Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure. (Act V, scene i, lines 412-14)

    • Old Testament Tradition: Leviticus 24:19-20 (Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth) represents an early attempt to limit retaliation to proportional compensation.

    • New Testament Rejection and Retention: In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explicitly rejects strict retribution (Matthew 5:38-39: resist not evil). However, later in the same sermon, Jesus states: Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again (Matthew 7:1-2).

    • This Gospel passage provides the title of the play and frames its central philosophical dilemma.

  • Isabella's Final Test of Mercy:

    • Mariana begs Isabella to kneel alongside her to plead for Angelo's life. Although Isabella believes Angelo successfully executed her brother, she kneels and speaks:

      • Quote: I partly think / A due sincerity governed his deeds, / Till he did look on me. / Since it is so, / Let him not die, (Act V, scene i, lines 448-51)

    • This moment fulfills the core moral lesson of the play: true mercy must be granted to enemies who have caused harm and do not evoke natural sympathy.

    • Claudio is revealed alive, and Angelo is pardoned.

  • Lucio's Sentence and the Duke's Self-Forgiveness:

    • The Duke easily pardons those who committed crimes against others, but struggles to forgive Lucio, who slandered the Duke personally.

    • The Duke initially sentences Lucio to marry Kate Keepdown, followed by whipping and execution.

    • When Lucio complains that forced marriage to a prostitute is worse than execution, the Duke remits the physical punishment:

      • Quote: Upon mine honor, thou shalt marry her. / Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal / Remit thy other forfeits. (Act V, scene i, lines 521-23)

    • The play concludes with the Duke proposing marriage to Isabella.