Gospel according to Matthew- "Measure for Measure"

The Duke himself notes the difference between style and reality as he speaks about his deputy Angelo, who appears to be the perfect deputy and the disciplined (even puritanical) character (Act I, Scene I). Noting Angelo's character, the Duke similarly questions the integrity of his inner and outer worlds: Lord Angelo is precise; stands at a retain with envy; scarce confesses that his blood flows, or that his appetite is more to bread than st peerless: "hence shall we see, If index change purpose, what our seemers be" (Act I, Scene III). Angelo ultimately proves to be a seemer, one whose statements of virtue and self-control do not couplet his behavior. However, to call him a hypocrite misses the mark. He is as move at his lust as anyone else, at least at its onset, and he questions his moral status at first. His virtue had everlastingly been quite real for him, and his slide into sin catches him off guard (Act II, Scene IV).

When Angelo finds himself lusting after Isabella, he exclaims with surprise,

What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or tap? The tempter or the tempted, who sins most? Ha! Not she: nor doth she tempt: exclusively it is I That, lying by the violet in the sun, Do as the carrion does, not as the flower, Corrupt with virtuous season. go off it be That modesty may more betray our mother wit Than woman's lightness?

Having waste ground enough, Shall

ISABELLA And have you nuns no farther privileges?

fairish as individuals experient their own total depravity, so too did the body politic. The integral city of Vienna had become corrupted, naturally, because the Duke had failed to execute his office properly. Just as a garden will go to stinker if not tended, the social fabric will tend to hightail it without care.

The inability of the law to deal with the inner life of individuals reveals the limitations on social rectification of any authority in the state. That is, one can legislate coerce morality, but one cannot thereby create a moral or upright person. Finally, the Duke cannot do what he wanted to do: establish a moral order in Vienna.

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