Measure for Measure Act 5
Comments(4) The Duke enters, greets Angelo and Escalus, and thanks them for their service. Friar Peter brings Isabella forward, and she asks the Duke for justice. He lets her talk about her story and after she finishes speaking, he seems he cannot believe her. Angelo tries to interrupt while she is speaking, but she continues, calling him “an adulterous thief, an hypocrite, a virgin-violator.” Duke thinks that Isabella’s madness seems oddly reasonable, so he tries to find out the truth. And he finally finds out that Isabella begged Angelo to free her brother, but he said she needed to have sex with him to free him. She did eventually and gave up her virginity, but Angelo did not free Claudio and ordered his execution finally. However, the Duke cannot (does not) believe her at all, and he orders her sent to prison. After Escalus summons Isabella and with Lucio’s suggestion, the Duke’s overarching plan has been revealed. Escalus orders the disguised Duke imprisoned, and the Duke asks the provost not to cooperate. At Angelo’s behest, Lucio hurls insults and removes the disguised Duke’s hood, revealing the Duke’s true identity.
Angelo’s regret and shame are clear in this scene with his request for a death sentence. Also his earlier confessions of torment and his quick admission of guilt makes him a slightly more sympathetic character. However, the Duke does not listen to him and he orders to marry Mariana, and the Act 5 ens with Duke’s speech commending the characters’ virtue and hoping for a pleasant married life with Isabella.
I believe this conclusion brings a typical “marriage plot” resolution to the play and allows justice to be served, besides that Angelo is granted. Many of people might think that it is in many ways an appropriate “measure for measure” penalty for Angelo, but I don’t agree with them. I thought even though he has been punished by having to suffer the shame of what he had done, it is not enough. Consequently, he tried to destroy one’s happy marriage under the name of measure, which I think not fair enough.
It’s not a surprise that Angelo is the villain in Measure for Measure however the punishment that was handed down by the Duke for Angelo’s wrongdoings did not fit the crime. In this act we see the Duke reveal himself from the friar costume and Angelo and Lucio realize they are in hot water for what they have done. Angelo repents and begs for death while Lucio blames the “trick” for incriminating him. I think the Duke handed down the most severe punishment to Lucio because he did not repent for slandering the Duke as Angelo had begged to end his humiliation. I think that Angelo got the least severe punishment (marrying Mariana) and was spared death because he only intended to have Claudio killed and to have sex with Isabella. Isabella herself begged the Duke to spare Angelo saying “thoughts are no subjects, Intents but merely thoughts”. I agree that Angelo got off easy because he intended to have Claudio executed and intended to have sex with Isabella. However, in his own mind he had done these things so it is just as bad as committing the actual crime. I think the Duke let him off easy because he only intended to do these things but fell short of accomplishing either one.
It’s interesting that a lot of our “villains” in these plays don’t get an “appropriate measure for measure penalty” like you want. As “punishments” for either murder or intents to murder, Shylock gets his fortune taken away, Iago probably goes to jail, Leontes supposedly feels guilty for sixteen years, and Angelo gets married off to a woman he doesn’t want to marry (I can’t decide if this is slightly misogynistic – POOR MARIANA – but that’s a different conversation altogether.) I guess it makes us question the difference between seeking to avenge and revenge, and whether our desire for the death penalty or capital punishment just speaks to our twisted blood-thirsty sense of justice.
I think Angelo did get the right punishment. I admit that at first I thought it would have been fair for him to die the same way he had condemned Caludio to die. However after seeing how desperately Angelo wanted death it began to look increasingly preferable to have him live because he would suffer more in life than by a quick death. There is no physical torture but Angelo will have psychological torture along with depression and suicidal thoughts but never being able to kill himself as that would be considered a sin and I agree with sarah POOR MARIANA stuck with a depressed guy that doesn’t love her. Mariana didn’t accept being a widow because she was blinded by love. I still think it would have been fair for Mariana to be a widow and be entitled to all the money and possessions that Angelo had because Angelo left her because her dowry had sunk and been lost. But then again I don’t think the Duke was ever serious about killing Angelo because he knew Mariana would refuse the offer. The Duke did this either to make it more dramatic and spectacular and wait until the “last moment” up to the point where Isabella and Mariana are both on their knees pleading for Angelo to be spared, very much like his revelation as the Duke in his disguise as a friar where he first called Isabella and Mariana “crazy’ before being revealed by Lucio, or to show off his mercy to impress Isabella and make it easier to propose to her as well as have a greater chance of receiving a positive answer. It might be both things actually because I can’t take the Duke seriously. I feel like the only reason he proposed to Isabella was to show off to Angelo with the notion of “ha! I have what you wanted and what you can never have!” This is probably further punishment for Angelo, which is to constantly see the woman he desired in the arms of the Duke. I feel bad for Isabella because she just turned into a trophy wife. Isabella even comes with a story to boost any man’s ego…”I made a woman who almost turned into a nun marry me!”. Yes nuns, the ultimate challenge, making a chaste woman change her priorities from religious to domestic spheres. I confess the proposal surprised me but looking back at the Duke’s actions he was a complete control freak and seemed to pretend to play “God” by listening and seeing everything, which means eavesdropping and spying on the people of his kingdom. The Duke wants to fix things a certain way but he can’t do that as “The Duke”. Nope he has to disguise himself as a friar while invading everyone’s privacy and coming up with elaborate plans. Although Lucio’s punishment is the harshest one that the Duke sentences, which is marrying a whore and being hanged, it essentially serves as comedic relief because Lucio first cries out, “I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a/whore” (5.1.517-518). Lucio is more concerned with being a “cuckold” instead of being a dead man. This ties in to what we talked about in class about the Duke being the puppet master. Lucio’s death is not serious and the play ends with marriages with the mastermind being married with the impossible girl-an almost nun Isabella. This seems more like a fanboy’s dream where everything goes his way and he gets rid of anyone who annoys him or gets in his way.
I really liked this play. I thought that it was refreshing for things to work out slightly differently than it would have in one of Shakespeare’s more conventional plays, such as “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” It acts, to a certain extent, as a satire of his own work, in that the character who plays the role of the “fairy” (the Duke) is imperfect in satisfying everyone else. The Duke fails to wrap everything nicely the way someone like Puck does. I also enjoy that the marriages are not just satisfactory to everyone, but that there is a feeling of a lack of resolution. It feels more realistic, and it also is a good way to fool audience who’ve grown accustomed to a certain style.