A dark and difficult play, Measure for Measure has been a popular
play since the latter half of the 20th century for its prescient
dramatisation of the issues of sexual and political hypocrisy, and the
ways in which the state interferes in the private lives of its citizens.
Set in Duke Vincentio's Vienna, where poverty, disease and prostitution
are rife, Claudio and his fiancée Juliet are arrested for having sex
before marriage, and Claudio is sentenced to death. Angelo, the Duke's
deputy, who stands in for the Duke whilst he ostensibly goes off on a
pilgrimage, enthusiastically endorses the sentence. In fact the Duke
remains behind the scenes, watching Angelo as he falls for Claudio's
sister Isabella, who comes to beg for her brother's life. Angelo is a
wonderful creation, loathsome yet fascinating as he struggles with the
double standards of his enforcement of draconian laws whilst lusting
after the sister of the man he is prepared to execute, debating "The
tempter or the tempted, who sins most?".
No one is spared
Shakespeare's withering look at the mores of early 17th-century life,
not even the pimps and madams who try to get by in the midst of the
Duke's bizarre and coercive disguises and performances. The deeply
ambiguous ending of Measure for Measure confirms it as one of Shakespeare's most ambivalent and arguably despairing plays. --Jerry Brotton
