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

Themes

Having a thorough grasp of the following themes, and crucially, how and why Shakespeare explores these themes will enable you to produce a “conceptualised response” in your exam. Linking carefully to the structure of the plot and what we know about the attitudes of the time period will give you access to the very highest marks on the mark scheme.

• Appearance and reality

• Gender and sexuality

• Justice 

• Religion and virtue

Appearance and reality

Measure for Measure explores the idea that things are not always what they seem and people are not always who they profess to be. Although the audience is aware of who is who and what tricks and disguises are being played out on stage, the characters often are not. Dramatic irony helps highlight the theme of appearance versus reality as characters’ hypocritical beliefs are exposed with ironic and humorous effect.

Knowledge and evidence: 

• The Duke's disguise as a friar impacts other characters throughout the play:

  • He tricks Lucio into insulting the Duke ‘behind his back’

  • His plans to switch Isabella with Mariana, and a criminal’s head for Claudio's, are pivotal plot points

  • Dressed as a friar, the Duke makes religious pleas on behalf of desperate characters, forgives confessions and uses his power as a religious figure to deceive

• Angelo is reputed to be a good and noble citizen of Vienna yet is shown to be immoral and hypocritical

• Measure for Measure presents characters who are perceived to be something they are not:

  • Mistress Overdone is perceived as sinful, yet cares for illegitimate children

  • Lucio and Angelo are not the gentlemen they present themselves to be

• Isabella’s social power, which lies in her devoutly religious status in the city, is shown as her vulnerability as well

What is Shakespeare’s intention?

• Shakespeare challenges ideas about appearances by showing how easily they can deceive

• He highlights hypocrisies regarding identity and reputation

• Shakespeare comments on falseness and deception as a cause of suffering 

• Shakespeare explores delusions, especially in relation to morality and perceptions of virtue

Measure for Measure as a tragi-comedy

Knowledge and evidence:

• The play is in the form of comedy, however it has dark and cynical elements

• Isabella is the comedy’s heroine: brave and with genuine goodness

• Typical of a comedy, Shakespeare ends Measure for Measure with three marriages: 

  • A convention of comedy is to resolve earlier complications with a marriage:

    • Claudio and Juliet are reunited at the end

    • Mariana and Kate Keepdown are redeemed in the eyes of the city

• However, this play is also known as a “problem play” or tragi-comedy:

  • The Duke acts as a deus ex machina, controlling the plot and contriving marriages at the play’s conclusion

  • Marriage is used as a punishment for characters who have mistreated women:

    • Angelo is made to marry Mariana despite his evil character 

    • Lucio is forced against his will to make good with Kate Keepdown

    • Ironically, Isabella never accepts the Duke’s proposal

  • In this way, the play’s tone is more cynical than other comedies

• Typical of a comedy, much of the plot revolves around disguise and tricks which reveal characters’ true natures 

• Measure for Measure reveals hypocrisies, mocking characters for their delusions and satirising hypocrisies in society

• Measure for Measure follows conventions of a Shakespearean comedy as the witty dialogue makes use of double entendre and puns:

  • Pompey and Lucio provide much of the light relief in this dark play

Patriarchal structures in Renaissance England

Knowledge and evidence: 

• The patriarchal system in Renaissance families advocated that women were not equal to men:

  • Respect and status was earned via patriarchal definitions of female sexuality 

• The patriarchal structure at the time advocated that men should supervise women economically, sexually, legally, and politically:

  • The play shows a number of female characters abandoned by respected male characters

  • Mistress Overdone, with little social status as a brothel owner, cares for the illegitimate children of more powerful men

• In Measure for Measure, Isabella chooses to join a convent and become a nun in a bid to gain autonomy and avoid the male gaze:

  • Isabella’s sexuality is her sole power, yet it marginalises and endangers her

  • She is asked to trade it for her brother’s life by the Duke’s stand-in, Angelo

• Juliet, pregnant and isolated in prison for unlawful sex, is presented as extremely desperate in the hands of a deceitful friar and the evil Angelo

What is Shakespeare’s intention?

• Shakespeare shows how Jacobean women gain respect for their virtue, but also have it used against them 

• Shakespeare challenges societal norms in Renaissance culture which advocated for sex to take place solely within marriage

• Shakespeare raises questions about female autonomy within patriarchal societies

Gender and sexuality

In Measure for Measure, female characters are limited in some way by their male peers. Any autonomy they are able to achieve is as a result of chastity or marriage. Female sexual power is presented simply as bartering power; it can be exchanged for better social circumstances. The play ends ambiguously, asking audiences to question the imbalance of gender relations. 

Knowledge and evidence: 

• Isabella’s decision to join a convent is presented as a way for her to maintain personal agency:

  • Isabella sees her chastity as a way to independence, to express herself and “play with reason and discourse” 

  • Shakespeare illustrates the way women sought control over their lives:

• In Act I Scene IV, Isabella shows she is aware of her limited autonomy: “My power? Alas, I doubt —”

• Isabella’s power as a sexually attractive woman is made clear when Angelo and Claudio ask her to give up her chastity to save her brother’s life:

  • She says, “more than my brother is my chastity”

  • Claudio mentions “there is something in her voice that moves men”, implying that she has the power to persuade a man with her sexuality

  • Her determination to maintain control over her body portrays her defiance against the societal expectations:

• However, Shakespeare illustrates how powerful men, such as Angelo, can break contracts with impunity:

  • He is not held accountable by his peers, highlighting a gender imbalance 

• Isabella’s clever dialogue makes her the heroine of the play:

  • Her wise comments on gender show her to be sensible, a feature of Shakespeare’s female characters

  • Isabella explains that Angelo respects her for her chastity yet is willing to take it carelessly: “men their creation mar/In profiting by them”  

• The Duke controls events in his position as friar and deceives vulnerable women:

  • He instructs Mariana to deceive Angelo

  • He tells Isabella her brother is dead when he knows he is not

  • He deceives the pregnant Juliet in her time of crisis 

• Mariana is portrayed as a despondent and desperate character, abandoned by Angelo and isolated by an unconsummated marriage 

• Isabella and Mariana seek retribution in their scheme to work together against Angelo:

  • Nevertheless, Mariana and Isabella's actions are out of necessity and under instruction by the Duke

• In the resolution, Mariana earns respect in the eyes of the city through her marriage to Angelo:

  • The marriage, however, is a punishment for Angelo, which diminishes Mariana’s identity further 

• Juliet is the victim of oppressive and hypocritical patriarchal structures, separated from Claudio, her fiancé, pregnant and imprisoned for the crime of adultery:

  • In Act II Scene III, the Duke, disguised as a friar, tells Juliet “then was your sin of heavier kind than his” and asks her to repent or be punished

  • Juliet is ashamed of her actions, yet the audience see how unjustly she is treated by male counterparts who are equally guilty

• Mistress Overdone and Kate Keepdown are portrayed as exploited and the subject of crass jokes:

  • They are portrayed to the audience, however, as virtuous despite their casual attitude to the laws of the city

  • Mistress Overdone cares for illegitimate children 

  • Kate Keepdown has been abandoned by Lucio 

• Isabella's lack of power is satirised at the end of the play when the Duke, who has tricked her throughout, proposes to her and expects her to be grateful:

  • Her lack of reply closes the play, leaving the question of her autonomy ambiguous 

  • It has been suggested her voice has been diminished by the end

• At the end of the play, the Duke resolves all the city’s problems with marriage:

  • Isabella is the only character who has maintained her chastity and Shakespeare shows this as her only power at the end of the play 

What is Shakespeare’s intention?

• Shakespeare challenges gender constructs, portraying them as unjust and hypocritical 

• Shakespeare illustrates the complexities regarding female autonomy in patriarchal systems 

• Shakespeare challenges traditional expectations of marriage and sexuality as a form of agency

Justice

The title of the play suggests its themes of justice; the phrase “measure for measure” refers to an idiom which suggests individuals inevitably get what they deserve. The play explores the idea of justice outside of the law by presenting moral characters who are shamed for outdated crimes and morally superior characters who fall from grace. The play raises questions about who delivers justice and how it is defined. In this way the play explores hypocritical aspects of justice within man-made legal systems. 

Knowledge and evidence: 

• In the exposition, Shakespeare introduces characters who believe too much liberty leads to immoral acts:

  • The Duke believes that "liberty plucks justice by the nose"

  • Claudio is ashamed of his adulterous relationship, declaring that too much freedom leads to a lack of restraint: “surfeit is the father of much fast”

• Shakespeare's use of irony encourages the audience to laugh at the characters’ hypocritical actions:

  • The Duke’s reluctance to appear harsh and be liked by the citizens of Vienna is the catalyst for Shakespeare’s ironic presentation of the delivery of justice 

  • By handing power to the reputable yet merciless Angelo, the Duke unwittingly sets in motion the play’s great injustice

• Shakespeare demonstrates how laws can be manipulated by flawed leaders:

  • Angelo condemns Claudio to death for his unlawful sex outside of marriage

  • Lucio says he has “picked out an act”, referring to an ancient law used to make an example of Claudio

• Through the character Escalus, a judge, Shakespeare conveys the relationship between mercy and justice:

  • He attempts to moderate Angelo’s punishments 

  • He argues that “some rise by sin and some by virtue fall”, raising questions about Angelo’s abuse of power and the innocence of those condemned

• Through Isabella, Shakespeare explores the relationship of conscience and justice:

  • She asks Claudio and Angelo for mercy on her soul 

  • She believes her soul to be more valuable than her life

  • She asks Angelo to ask his heart to guide him

• Shakespeare explores the theme of justice and personal moral code, as characters do not conform to the laws they live under:

  • When it is deemed unjust by the citizens of Vienna they disobey Angelo

  • For example, the provost suggests they substitute Claudio’s head for Ragozine’s head

• In the resolution, the Duke hands out punishments which he believes fit the crime, referring to the title:

  • His decision not to mete out the same punishment to Angelo as he delivered Claudio ends the play, with the Duke advocating for mercy

  • His line “Haste still pays haste, and leisure, answers leisure;/Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure” suggests the characters have finally received justice 

What is Shakespeare’s intention?

• Shakespeare comments on the danger of outdated and hypocritical laws

• Shakespeare’s cynical use of marriage as a punishment mocks societal attitudes to virtue and sin

• Shakespeare explores the idea of punishment according to the crime

• Shakespeare highlights ideas relating to mercy and forgiveness

Religion and virtue

Measure for Measure explores discrepancies between religious definitions of sin and moral virtue. The play advocates for mercy over hypocritical standards of behaviour. Shakespeare presents characters with misguided interpretations of virtue based on religious philosophies. The play shows how morally good characters are punished by their own conscience, while those who are evil can only be punished by laws. In this way Shakespeare poses questions about the true nature of Godliness and virtue. 

Knowledge and evidence: 

• The title of the play alludes to a scripture from the bible: “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you”: 

  • The play explores the scripture’s principles of justice, mercy, truth and peace

• The play is set in Vienna, a city ‘corrupted’ by immorality:

  • This is represented, in particular, by the Duke’s concern over its rampant prostitution

  • However, the prostitutes are presented as vulnerable to characters who act immorally   

• Shakespeare’s plays often raise questions about the legitimacy of religious codes and presents religion as well-meaning yet problematic:

  • The friar represents a well-intentioned yet flawed man of God

  • At the time the play was written religious dissent was rife

• The play challenges those who use religious authority immorally with the ironic presentation of the Duke disguised as a friar:

  • The Duke uses this disguise to access the social power of a friar

  • His abuse of religious power deceives characters in crisis while trying to help them

  • He asks for confessions, offers salvation, deceives the vulnerable and asks characters to deceive others in a bid to achieve what is morally right

• The play challenges rules of the Protestant Reformation:

  • In particular, via Angelo, the play explores fallibilities within Puritanism

  • Isabella represents the religious sentiments of the time as she values her chastity and obeys the strict moral codes of Puritanism

  • Isabella's desperation to hold on to her religious values is depicted as a dilemma

  • She is made to question her devotion to God as she seeks to show mercy and save her brother’s life while giving up her “soul”

• Shakespeare’s ironic ending suggests Angelo’s tyrannical rules regarding sex and marriage come back to him in the form of punishment for his false religious standards 

What is Shakespeare’s intention?

• Shakespeare challenges religious codes of conduct which are insincere and merciless 

• Shakespeare presents dichotomies between rules and genuine compassion

• Shakespeare comments on falseness and deception as immoral 

• Shakespeare explores the power and influence of religion on society