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Measure For Measure
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Themes
Earthly and Divine Justice
Throughout Measure for Measure, Shakespeare explores the problems with earthly forms of justice in the city of Vienna, and points out the incongruities between this earthly justice and divine, Christian justice.
The laws of Vienna are meant to prevent immoral behavior, but Duke Vincentio points out that they have not been properly enforced, leading to the proliferation of brothels in the suburbs. He laments that:
We have strict statutes and most biting laws.
The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,
Which for this nineteen years we have let slip;
Even like an o’ergrown lion in a cave,
That goes not out to prey (I.3.309-313).
Vincentio’s language draws upon the natural behaviors of animals in the wild, implying that his subjects are like horses in need of taming or like “weeds” in need of pruning while the ruler is like a “lion” meant to inspire fear. This metaphor indicates that laws are a way to civilize and tame the animalistic side of humans. However, strictly enforcing the laws does not solve the problem either, as these wild impulses still exist and cannot be eradicated from human nature. While Angelo begins harshly punishing those guilty of premarital sex, he is himself guilty of soliciting that same vice. As the plot develops, Shakespeare suggests that laws meant to govern an earthly city will not align with heavenly laws meant to govern human souls, creating the potential for injustice, paradox, and abuse.
Christian justice, in contrast, entirely disregards worldly life in favor of salvation. Vincentio, in disguise as a friar, urges Claudio not to worry about his impending execution because his immortal soul is more important, telling him, “This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot; / Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven” (IV.3.2250-2251). Since Claudio’s eternal salvation is more important than his temporal mortal life, Vincentio urges him not to worry about seeking revenge against Angelo. However, Vincentio later realizes the problem with this perspective: Men are often executed by civic law before they have the chance to repent and save their immortal souls, resulting in damnation.
Isabella’s perspective on divine justice offers another option. While Isabella is also more focused on her salvation than on her worldly life, she encourages Angelo to emulate the behavior of Christ when he executes justice. Christ redeemed those who were sinners, she argues, observing that “all the souls that were forfeit once; / And He that might the vantage best have took / Found out the remedy” (II.2.834-836). Unlike Angelo, who strives to punish sinners with death, Christ found a remedy for their souls instead.
The conclusion of Measure for Measure equates earthly and divine justice once Vincentio resumes his role as duke, suggesting that the civic order of Vienna is back in alignment with Christian morality. When Angelo admits that he did try to coerce Isabella into sex, his legal confession in court mirrors the way in which a sinner might confess to God:
O my dread lord,
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your grace, like power divine,
Hath look’d upon my passes. Then, good prince,
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession:
Immediate sentence then and sequent death
Is all the grace I beg (V.1.2786-2794).
Angelo refers to Vincentio as a divine power and Shakespeare includes terms like “confession” and “grace” that have both a civic and religious meaning. Terms like “your grace” were a common and proper form of address for a duke, but “grace” also meant the mercy shown by God through the death of Christ, which redeemed human souls even when they were undeserving. Through this final plea, Angelo indicates that Vincentio embodies both earthly and divine justice once he returns, resolving the tension of the play.
The Problem of Hypocrisy
One of the central conflicts of Measure for Measure is the inevitability of hypocrisy by those tasked with enforcing strict moral laws. Shakespeare primarily explores this notion through the character of Angelo, who is introduced as a man of extremely strict morality who avoids all temptation, but eventually succumbs to the same sexual desires that he is seeking to regulate in others. Through this contrast between Angelo’s past morality and his decline into sin, Shakespeare suggests that no mortal can completely resist sin because desire is an inescapable aspect of human nature. Therefore, hypocrisy is inevitable when mortals enforce moral laws.
Before Angelo propositions her for sex, Isabella warns him that his recent crusade against fornication in Vienna puts him at risk of hypocrisy. While Angelo has shown her no outward sign of lust, Isabella reminds him that this quality is innate in every man. She cautions him against executing Claudio, telling him:
Go to your bosom;
Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
That‘s like my brother‘s fault: if it confess
A natural guiltiness such as is his,
Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Against my brother’s life (II.2.903-908).
If Angelo feels the same temptations that led Claudio to impregnate Juliet before marriage, Isabella suggests that he ought to show mercy. If Claudio is executed for sex outside of marriage, Angelo will either have to seek his own death when he commits the same offense or become a hypocrite. Hypocrisy is framed as a more significant sin than simply breaking a moral law. When Vincentio discovers that Angelo is attempting to coerce Isabella into sex, he condemns him by saying, “twice treble shame on Angelo / To weed my vice and let his grow!” (III.2.1778-1779). Hypocrisy doubles Angelo’s shame, increasing his risk of punishment once his crime is exposed.
While Isabella and Vincentio warn against and condemn hypocrisy, the character of Lucio adds a troubling addendum to their perspectives. While Lucio is a comedic character, he is also representative of how common vice has become in Vienna. He also argues that fornication should not be so harshly penalized by the law, but adds that it may be impossible for human institutions to ever successfully curb vice because of the natural appetites of the body. He says of lust: “[I]t is impossible to extirp / it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put / Down” (III.2.1612-1614). Lucio’s suggestion plays into early modern concepts of medicine, which taught that diet impacted fluids in the body, called the four humors, impacting personality as well as illness. By this logic, the appetite for food and the appetite for sex are physiologically interdependent, meaning that lust cannot be eradicated until humans no longer require food for sustenance. This puts Vienna’s government in an impossible position, as the law will never be able to eliminate the cause of fornication.
The Miraculous Nature of Mercy
The conclusion of Measure for Measure restores the social order of Vienna, but it does so without the need for violent retribution. The title of the play suggests that crimes must be punished in a manner equal to the harm caused in order to keep society in balance. While Vincentio seems prepared to carry out this retributive form of justice, the persuasive power of women opens up another option. Mercy is portrayed at the end of the play as miraculous—a way to transmute faults into virtues. While this might appear both impossible and irresponsible, a form of injustice that could have dangerous consequences, Shakespeare connects mercy to the Christian concept of a miracle in order to present a possible solution to the conflicts between civic laws, heavenly justice, and human nature.
In Isabella’s first confrontation with Angelo, Angelo dismisses the idea of mercy by presenting it as a form of injustice. He considers the negative social consequences of leniency and thus argues that showing mercy to Claudio would harm more people than letting him go. When Isabella encourages him to show pity to her brother, he retorts:
I show it most of all when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss’d offence would after gall;
And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
Lives not to act another (II.2.864-868).
Angelo prioritizes the health of society over the survival of an individual, suggesting that Claudio might continue to enact harm if he were free from consequences. However, Angelo’s logic does not account for the cause of Claudio’s sin. Claudio committed fornication with his fiancée, whom he did eventually intend to marry after she raised the money for a dowry. He is unlikely to ever sin in this way again and his crime could be easily corrected by requiring him to marry Juliet immediately. Angelo’s lack of consideration for individual motivations and circumstances invalidates his argument.
At the end of the play, Mariana and Isabella’s plea that Vincentio show mercy to Angelo disrupts the rationality of his punishment, but this is framed as miraculous rather than a form of injustice. The fact that mercy is shown by the two characters who were both personally wronged by Angelo adds to the miraculous nature of the moment. Furthermore, Shakespeare ascribes mercy as a virtue particular to female characters, contributing to the play’s Christian allegory. If Vincentio is like God, then Mariana and Isabella symbolically evoke the Virgin Mary, who was sometimes thought to intervene on behalf of those who prayed to her. The Virgin Mary also gave birth to Christ, whose redemption of undeserving humanity disrupted the divine equation of punishment.
Allegorically, then, Mariana and Isabella’s plea for Angelo gives birth to mercy within Vincentio, miraculously bringing forth the possibility that a sinner can avoid punishment through divine grace. Mariana justifies this by framing redemption as a miraculous paradox. She persuades Vincentio that Angelo’s faults should not condemn him to death because they can actually help to make him into a better person: “They say, best men are moulded out of faults; / And, for the most, become much more the better / For being a little bad: so may my husband” (V.1.2872-2874). Mariana’s logic transcends the rational logic of measurements and payments, suggesting that awareness of one’s own faults and fragility can actually make someone into a better and more compassionate person.
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By William Shakespeare
