Measure for Measure: Characters (OCR A Level English Literature)

Revision Note

Sam Evans

Written by: Sam Evans

Reviewed by: Kate Lee

Characters

It is useful to consider each character as representing a function in the play. Understanding Shakespeare’s purpose for each character will help produce sophisticated analysis. Interpreting the play’s ideas by considering how each character may represent an idea or a sub-group in society, and how characters oppose each other or react to each other, is crucial.

Below you will find character profiles of:

Isabella

  • The protagonist, Isabella, represents a young woman who is about to take vows to become a nun:

    • Shakespeare depicts how her chastity gains her respect and status in the city

    • As illustrated throughout the play, female autonomy in Jacobean England was related to a female’s marital and sexual status

    • Isabella repeats the idea that her body is less valuable than her soul, yet maintains that her sexuality is a form of autonomy

    • In this way, her character illustrates discrepancies related to Jacobean standards

  • Her character symbolises purity and goodness:

    • She represents puritanical values pertaining to sexuality

    • She consistently admonishes adultery and unlawful sex

  • She is typical of Shakespeare's comedic protagonists:

    • She is presented as strong and clever, able to show “prosperous art/When she will play with reason and discourse”

    • Her dialogue is sophisticated and passionate 

    • She defies the system, finding autonomy outside of society 

  • Her character is presented as brave as she fights for her brother’s life and her own virtue:

    • Isabella insults both Angelo and her brother, highlighting their hypocrisies and cowardice

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Your exam paper will contain an extract that will hold some significance to the play as a whole. Examiners will always award the highest marks to those students who refer to plot and character beyond just the extract. Think of the extract as a springboard to the rest of the play, and take a whole-text approach to writing your essay.

In practice, this means it is very successful to reference other parts of the play that relate to the extract, and even better if they contrast with the ideas or characterisation that Shakespeare is presenting in the chosen extract. So think: does Shakespeare present this character differently in other parts of the play? Do we see any character development? What ideas is he exploring when showing this contrast? You don’t always need to use quotations to show these changes, with the exam board suggesting that “looking at contrasts and parallels in characters and situations at different points in the text” is just as successful.

Duke Vincentio

  • Duke Vincentio is the leader of Vienna

  • In the exposition, the Duke laments his apparent loss of control over his city

  • The Duke, unwilling to be disliked by his people, places Angelo in charge:

    • He asks him to take control of the city’s corruption and rampant promiscuity

    • Shakespeare presents the Duke as misguided, uncertain about morality 

  • The Duke’s character creates most of the play’s tricks and confusions due to his disguise as a friar:

    • In this role he takes on religious duties which could be perceived as blasphemous

  • In this way, Shakespeare introduces the ambiguities of morality and the influence of religion in Jacobean society

  • His elaborate plans deceive most of the play’s characters, providing dramatic irony:

    • He instructs Isabella and Mariana in a plot designed to redeem Mariana and save Isabella’s virtue

    • He deceives the vulnerable Juliet and Isabella about Claudio’s death

    • He asks for confessions and uses his religious power to offer redemption

  • The Duke represents a flawed man attempting to carry out God’s justice:

    • He is hypocritical, arrogant and concerned too much with others’ opinions of him

  • The Duke’s character raises questions about authority and religion:

    • He delivers dubious and cynical punishments in the play’s resolution

    • In his bid to redeem Mariana he marries her to Angelo, who does not love her

    • He insists Lucio marries a prostitute, which he considers a fate worse than death

  • The Duke’s own deceptions are not mentioned in his final judgement and he receives no punishment of his own:

    • However, Shakespeare leaves this ambiguous

    • It could be argued the Duke is dealt his own justice via the unresolved proposal to Isabella 

Claudio

  • Claudio is the victim of Angelo’s harsh leadership and conveys the theme of injustice:

    • Angelo chooses Claudio to be made an example of in front of Vienna’s citizens

    • His fiancée, Juliet, is pregnant outside of marriage, which is considered unlawful

    • Claudio is shamed for a crime which other characters admit they have also committed, thus introducing the theme of hypocrisy

  • Claudio’s religious values are tested:

    • Although he accepts that he has sinned, he does not want to accept his death

    • His desperation explores the theme of mercy and justice as other characters try to save him

    • As devoutly Christian as he is, the friar is unable to convince him to face death peacefully

  • In the resolution, Claudio is rewarded for his good morals and genuine love for Juliet:

    • The Duke frees them both and they are allowed to marry

Angelo

  • Angelo is introduced as a strict and moral Puritan

  • While he believes in upholding the law, he immediately acknowledges its discrepancies and flaws:

    • His acceptance of this raises questions about the authority and morality of those who deliver justice 

  • Shakespeares uses dramatic irony to reveal Angelo’s true nature to the audience:

    • His harsh punishments are judged and disobeyed, as other characters act out their own justice

    • Other characters discuss his misdeeds behind his back:

      • Audiences are told Angelo abandoned Mariana, his fiancée, due to her lack of dowry after her father’s death

      • He rejects all pleas for mercy from Lucio, the friar (the Duke in disguise) and Isabella

  • Angelo’s character is ironic on many levels:

    • In the rising action, he insists he is fair and asks to be dealt a similar punishment should he ever fall victim to temptation:

      • Shakespeare mocks his arrogant beliefs as Angelo later lusts after Isabella and is exposed as adulterous and corrupt

  • Audiences are exposed to Angelo’s hypocritical moral superiority in Act III when Isabella asks him to be accountable and consult his heart:

    • In response, he tells her his lies are more believable than her truths and threatens to declare her as mad

  • Angelo’s character could be said to receive the measured punishment and mercy which much of the play advocates:

    • Angelo receives what the Duke believes is fair justice in the resolution

    • He is made to marry Mariana and make good on his promise

    • He is not sentenced to death, thus dismissing Angelo’s philosophy of ‘an eye for an eye’

  • Nevertheless, it is not made clear how his position in the city will alter:

    • A cynical interpretation of the resolution could be that Angelo’s character represents continued abuse of power and flawed judicial systems

Examiner Tips and Tricks

Consider characters as serving independent functions which drive the themes of the plot. In Measure for Measure, Shakespeare uses characters to highlight different elements of society, particularly how the characters have a huge influence on each other’s emotions throughout the play.

Lucio

  • Lucio is a gentleman, a friend of Claudio, and immediately speaks on behalf of Claudio: 

    • He persuades Isabella to delay her monastic vows and plead for her brother’s life

  • Lucio’s character represents the voice of the people, flawed yet well-intentioned

  • He is friendly with most characters and is equally comfortable in Mistress Overdone’s brothel and the court

  • His witty language creates much of the light-hearted banter in the play

  • Lucio represents a man beholden to societal standards:

    • He tells Isabella to use her sexuality to persuade Angelo

    • He is desperately afraid of lowering his social status by marrying a prostitute

  • To the audience, Lucio’s sins appear worse than Claudio’s, highlighting hypocrisies in the justice system and societal standards:

    • Claudio and Juliet are to be married but Lucio has abandoned Kate Keepdown (a prostitute) and his own child

  • Lucio’s character is deceived by appearances and this contributes to his punishment in the resolution:

    • Lucio speaks ill of the Duke unaware the ‘friar’ is the Duke in disguise

    • Despite pleading with the Duke that marriage to a prostitute is worse than death, he is made to marry Kate Keepdown

    • Lucio’s dubious marriage is one of the elements which makes Measure for Measure a dramatic comedy

Escalus

  • Escalus is a judicial adviser to the Duke and second-in-command to Angelo

  • It could be argued that the minor role Escalus plays in the court, as well as in the play, alludes to subtle miscarriages of justice:

    • Angelo is presented as young and inexperienced while Escalus is wise and an obvious choice as the Duke’s replacement

    • The Duke trusts Angelo’s reputation rather than his knowledge of Escalus

  • Escalus is a merciful and sensible character who tries to moderate Angelo’s severe actions:

    • He is often described as a foil to Angelo as he issues sensible advice

  • In the resolution, Escalus is thanked by the Duke for his goodness and friendship and promised future rewards, suggesting perhaps his goodness will be recognised

Last updated:

You've read 0 of your 5 free revision notes this week

Sign up now. It’s free!

Join the 100,000+ Students that ❤️ Save My Exams

the (exam) results speak for themselves:

Did this page help you?

Sam Evans

Author: Sam Evans

Expertise: English Content Creator

Sam is a graduate in English Language and Literature, specialising in journalism and the history and varieties of English. Before teaching, Sam had a career in tourism in South Africa and Europe. After training to become a teacher, Sam taught English Language and Literature and Communication and Culture in three outstanding secondary schools across England. Her teaching experience began in nursery schools, where she achieved a qualification in Early Years Foundation education. Sam went on to train in the SEN department of a secondary school, working closely with visually impaired students. From there, she went on to manage KS3 and GCSE English language and literature, as well as leading the Sixth Form curriculum. During this time, Sam trained as an examiner in AQA and iGCSE and has marked GCSE English examinations across a range of specifications. She went on to tutor Business English, English as a Second Language and international GCSE English to students around the world, as well as tutoring A level, GCSE and KS3 students for educational provisions in England. Sam freelances as a ghostwriter on novels, business articles and reports, academic resources and non-fiction books.

Kate Lee

Author: Kate Lee

Expertise: English and Languages Lead

Kate has over 12 years of teaching experience as a Head of English and as a private tutor. Having also worked at the exam board AQA and in educational publishing, she's been writing educational resources to support learners in their exams throughout her career. She's passionate about helping students achieve their potential by developing their literacy and exam skills.