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

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

• Duke Vincentio

• Claudio

• Angelo

• Lucio

• Escalus

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

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

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