Critics of Measure for Measure

Question 1

George Brandes

Answer 1

A tragi-comedy

One feels throughout, even in the comic episodes, that Shakespeare’s burning wrath at the moral hypocrisy of self righteousness underlies the whole structure like a volcano, which every moment shoots up its flames through the superficial form of comedy and the interludes of obligatory merriment.

Question 2

Augustus William Schlegel

Answer 2

[Isabella] is a very angel of light

This piece takes its name improperly from punishment: the true significance of the whole is the triumph of mercy over justice

Question 3

Manganello

Answer 3

Each of the worlds encodes the other (Isabella, Angelo and the Duke’s world vs. Pompey and Lucio’s world)

Question 4

Shanser

Answer 4

No one achieves anything except the Duke

Question 5

Coleridge

Answer 5

painful
Hateful work
the pardon of Angelo not merely baffles the strong indignant claims of justice (cannot be forgiven) but is likewise degrading to the character of women

Question 6

Leavis

Answer 6

Angelo is the major victim of the Duke’s experiment (aimed to maximise his worst potentialities) - he is a victim of the discrepancy between an ideal and the actual. Angelo is better qualified for the part of tragic hero than MacBeth.

No play is more removed from ‘morbid pessimism’ that Measure for Measure

The resolution is ballet-like in its patterned formality and mastery of stage craft

Question 7

Knight

Answer 7

discomfort

‘admitted unsatisfactoriness’

Question 8

Irene McGarrity

Answer 8

We are not allowed to escape our humanity in Measure for Measure. We run right up against it.

The vacillation between liberty & restraint exist in all the major characters in Measure for Measure.