Measure for Measure Themes Flashcards
The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice i.i The Duke
Justice
The nature of our people, Our city’s institutions, and the terms For common justice i.i The Duke
Justice
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
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)
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
Mortality and mercy in Vienna Live in thy tongue and heart i.i The Duke to Angelo
Justice vs morality, virtue vs vice
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
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
the morality of imprisonment i.ii Lucio
Liberty vs constraint, virtue vs vice
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
the dribbling dart of love i.iii The Duke
Desire vs absitnence
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
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
Liberty plucks Justice by the nose i.iii The Duke
Justice and punishment vs mercy
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
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
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
a man whose blood Is very snow-broth i.iv Lucio about Angelo
Desire vs abstinence, liberty vs constraint, emotion vs reason
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
‘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)
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
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
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
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
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
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
