Measure for measure revision PDF

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Shakespeare Exam revision Measure for Measure Key Moments in the Plot Act I Sc. I: Duke discusses with Escalus his plan to pretend to leave Vienna with Angelo in charge in order to restore order and, equally importantly, put the latter to the test. Sc. II: Comic interlude involving Lucio, Pompey the bawd, Mistress Overdone the brothel keeper; the mood of the scene alters at Lucio’s encounter with the newly arrested Claudio (Lucio’s friend). Sc. III: The Duke seeks the assistance of Friar Thomas to survey developments from behind the scenes in disguise as a priest (Friar Lodowick). Sc. IV: Lucio informs Isabella of her brother’s plight. Act II Sc. I: Justice is seen to be dispensed with regard to Claudio too severely by Angelo and too leniently with regard to Lucio and Pompey by Escalus. Sc. II: Angelo refuses all entreaties, even from the Provost, to go easy on Claudio; Isabella’s first and partially successful encounter with Angelo who agrees to meet with her again. Sc. III: Friar Lodowick meets with Juliet to ascertain her repentance for her sins. Sc. IV: Isabella’s second encounter with Angelo where he bluntly offers her Claudio’s life in exchange for sex. Act III Sc. I: Friar Lodowick meets with Claudio to ascertain his repentance; Isabella’s second meeting with Claudio where she tries to encourage him to accept his fate but he implores her to save him; Friar Lodowick intervenes to encourage Isabella to be show mercy and Claudio to be prepared to die, though hopeful for a reprieve. Sc. II: Friar Lodowick meets with Pompey, Lucio, and Mistress Overdone: this is a semicomic interlude where the Duke is seen to show how these deserve not leniency but firmness; he converses, too, with Escalus to ascertain how the Duke is viewed in his absence.

Act IV Sc. I: Friar Lodowick meets with both Mariana (Angelo’s rejected fiancée) and Isabella; he claims to act in the name of the Duke and shares his plans to substitute Mariana for Isabella in Angelo’s bedchamber. Sc. II: In the prison, preparations are being made for the impending executions (by the appropriately named Abhorson) of Claudio as well as a more deserving criminal named Banardine; Friar Lodowick visits the prison to see whether a pardon for Claudio has been granted by Angelo who eventually sends not a pardon but a confirmation of the order of execution; Friar Lodowick arranges with the Provost to substitute Banardine’s head for Claudio’s and to delay the latter’s execution until the return of the Duke in two days’ time. Sc. III: Friar Lodowick meets with Banardine and determines that he is callous, unrepentant and, thus, fit to die; he informs Isabella that her brother is dead to ascertain her reaction and encounters Lucio who slanders the Duke. Sc. IV: Angelo learns from Escalus that the Duke’s return is imminent. Sc. V: Friar Lodowick meets with Friar Thomas and asks him to ensure that certain letters are delivered. Sc. VI: Mariana and Isabella discuss the rather strange instructions given them by Friar Lodowick and wonder whether he can be trusted. Act V Sc. I: The Duke makes his return; Isabella prostrates herself before him, reveals all and asks for justice; he pretends not to believe her and to side with Angelo, all the while warning Lucio to behave himself as he attempts repeatedly to intervene on Isabella’s behalf by offering ‘smart-alecky’ comments; Mariana enters and reveals that she was betrothed to but spurned by Angelo but the Duke continues to pretend to side with Angelo to whom he entrusts the punishment of the two women; he leaves Escalus to question Lucio concerning the Friar who spurred the women on; the Duke returns as Friar Lodowick and is questioned by Escalus and then Angelo until the scurrilous Lucio removes the priest’s habit to reveal the Duke who then proceeds to sort out matters: he makes Angelo marry Mariana and pretends to sentence him to death to ascertain Mariana’s reaction; he pretends to Isabella that her brother is dead to ascertain whether she regrets being unmerciful; he then spares Angelo from death and reveals to Isabella that her brother was not killed, before proposing to her.

Character Quotes 1. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.” Act II, Scene I. -

It it is spoken by Escalus, a character who makes few appearances in the show. This jarring line reveals one of the themes in Measure for Measure, that power and authority often involves corruption. In the play, Angelo has assumed rule over Vienna, begins to implement strict rules over the population and shows no mercy to those who break them—although he himself has a weak moral compass. When Angelo is warned by Escalus that he is subject to certain vices as well, Angelo replies “‘Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, / Another thing to fall,” to which Escalus retorts back this famous line about sin and virtue.

2. What’s mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.” Act V, Scene I. - This is offered by the Duke to Isabelle towards the end of the play, as he suggests wanting to marry her. 3. “Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure / Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.” Act V, Scene I. - This quote is reminiscent of the old saying, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” In this case, the word “measure” refers to measuring out justice–the title of this play literally means “justice for justice.” 4. Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?” Act II, Scene II. - The famous colloquialism “hate the sin love the sinner” is derived from this quote from Measure for Measure. It presents the moral question of whether or not we should be upset over a misdoing but forgive the person who did it. This quote places humanity, forgiveness and justice at the forefront.

Disguised ruler (Friar Lodwick), a surrogate ruler(Angelo) , a guy (Claudio) punished for getting his fiancée pregnant, Lucio, friend of Claudio), sister (chaste nun), Mariana, girl Angelo proposed too but left because she had no dowry), Escalus (guy that works with the king) Duke has the power to amend Angelo’s rule in Act 5. Whereas, Angelo was a ruler for short time therefore he cannot implement everything. The reasons for the Duke leaving – morally driven

"We have strict statutes and most biting laws, / The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds, / Which for this fourteen years we have let slip" – Vienna is slowly slipping, the law is not working. The Duke affirms this judgment in Act V, when he remarks that his disguised perspective has made him "a looker-on here in Vienna, / Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble / Till it o'errun the stew" -Duke is not an active agent in this situation just the bystander. Only gets involved in the end. -The Duke, it seems, intends to enlist Angelo's "firm abstinence" in bringing Christian morality back to the city (I.iii.12). This is clear in the instructions the Duke gives Angelo before granting him his office: "Mortality and mercy in Vienna / Live in thy tongue and heart. -Perhaps the Duke appoints Angelo to free himself from political responsibility. -Also, the contrast between Angelo’s harsh ruling and the Duke – this might soften his image as a ruler . The Duke is focused on likability not strictness. - The Duke can be interpreted as a complicit member of Angelo's poor governance. E.g. his role in the bed-trick, which dupes Angelo into sleeping with Mariana instead of Isabella. -The Duke, however, glosses over Angelo's grievous crimes—"your evil quits you well"—simply calling on him to marry Mariana. Is the Duke God-like or righteous? -

Duke- “power divine” who has ‘looked upon (the) passes' of his subjects

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The Duke disguises himself as a friar – a man in holy orders with the status of a priest – links him with the idea of divinity. He has heard the confessions of Mariana, and gives spiritual advice to Claudio and Juliet

The Duke's behaviour may well seem deceitful and strange: -

He dresses up as a friar and hears confessions, when he is not a priest and has to ask Friar Thomas (Act I sc iii) not only to lend him a ‘habit', or friar's robe, but to explain to him how to behave as a friar

Friar Thomas rightly points out to the Duke: ‘It rested in your Grace / To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleas'd.'

In fact, not only has the Duke not taken action for many years (fourteen according to his words in Act I sc iii, but nineteen according to Claudio in Act I sc ii), he does not take decisive steps to put the matter right at the end of the play. -Though the Duke deals with Angelo and Lucio, there is no indication that rogues such as Pompey and brothel-keepers like Mistress Overdone will be kept in check -He has exposed the wrongs done by Angelo but never publicly acknowledges his own short-comings as a ruler. Is the Duke right to leave Angelo in charge ? -Ostensibly, the Duke sees Angelo as a man of strict virtue – “Lord Angelo is precise” -

However, the Duke suggests to Friar Thomas that Angelo may not be all he seems, and that power may corrupt him.

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The audience may ask themselves whether it is fair to impose this test on Angelo who, in Act I sc i, points out himself that he feels unworthy: Let there be some more test made of my metal, Before so noble and so great a figure Be stamp'd on it

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When Isabella cries out, ‘But O, how much is the good Duke deceived in Angelo!', he tells her that he is not deceived at all; he has long known of Angelo's treatment of Mariana.

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The Duke doesn’t tell Isabella that her brother isn’t really beheaded until the end. He manipulates everyone around him .

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Part of his motive in leaving Angelo in charge of reinforcing the laws in Vienna, is so that Angelo, rather than the Duke, can face any public outcry. “my nature never in fight to do in slander”.

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No soliloquies for the Duke’s character- so the audience has to come up with their own interpretation of the Duke.

Isabella -

She can be seen as a victim, especially a female victim of male lust and manipulation. But she can also be seen as cold and lacking in human feeling

Isabella – the desire for purity

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She is entering a nunnery where she may never again be alone with a man

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She states that promiscuity is a ‘vice' which fully deserves ‘the blow of justice' (Act II sc ii)

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She is outraged by Angelo's physical demands, which she terms ‘abhorr'd pollution' (Act II sc iv)

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She tells Claudio that she would ‘throw down' her life for his deliverance ‘as frankly as a pin,' (Act III sc i) but that her virginity is far more precious.

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When Claudio pleads, ‘Sweet sister, let me live,' she turns on him in fury

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Isabella's willingness for Mariana to go in her stead to Angelo

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Isabella's failure to reply to the Duke's proposal of marriage at the end of the play may also be interpreted in this way, as a silence of rejection.

Other female characters -

At one extreme is the bawd, Mistress Overdone

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Juliet has enjoyed physical love outside marriage and is paying the penalty; she also bears a child, and by the end of the play, she is married

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Mariana, like Juliet, knows what it is to suffer for love, and by the end of the play she too experiences both sex and marriage

Angelo -

At the start deemed as worthy to be in charge of Vienna by Escalus

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Duke : “Hence shall we see / If power change purpose, what our seemers be.”

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He sees himself as well able to resist temptation: ‘Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. (Act II sc i

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He says that he is perfectly prepared to be judged by the same exacting standards that he imposes on others:

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Justice remarks, ‘Lord Angelo is severe.

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Angelo to Isabella – “ Redeem thy brother /By yielding up thy body to my will;”

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He has been a sinner, but now that he can admit it, and acknowledge that he has human failings to overcome, he can be offered the possibility of salvation.

Lucio – impregnates a prostitute – later the duke asks him to marry her. Not for the moral duty as father but simply because he has insulted the Duke behind his back. Angelo response to giving Claudio the death sentence:

“Let mine own judgement pattern out my death, / And nothing come in partial.” By judging Claudio so severely, Angelo places himself in peril of equally severe judgement. The ‘measure' he metes out to Claudio will be the measure he himself may receive. -

It is not Claudio's reaction to his own offence, but Isabella's, the Duke's and Angelo's which Shakespeare focuses on.

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