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Unequal Measure
As T.F. Wharton discusses in his book Measure for Measure, Shakespeares play by the
same name is to be seen as a moral experiment drama, a category popularized during the
Jacobean period. In this type of play, the main character or characters, presumably specifically
the Duke in Measure for Measure, "seek to find out if innocence is a reality or a fraud; and so, in
actual moral experiments, they devise ways to test their own innocence and that of others (57).
Following in this vein of thought, the concluding scene of the play should therefore be examined
with a primary focus on the Dukes actions. After his theatrical return to the dukedom, the Duke
passes four key rulings: he forces Angelo to marry Mariana, he forces Lucio to marry a
prostitute, he forces Isabella to marry himself, and he pardons Claudio. Cedric Watts, in outlining
a Christian parable reading of the play, suggests "'The Duke's sense of human responsibility is
delightful throughout: he is like a kindly father, and the rest are his children'; he is 'automatically
comparable with Divinity' (119)." Yet, curiously his four rulings, though perhaps satisfactory to
the audience on some emotional level, do not show a father-like or an illuminated leader.
The Duke shows his belief, following the traditional logic of a traditional patriarchal
society, that women are subservient to men in his public exchange with Mariana:
Duke: What, are you marryd?
Mari: No, my lord.
Duke: Are you a maid?
Mari: No, my lord.
Duke: A widow, then?
Mari: Neither, my lord.

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Duke: Why, you are nothing then (V.i.190-197)
This short dialogue shows that women in this society are defined in large part by their
relationship to a man. From this male centered view of the world, it becomes difficult to follow
the Dukes logic for forcing Angelo to marry Mariana. The man, the important one in this
relationship, is unwilling and thus Marianas side of the equation, in which her emotional lost
dowry story is logically placed, is irrelevant. Angelo is free, under the morals of the society, to
reject a woman as he pleases. By forcing the marriage, however, the Duke is clearly working
against the norm he himself projects by, in a sense, taking the womans side. The marriage
clearly only benefits Mariana, for it is hard to phantom she would find a husband, without a
dowry to her name, otherwise.
In stark contrast to his aid to Mariana, the Duke publically forces Isabella to marry him.
Prior to her dealings with Angelo and the Duke, she was planning on entering a life of celibacy
in the sisterhood. At no point during the play do we see a change in her attitude toward marriage
no expression of a desire to abandon her original plan. Furthermore, all of Isabellas encounters
with the Duke prior to his proposal have been at times when he was disguised as a friar, leaving
her without any experience with the true man on which to base an opinion.
Combined, the two marriages show the Duke to be inconsistent in his rulings. Mariana
benefits in the first and he in the second. Neither gender is shown a preference. Even judging the
characters simply as good or bad does not provide a pattern. Mariana, though not necessarily
bad, really cannot be classified as good either. Because she plays such a minor role, there is little
textual evidence, aside from the fact that she was willing to help Isabella, from which she herself
also greatly benefited, on which to base an opinion. This inconsistence suggests the Duke is not
utilizing any over arching moral guide in his decision making.

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The third forced proposal, Lucio and his prostitute, when compared to Claudios pardon,
exposes yet a third puzzling part to the conclusion. Both men committed, from a purely physical
stand point, the same act; they premarital impregnated a woman. The Duke, at the beginning of
the play, explains to Friar Thomas that the reason he transferred power to Angelo was because
we have strict statutes, and most biting / laws / which for these nineteen years we have let
sleep; / Even like an oergrown lion in a cave, / that goes out not to prey (I.iv.302-307).
Angelos dealings with Madam Overdone, Pompey, and Claudio, suggest the Duke was talking
about the need to clean up sex in his dukedom. Therefore, why should one man be punished for
his actions, for surely marrying a prostitute is just that, while the other is pardoned from his
punishment? The Duke has only just returned but he is already acting in the manor his trip was
designed to eradicate, but only with Lucio, and only as far as to say a punishment was given. The
law of the land, the audience is to presume from the previous scenes, states Lucio should die.
Fitting all of the mismatched pieces of the conclusion together ultimately requires a
departure from a moral objectivism, a view suggested by the title of the play. Instead, everything
comes together is only the Duke, rather than balance, is placed at the center. He involves
Mariana in order to assure Isabella remains free from Angelos grasp. Claudio must be pardoned
in order to appease the Dukes new fianc. And lastly, Lucio, though unintentional, insulted the
Duke to his face, something the rulers pride could not let go unpunished. Ellis-Fermor suggests
that in reality there is no character [in the play] who is not suspect, and those whose claims to
goodness or decency seem most vigorous are precisely those in whom meanness, self-regard, and
hypocrisy root deepest (Schanzer 72). While this statement is a bit more broadly condemning
than this essay is suggesting, its criticism is certainly relevant to the Duke. From this cynical

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view, the expression measure for measure becomes little more than tongue and cheek, for
moral balance cannot exist in such a society governed by selfishness.

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Works Cited
Schanzer, Ernest. The problem plays of Shakespeare: a study of Julius Caesar, Measure for measure,
Antony and Cleopatra. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Shakspere, William. Measure for Measure. Print.
Watts, Cedric Thomas. William Shakespeare, Measure for measure. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986.
Print.
Wharton, T. F. Measure for measure. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1989. Print.