Simple Characters To Blame For Measure Essays: Problem Play

The characters in ‘Measure for Measure’ initially appear to be simple however, as the play unfolds the audience discovers that they are anything but simple. In some ways the characters mirror the play, which is often categorised as a simple comedy but this would be to overlook the un-nerving sense of disquiet at the end of the play and the complex themes of justice, purity, human frailty that Shakespeare explores in the play. In fact, the term ‘problem play’ has become a widely accepted description for ‘Measure for Measure’.

Simple characters are one dimensional but the four major characters, Duke Vincentio, Angelo, Isabella and Lucio, in this play are not in any way simple. They are deeply complex and in this essay I will attempt to show
She apparently suffers no qualms, however, in asking Mariana to share Angelo's bed. She could therefore be perceived as self-righteous and hypocritical, for example, her seeming lack of sympathy for Claudio when he pleads with her to save him by giving in to Angelo's desire. She turns upon him violently, revolted by his weakness and after a scathing speech in which she tells Claudio that he is no true son of their father, she leaves him in a rage, never to speak to him again in the play. Some critics have accordingly compared her to Angelo as they are both proud yet hypocritical characters who do not see any wrong in their own actions but are quick to blame others, for example when Claudio asked Isabella to give up her virginity to save him she was outraged, “O you beast!, O faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch!” Nonetheless, she expected Marianna to do the exact things she refused to
However, Shakespeare also depicts Lucio as the friend of Claudio (a young man had a sexual encounter with woman called Juliet, whom he regards as ‘fast my wife'). In doing this, Shakespeare is able to introduce another side of Lucio's character, quite different from that we see when he is with his ‘low-life' friends. This is shown when Lucio is immediately keen to help Claudio; when Claudio asks for ‘a word with you', Lucio's response is, ‘A hundred - if they'll do you any good'. He also readily agrees to find Isabella and to enlist her help. Then, once in the presence of Isabella (Act I Scene IV), Lucio behaves with respect and acknowledges the seriousness of the situation, as is implied through his passage of poetic language which is dramatically different from his gross sexual puns in the previous scenes, “Your brother and his lover have embrac’d.... expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.” It could be argued that these words are euphemistic, and are Lucio's way of introducing to Isabella a topic which he feels may shock her; he does, after all, want to persuade her to plead for Claudio. Nevertheless, the fact that Shakespeare gives Lucio the capacity for such thoughts, words and imagery shows that he is not merely a jester and a