Justice & Mercy in Measure for Measure

Hi there.
I'm really stuck on my English work. Can anybody give me any ideas as to what they think is the most important scene/part in the play that shows justice and mercy.
Thanks
xo

Reply 1

Da Bachtopus

12

The end, where the Duke dispenses justice and mercy?

Reply 2

**noooni**

3

Look at the end. Does the duke really dispense justice and mercy? Does Angelo deserve his punishment? Some critics believe that Angelo's fall had something to do with Isabella's 'deliberate' (debatable) seduction of him as there are hints that indicate this.
Claudio 'in her youth she is a prone and speechless dialect such as move men'
and
Isabella “of keen whips I’d wear as rubies, and strip myself to death as to a bed …longing…body’ notice the language here increases Angelo’s temptation.
And you can follow Angelo' language and pick out the 'turning point' of change in his attitude and blame it on Isabella. Like from 'it is one thing to be tempted another to fall' to 'we are all frail' and 'whats this? whats this? ...until now when men were fond i smiled and wondered how'
So i guess you can defend Angelo and say that he didn’t deserve his punishment, or you can prove that he did by showing his cruel attitude towards Isabella and his weakness as a leader and his misuse of power ('if power change purpose' you can argue it did) and for that he deserved his punishment, maybe he deserved more.

This is only one point.
You can look at Claudio, why was his 'sin' completely forgotten? After all it was the 16th century and something like that while not being reacted to in Angelo's puritan manner, would not have been dismissed.
Why was Lucio's punishment so harsh? He slandered the Duke and there is a parallel here to King James I who was also very harsh on those who slandered his name. But is this punishment fair in comparison to other crimes? Also don’t forget the hypocrisy of the Duke as he is in no fit state to be the judge when he himself was in disguise throughout the play and why didn’t he step back in power after he realised what Angelo was doing?

Vienna is metaphorically diseased in morals and laws (look at act1, scene 2), maybe Angelo was merely enforcing the laws and shouldn’t be punished for being so hard, after all ‘the law hath not been dead though it hath slept’ although he can be seen as a puritan maybe Angelo is a better leader than the Duke as he was strong enough to enforce the laws that the duke could not.
There are soo many points, I have mentioned only a few and feel welcome to ignore my argument in defence of Angelo (I don’t know why but I feel great sympathy for him). You can look at this question in a lot of ways, don’t forget to mention the minor characters like Mariana and the Provost and how they are rewarded at the end.

Oh also- Isabella's marriage to the Duke can be seen as a punishment as she has no voice in the matter whatsoever and after all she was completely intending to become a nun and so a move like this is out of her character. Look at previous thread on the production at the National Theatre on this, where the Dukes proposal was more like a demand, and it was set out as though he was summoning Isabella to their marriage bed- almost like rape. This brings us back to the point of why do we always assume Angelo is the villian and deserves to be punished more than the Duke when he himself seeks Isabella in the same way as Angelo, he gives her no voice and does not resist his temptation.

I have a test on this tomorow so this sis a bit like revision i guess :biggrin:

Ps. Please some tell me why coursework.info keeps answering these posts?! Its really starting to annoy me, they shouldnt advertise on this forum!

Reply 3

stupanico

2

Look at act 2 scene 2 and compare how isabellas and angelos views differ.

Reply 4

Tyler Durden

17

Da Bachtopus

The end, where the Duke dispenses justice and mercy?

It's barely justice and it's mercy tempered with the most blatent of ulterior motives.

Reply 5

Da Bachtopus

12

englishstudent

It's barely justice and it's mercy tempered with the most blatent of ulterior motives.

For the sake of being dismissive and laconic I didn't think I'd qualify.

Reply 6

Tyler Durden

17

Da Bachtopus

For the sake of being dismissive and laconic I didn't think I'd qualify.

I see.

Well, to the OP, perhaps there isn't any genuine mercy or justice in the play. If you have a question about them as a theme, I think it'd be quite valid to suggest that they are lacking.

Justice & Mercy in Measure for Measure

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