Measure for Measure Themes Flashcards by Rachel Lory

The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice i.i The Duke

Justice

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The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice i.i The Duke

Justice

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The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice you’re as pregnant in As art and practise hath enriched any That we remember i.i The Duke

Justice, sexual imagery

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Lent him our terror, dress’d him with our love, And given his deputation all the organs Of our own power i.i The Duke

Power (and how power corrupts), Justice and punishment, (terror), mercy (love)

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Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, ‘twere all alike As if we had them not i.i The Duke to Angelo

Appearance vs reality, public vs private, virtue vs vice

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Mortality and mercy in Vienna Live in thy tongue and heart i.i The Duke to Angelo

Justice vs morality, virtue vs vice

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Let there be some more test made of my metal, Before so noble and so great a figure Be stamp’d upon it. i.i Angelo

Power, authority

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Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint? CLAUDIO From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: i.ii Lucio and Angelo

Liberty vs restriction, virtue vs vice

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the morality of imprisonment i.ii Lucio

Liberty vs constraint, virtue vs vice

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Or whether that the body public be A horse whereon the governor doth ride, Who, newly in the seat, that it may know He can command, lets it straight feel the spur; i.ii Claudio about Angelo

Power and how power corrupts, justice vs mercy

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the dribbling dart of love i.iii The Duke

Desire vs absitnence

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We have strict statutes and most biting laws. The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds, i.iii The Duke

Justice and punishment vs mercy, liberty vs constraint

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Now, as fond fathers, Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children’s sight For terror, not to use, i.iii The Duke

Justice and punishment vs mercy, liberty vs constraint

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Liberty plucks Justice by the nose i.iii The Duke

Justice and punishment vs mercy

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Your brother and his lover have embraced: As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time i.iv Lucio about Claudio

Liberty vs constraint, desire vs abstinence

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That from the seedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foison i.iv Lucio about Claudio

Desire vs abstinence, sex as a natural part of human nature that can’t be legislated out of existence

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even so her plenteous womb Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry i.iv Lucio about Claudio

Desire vs abstinence, sex as a natural part of human nature that can’t be legislated out of existence

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a man whose blood Is very snow-broth i.iv Lucio about Angelo

Desire vs abstinence, liberty vs constraint, emotion vs reason

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We must not make a scarecrow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch and not their terror. ii.i Angelo

Justice and punishment vs mercy, power

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‘Tis very pregnant, The jewel that we find, we stoop and take’t Because we see it; but what we do not see We tread upon, and never think of it. ii.i Angelo

Pragmatic justice vs idealised justice (mercy), equality in how we deal with crime and punishment (measure for measure)

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Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall: Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none: And some condemned for a fault alone. ii.i Escalus

Equality in how we deal with crime and punishment (measure for measure), virtue vs vice

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For which I would not plead, but that I must; For which I must not plead, but that I am At war ‘twixt will and will not. ii.ii Isabella

Justice vs mercy

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There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire should meet the blow of justice; ii.ii Isabella

Virtue vs vice, justice vs mercy

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No ceremony that to great ones ‘longs, Not the king’s crown, nor the deputed sword, The marshal’s truncheon, nor the judge’s robe, Become them with one half so good a grace As mercy does. ii.ii Isabella

Power, justice vs mercy, compassion vs strength

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Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven With less respect than we do minister To our gross selves? ii.ii Isabella

Justice vs mercy, compassion vs strength

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept: ii.ii Angelo

Justice vs mercy, power, liberty vs constraint

now 'tis awake Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet, Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils, Either new, or by remissness new-conceived, And so in progress to be hatch'd and born, Are now to have no successive degrees, But, ere they live, to end. ii.ii Angelo

Justice vs mercy, power, liberty vs constraint

We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: ii.ii Isabella

Justice vs mercy, equality in how we deal with crime and punishment (measure for measure)

She speaks, and 'tis Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare you well. ii.ii Angelo

Reason vs emotion, desire vs restraint

Can it be That modesty may more betray our sense Than woman's lightness? ii.ii Angelo

Virtue vs vice, reason vs emotion, desire vs constraint

O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint, With saints dost bait thy hook! ii.ii Angelo

Virtue vs vice, liberty vs constraint

Heaven hath my empty words; Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue, Anchors on Isabel ii.iv Angelo

Virtue vs vice, appearance vs reality

Heaven in my mouth, As if I did but only chew his name; And in my heart the strong and swelling evil Of my conception. ii.iv Angelo

Virtue vs vice, appearance vs reality, liberty vs constraint

Let's write good angel on the devil's horn ii.iv Angelo

Virtue vs vice, appearance vs reality

Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image In stamps that are forbid ii.iv Angelo

Sex as a natural part of human nature that can't be legislated away, liberty vs constraint, desire vs abstinence

to redeem him, Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness As she that he hath stain'd? ii.iv Angelo

Virtue vs vice, justice vs mercy, power

lawful mercy Is nothing kin to foul redemption. ii.iv Isabella

Justice vs mercy, virtue vs vice

we are soft as our complexions are, ii.iv Isabella

Power vs powerlessness, strength vs temptation

now I give my sensual race the rein: Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite; Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes, That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother By yielding up thy body to my will; ii.iv Angelo

Desire vs abstinence, virtue vs vice

Bidding the law make court'sy to their will: Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite, ii.iv Isabella

Power vs powerlessness, virtue vs vice

There is a devilish mercy in the judge, iii.i Isabella

Justice vs mercy

If you'll implore it, that will free your life, But fetter you till death. iii.i Isabella

Virtue vs vice, justice vs mercy, liberty vs constraint

That I should do what I abhor to name iii.i Isabella

Virtue vs vice

Sweet sister, let me live: What sin you do to save a brother's life, Nature dispenses with the deed so far That it becomes a virtue iii.i Isabella

Liberty vs constraint, virtue vs vice

The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good iii.i The Duke

Appearance vs reality - no difference between the two in this case (unusual in the context of the play)

A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him: iii.ii Lucio

Virtue vs vice

O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! iii.ii The Duke about Angelo

appearance vs reality

'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm To make bad good, and good provoke to harm. The Duke Act I Sc IV

Virtue vs vice

Come, let us go: Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow. The Duke Act IV Sc I

Link to Lucio's horticultural metaphor about Juliet's pregnancy - sex as a natural part of human existence

Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the scale. Provost Act IV Sc II

justice motif (scales)

As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour Claudio Act IV Sc II

Virtue vs vice

When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended, The Duke Act IV Sc II

Virtue vs vice, justice vs mercy

he hath evermore had the liberty of the prison Provost on Barnadine Act IV Sc II

Liberty vs constraint

I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of profession Pompey Act IV Sc III

Virtue vs vice

I am directed by you. Isabella to the Duke Act IV Sc III

Power

the old fantastical duke of dark corners Lucio on the Duke Act IV Sc III

Appearance vs reality

I am a kind of burr; I shall stick. Lucio Act IV Sc III

symbolic of sexuality in the play and the way in which it is impossible to eradicate

His actions show much like to madness Angelo Act IV Sc IV

Appearance vs reality

To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, When it deserves, with characters of brass, A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time And razure of oblivion. The Duke to Angelo Act V

Metaphor, prison imagery

given me justice, justice, justice, justice! Isabella Act V

Repetition, key motif

O worthy duke, You bid me seek redemption of the devil Isabella Act V

Juxtaposition

That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange? That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange? That Angelo is an adulterous thief, An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; Is it not strange and strange? Isabella Act V

Parallel structure, rhetorical questions

the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute As Angelo Isabella Act V

Comparative, appearance vs reality

make the truth appear where it seems hid, And hide the false seems true Isabella to the Duke Act V

Paradox

He would not, but by gift of my chaste body To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Isabella Act V

Metaphor (gift)

if he had so offended, He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself The Duke to Isabella Act V

Metaphor, justice motif

DUKE VINCENTIO ## Footnote What, are you married? MARIANA No, my lord. DUKE VINCENTIO Are you a maid? MARIANA No, my lord. DUKE VINCENTIO A widow, then? MARIANA Neither, my lord. Act V

Paradox

As there comes light from heaven and words from breath, As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, I am affianced this man's wife as strongly As words could make up vows Mariana Act V

Similes, parallel structure

Let me in safety raise me from my knees Or else for ever be confixed here, A marble monument!

Metaphor, link to Angelo who is described by the Duke as "a marble to her tears"

instruments of some more mightier member Angelo Act V

Metaphor

'Cucullus non facit monachum:' Lucio Act V

Epithet (the hood does not make the monk) - appearances vs reality

women are light at midnight Lucio Act V

Paradox, pun

Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? The Duke Act V

Metaphor, juxtaposition, imagery pertaining to power hierarchies

the duke Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he Dare rack his own The Duke Act V

Comparative, dramatic irony, parallel structure

I have seen corruption boil and bubble Till it o'er-run the stew The Duke Act V

Metaphor

the strong statutes Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, As much in mock as mark. The Duke Act V

Similes, sibilance, alliteration

I love the duke as I love myself. The Duke Act V Sc I

Parallel structure

When I perceive your grace, like power divine, Hath look'd upon my passes. Angelo Act V Sc I

Simile

The very mercy of the law cries out Most audible The Duke Act V Sc I

Metaphor

I am sorry, one so learned and so wise As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd, Should slip so grossly Escalus Act V Sc I

Parallel structure, intensifiers