The black lines are the new additions and the red lines are already there in the previous answer.
Angelo :
Measure for Measure is a play which has a complex and major concern about human behaviour and the regulation and governance of it. Everything related to the proper handling of mortal life and afterlife comes under its purview : justice, mercy, law, humanity, governance and religion. It is mainly through the problematic situation and the complex characterization that Shakespeare brings about this real life dilemma. Jonathan Price rightly claims that Shakespeare “creates his most interesting characters by making them difficult to categorize.”Shakespeare’s brilliant characterization and the witty treatment of justice and mercy give the play its universal and eternal appeal.
The main feature of Shakespeare’s characterization in Measure for Measure is the expression of psychological insight and the inner conflict within every character. The conflict is between appearance and reality, between justice and mercy. If the Duke and Isabella represent mercy and virtue, Angelo symbolises hypocrisy and the obsession with justice and law. Before leaving Vienna, the Duke instructs Angelo about his new responsibilities.. He also reminds him that “Morality and mercy in Vienna / Live in thy tongue and heart”. But Angelo becomes so obsessed with morality and bookish justice that he ignores mercy totally. It is not Claudio’s genuine love for Juliet or his adverse situation but his pre-marital consummation that concerns Angelo. Even he replies to Isabella’s eager plea : ” It is law, not I, condemned your brother”. Thus he eliminates the human association and turns justice into a dehumanized bundle of rules.
But the hypocrisy of Angelo comes to the fore when he starts misusing his authority to attain personal profit. Isabella pleads to Angelo in the name of mercy but Angelo doesn’t understand what Portia did : ” And earthly power doth then show likest God’s || When mercy seasons justice…” (The Merchant of Venice). Angelo’s desire overcomes him and he abuses his authority to offer Claudio’s life in exchange for Isabella’s virginity. Instead of public welfare, he utilises his post to torture the subjects. Thus, Angelo’s merciless rule of law mockingly fails to execute justice, and therefore ends up in a despotic and corrupt government.
But his character cannot be described with the single term of hypocrite. Angelo is, at least initially, a responsible and strict judge devoid of corruption. When the Duke offers him the role of deputy, he meekly asks for “some more test made of my metal”. His degradation starts with the awakening of his desire for Isabella. Horrified at his own corruption, he orders Claudio’s execution to convince himself that not only he but Claudio is also guilty. His lust proves that his virtuous pretenses fall short to his human fallibility : “heaven in my mouth…And in my heart the strong and swelling evil”. His behaviour is vile as a whole, but initially he struggles hard to control his lust and at the end also he accepts a dire justice for him : “When I, that censure him, do so offend, || Let mine own judgment pattern out my death”. Like Bosola( Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi), Angelo also suffers not only from the misdeeds but also from the self consciousness of the guilt. He is not a cynical villain like Iago, but a self-deceiving extremist who ultimately fails.
Thus Shakespeare’s art of characterization in this play exposes the hidden reality beneath the superficial justice and mercy, governance and misrule. It is this complexity of situation for which the play is called a problem play. Perhaps it is the playwright’s suggestion that no human being but God can be the perfect justice giver and human beings should balance between law and mercy to attain equality and justice.
Isabella :
Measure for Measure is a play which has a complex and major concern about human behaviour and the regulation and governance of it. Everything related to the proper handling of mortal life and afterlife comes under its purview : justice, mercy, law, humanity, governance and religion. It is mainly through the problematic situation and the complex characterization that Shakespeare brings about this real life dilemma. Jonathan Price rightly claims that Shakespeare “creates his most interesting characters by making them difficult to categorize.”Shakespeare’s brilliant characterization and the witty treatment of justice and mercy give the play its universal and eternal appeal.
The main feature of Shakespeare’s characterization in Measure for Measure is the expression of psychological insight and the inner conflict within every character. The conflict is between appearance and reality, between justice and mercy. If Angelo represents extreme merciless law, Isabella symbolises Christian ideals of mercy and divine justice. Isabella is a novice nun about to enter the order of Saint Clair. She is considered virtuous anonymously as even a rogue like Lucio heralds her ” as a thing ensky’d and sainted “. She is not only a devout Christian but also as bright in her intellect as Portia. Angelo feels that she speaks with “Such sense that my sense breeds with it”. It is not only her feminine flesh which stirs his lust but also her unavoidable personality since he didn’t feel attracted by the prostitutes but this virtuous maid ” subdues” her.
The tension between idealism and morality abounds in the character of Isabella. She begins her pleading to Angelo for her brother’s life by expressing her conflicting feelings of disgust for the crime and love for the man: ” There is a vice that must I do abhor… For which I would not plead, but that I must “. Angelo asks Isabella to surrender her virginity in exchange for her brother’s life. She becomes trapped between sisterly affection and chastity, between the purity of afterlife and the necessity of mortal life. She ultimately decides to save her soul at the cost of her brother’s life. But this again raises the problem about her choice : the priority between virginity and brother’s life. Her final tense silence symbolises the struggle between social power and individual freedom and the marriage proposal from the Duke reinforces the very alignment of sexuality and masculine power she has been trying to challenge. But her Christian virtue is the part and parcel of her character since at the end she pleads for Angelo who gave his brother the death sentence.
But if we examine closely, subtle flaws will come to our notice. Like Angelo’s obsession with law, Isabella also overemphasizes virginity and ignores a greater Christian virtue of compassion. While denying Angelo’s offer, she uses strongly sexual metaphors of stripping and longing-sick bed. She won’t engage in lovemaking herself but readily agrees to sacrifice Marian’s virginity. Therefore she can be called the alter ego of Angelo and both of them undergo their self-discovery at the hand of the “deus ex machina”, Duke Vincentio.
Thus Shakespeare’s art of characterization in this play exposes the hidden reality beneath the superficial justice and mercy, governance and misrule. It is this complexity of situation for which the play is called a problem play. Perhaps it is the playwright’s suggestion that no human being but God can be the perfect justice giver and human beings should balance between law and mercy to attain equality and justice.
Epic and tragedy :
The great classical philosopher and critic, Aristotle gives his ideas about various kinds of poetic art in Poetics. He emphasizes mostly on tragedy but also mentions comedy and epic and his comparison between epic and tragedy is worth literary and critical attention.
Except for the differences, the genres of epic and tragedy are similar in that both of them are in verse and imitate “characters of a higher type”. Epic is narrative in form and uses chiefly the Alexandrian metre but tragedy can use more than one metre and is dramatic in form. Length is a prime difference since epic action has no limits of time while ” Tragedy endeavours, as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun”. Epic presents life as a whole – both with its smiles and laughter and falls and rises – but tragedy presents only the sombre side of life. That’s why all tragic elements are found in an epic but all epical elements are not found in a tragedy. In an epic, many actions can be presented simultaneously because of the narrative form. But in tragedy, only one action can be presented by one actor at a time on the stage. The digressions and interpolations in an epic divert readers’ minds and relieve the monotony of the action. But the sameness of action produces satiety for which tragedy fails on the stage. Since a tragedy is to be acted on stage and an epic is to be read, a tragedy must stick to reality unlike the epical licence of imagination. The Homeric ” art of telling lies skilfully” is approved in epic tradition but a tragedy must prefer “probable impossibilities” than “improbable possibilities”. A tragedy has no irrational plot, while wonderful absurdity like the pursuit of Hector “passes unnoticed” in an epic.
John Locke :
John Locke was one of the most influential English philosophers, empiricists, Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the ” Father of Liberalism”. His works affected the development of political theory and epistemology and influenced Voltaire, Rousseau and the American revolutionaries.
Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. Arguing against the Cartesian idea of man’s innate knowledge of logical proportions, Locke posits an “empty” mind,or a tabula rasa, which is shaped by experience – both through sensations and reflections. He believed that all humans were created equally free and therefore governments needed the consent of the governed. He also advocated governmental separation of powers and believed that revolution is not only a right but an obligation in some circumstances. Unlike Hobbesian absolute monarchy, Locke’s political theory was founded on social contract theory. He argues that property is a natural right and it is derived from labour and the labour expended in the creation of goods gives them their value. His other notable ideas are religious tolerance, supply and demand theory and value and price theory. Two significant works of Locke are Two Treatises of Government (1689) and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding( 1690).
Sonnet 116 : ( delete the bold lines for shortage of time)
The above-mentioned line has been taken from the sonnet number 116, one of the most anthologized Shakespearean verse along with sonnet 18 and 130. The above-mentioned lines signify that true love doesn’t change with the passage of time since it is based on intrinsic values and emotion, not external glamour. It continues until the end of the existence itself – the doomsday.
Similar to the syllogistic pattern of thesis-antithesis-synthesis in Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress”, Shakespeare proceeds to define true love on the basis of what it is and what it is not. After declaring real love to be “the marriage of true minds” to which no impediments can be admitted, the poet says that real love never “alters when it alterations finds”, neither it “bends with the remover to remove”. True love is not bothered if the lover or any favourable circumstance changes. It is “an ever fixed mark”- not some inconstant passion to be swayed now and then, but as steadfast as the the polestar. True love is never misled by tempest-like hazardous situations in life. Rather, it is considered the unchallenged guide of human life. Thus love emerges as the ever constant passion irrespective of change in time and space.
But the statement is ironic since the poet himself has altered his love and made it “Time’s Fool” after finding alteration in his beloved’s beauty. His love has become “a never fixed mark” instead of “an ever fixed mark”. So the poet’s own degradation in love becomes quite exposed in later sonnets : ” To bitter sauces did I frame my feeding” or ” Drugs poison him that so fell sick of you”( sonnet 118).
