Analysis

To help you look at any scene in Measure for Measure and interrogate it, it’s important to ask questions about how it's written and why.

Shakespeare’s plays are driven by their characters and every choice that’s made about words, structure and rhythm tells you something about the person, their relationships or their mood in that moment. You should always try and ask yourself, like actors do, why is the character saying what they are saying or doing what they are doing? What is their motive?

Just like detectives, we need to look for clues to help us answer those questions each time, and here you can find some techniques we use to analyse text, introduced by the actors that use them.

  • Analysing Angelo's language

    Angelo has a spotless reputation for being ‘strait in virtue’ (Escalus, 2:1) and ‘A man of stricture and firm abstinence’ (Duke, 1:3). From the very beginning, Angelo shows no patience or mercy with lawbreakers and we hear him argue severely how the law must make examples of them. However, this changes dramatically in Act 2 Scene 2, when he meets Isabella. Angelo is immediately tempted by her and, when left alone, reveals a disturbing inner struggle in a soliloquy.

    In the next video, Mark Quartley shares some of the things he looks for to help understand how a character is feeling in a speech. The example he is using is a monologue from The Tempest but you can look for the same clues in Measure for Measure.

    Can you find examples of Angelo’s emotional struggle in his soliloquy?

    Using Mark’s techniques, look at Angelo's speech in Act 2 Scene 2 and explore what you notice about the:

    • Imagery
    • Metre
    • Word choice
    Isabella
    Save your honour.
    Exeunt ISABELLA, LUCIO & PROVOST
    Angelo
    From thee: even from thy virtue.
    What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault, or mine?
    The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha?
    Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I
    That, lying by the violet in the sun,
    Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
    Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
    That modesty may more betray our sense
    Than woman’s lightness? Having wasteground enough
    Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
    And pitch our evils there? Oh fie, fie, fie,
    What dost thou or what art thou, Angelo?
    Dost thou desire her foully for those things
    That make her good? Oh, let her brother live:
    Thieves for their robbery have authority
    When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her
    That I desire to hear her speak again
    And feast upon her eyes? What is’t I dream on?
    Oh cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
    With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
    Is that temptation that doth goad us on
    To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet
    With all her double vigour, art and nature,
    Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
    Subdues me quite. Ever till now
    When men were fond, I smiled, and wondered how.
    Does.
    Decayed flesh.
    Poison the innocent spring.
    Arouse desire.
    Promiscuity.
    Demolish.
    An expression of disgust and outrage.
    What are you doing?
    Sinfully.
    Are excused.
    Gaze into.
    Does
    Move, urge.
    Prostitute.
    Both the learned skills of seduction and natural charms.
    Young virgin.
    Overwhelms.
    Infatuated.
    Exit

    Questions to consider

    If you are able to read along you will also notice the punctuation and where each line ends. This soliloquy is written in verse, like a poem. Ask yourself:

    • Are there lines or parts of the speech that stand out because of how they sound?
    • If you wrote down all the line-ending words, what would you think the soliloquy was about? Does that feel right?

    Using Mark’s strategies, we’ve started to look at what Angelo’s language tells us about this character at the end of Act 2 Scene 2. See if you can complete the grid and finish the four points which explain what this speech reveals about how Angelo is feeling at this point in the play.

    Point

    Angelo is shocked by Isabella’s power of attraction.

    Evidence

    ‘Oh cunning enemy that, to catch a saint, / With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous / Is that temptation that doth goad us on / To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet / With all her double vigour, art and nature, / Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid / Subdues me quite.’

    Explanation

    Shakespeare uses the repetition of ‘saint’ and ‘saints’ to draw our attention to the words and make us think about what they mean. Angelo sees himself as a saint who has been tempted by someone equally pure, which he thinks is a cruel trick of the devil and therefore not his fault.
    The imagery of a baited hook suggests again that Angelo thinks his temptation is not his fault, he’s just been caught like a fish.
    The use of antithesis in comparing ‘strumpet’ to ‘virtuous maid’ shows the limitations of how Angelo sees women, either as whores or virgins. It also helps him compare the different powers of both. The false ‘strumpet’ displays obvious powers such as seductive techniques and make-up and Angelo is proud never to have been tempted by these but he is stunned that a ‘virtuous maid’ like Isabella has affected him so much - her power is less obvious but stronger.
    Shakespeare’s choice of the word ‘subdues’ is both surprising and effective as it has a lot of meanings. Angelo could mean that Isabella has quietened or suppressed him but it could also mean she conquered and defeated him.

    Point

    Angelo is emotionally disturbed by his own thoughts and feelings.

    Evidence Select an option

    Explanation Click text to edit

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    Point

    Angelo believes his feelings are wrong.

    Evidence Click text to edit

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    Explanation Click text to edit

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    Point Click text to edit

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    What else can I do to explore Angelo’s language?

    • Try applying these same strategies to all of Angelo’s speeches to reveal any changes in the character’s language and behaviour. How does his use of language change when he’s in public compared to when he is alone?
    • Take a look at the rhythm of the iambic pentameter in his speeches. Read it out loud and beat out the syllables. When is it regular and when does he break rhythm? What can this suggest about Angelo’s state of mind?
    • Keep a record of the images in Angelo’s language. Which images stand out particularly? Why might this be? Take note of any repeated themes in his imagery and if this gives any clues to what he’s thinking. Find out more by looking at the Analysing the Imagery section below.
  • Analysing the duke's language

    The duke’s disguise makes it easy for him to talk to a wide variety of people, from political and religious figures to thieves and murderers. We also hear his innermost thoughts and feelings when he speaks to the audience directly. Because of this, we are able to follow how his language changes to suit these many different situations. One of his most striking speeches is the death counselling he gives to Claudio in Act 3 Scene 1. In this speech, the duke is disguised as a friar and has visited Claudio to advise him on how to prepare himself for death.

    Look again at the monologue video in the section above, where Mark Quartley tells us what he looks for in a speech to understand how a character is feeling.

    What can you find by looking at the same things in what the duke says?

    When you explore the speech below, see if you can notice the following:

    • Imagery
    • Metre
    • Word choice
    Duke
    Be absolute for death: either death or life
    Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:
    If I do lose thee I do lose a thing
    That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art,
    Servile to all the skyey influences
    That dost this habitation were thou keepst
    Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art death’s fool,
    For him thou labour’st by thy flight to shun
    And yet runn’st toward him still. Thou art not noble,
    For all th’accommodations that thou bear’st
    Are nursed by baseness; thou’rt by no means valiant,
    For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
    Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
    And that thou oft provok’st, yet grossly fear’st
    Thy death, which is no more. Happy thou art not,
    For what thou has not still thou striv’st to get,
    And what thou hast, forget’st. Thou art not certain.
    For thy complexion shifts to strange effects
    After the moon. If thou art rich thou’rt poor,
    For like an ass whose back with ingots bows
    Thou bear’st thy heavy riches but a journey
    And death unloads thee. Thou hast nor youth nor age,
    But as it were an after-dinner’s sleep,
    Dreaming on both: and when thou art old and rich,
    Thou has neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty
    To make thy riches pleasant. What’s yet in this
    That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
    Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we fear
    That makes these odds all even.
    Ready, free from doubt.
    Slave, subject.
    Effects of nature.
    Body.
    Torment.
    Escape.
    Avoid.
    The comforts.
    Came from the soil, dirt.
    Snake.
    Mood.
    Behaviour.
    Desire.
    Physical strength.
    More.

    Questions to consider

    • What are the key images that stand out for you in this speech? What visual pictures do they suggest in your mind and how does that help you imagine the mood of this moment in the play?
    • Notice any repeated words or sounds in the speech. What effect do they have when spoken out loud?
    • What do you notice about the verbs that the duke uses in this speech?
    • Can you find examples of alliteration or assonance and how do you think these literary techniques affect the mood of the speech?

    We've started to look at what the language the duke uses in this monologue tells us about him at this moment in Act 3 Scene 1. See if you can complete the below grid and create four points which explain what this speech reveals about the character at this point in the play.

    Point

    The duke is intelligent and can communicate complicated thoughts well.

    Evidence

    ‘Reason thus with life: / If I do lose thee I do lose a thing / That none but fools would keep; a breath thou art, / Servile to all the skyey influences / That dost this habitation were thou keepst / Hourly afflict.’

    Explanation

    The duke uses personification to make his advice easier to follow. Getting Claudio to imagine ‘Life’ as a physical person he can talk to and address directly as ‘thee' cuts the idea of life and death down to size and makes fate something he can literally face.
    This is a long thought and making it a conversation with an imagined person, ‘Life’, helps give it shape and keeps our attention through to the end.
    Shakespeare repeats the words ‘death’ and ‘life’ so often that they almost lose their meaning and therefore their hold over Claudio.
    Shakespeare uses well-chosen words such as ‘thing’, ‘breath’ and even invents a new word, ‘skyey’, to illustrate how slight and insignificant life is. His use of imagery in comparing life to ‘a breath’ lost in the huge and unpredictable sky helps do the same thing.
    The vowel sounds in the words ‘skyey influences’ are strange and shapeless, like the course of life itself. This helps Claudio see how unpredictable and uncertain life is and how, in comparison, death is restful and less frightening.

    Point

    The duke thinks life is harder and more challenging than death.

    Evidence Select an option

    Explanation Click text to edit

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    Point

    The duke is kind-hearted and is preparing Claudio for the worst.

    Evidence Click text to edit

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    Explanation Click text to edit

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    Point Click text to edit

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    What else can I do to explore the duke’s language?

    • The duke changes his language a lot to suit how he’s feeling and who he’s talking to. In Act 3 Scene 2, he speaks mostly in prose but, when left alone, switches to verse in a soliloquy in which he shares his deepest thoughts only with the audience. Ask yourself:
      • What has happened to the duke in this scene that might have led to this change in his speech?
      • Examine the rhythm of this soliloquy. How different is it to regular iambic pentameter and how might this affect the actor delivering it and the audience hearing it?
      • What do you notice if you emphasise the last word of each line? What do you notice if you read just the first word of each line?
    • Try applying these same strategies to the other speeches the duke has in the play. Consider how his language changes at different moments in the play and what this might reflect about how he feels at those moments.
    • Take a look at the opening scene of the play and explore it in detail in our section, The Duke's Departure.
  • Analysing the imagery

    As with all of Shakespeare’s plays, there are lots of types of imagery used in Measure for Measure. It’s a great idea to keep a list of the key quotes and imagery used in each act.

    Here are three types of imagery that come up a lot in Measure for Measure:

    Clothes and Disguise Imagery

    • Images of wearing or changing clothes are common in Measure for Measure. Early on, the duke disguises himself as a friar, passing his identity to Angelo who is now ‘dress’d him with our love’ (1:1). In Act 2 Scene 2, Isabella uses ‘proud man, / Dressed in a little brief authority’ to warn Angelo that he is a small man taking advantage of borrowed power.
    • Different textures of costumes and cloth are used to give scenes a different tone. Lucio is insulted on the streets in Act 1 Scene 2 by being compared to ‘French velvet’, a reference to the velvet patches used to cover the sores from a sexual disease. The tone gets more serious in Act 1 Scene 3 when Claudio says Angelo is using deadly laws that have ‘hung’ forgotten on the wall like ‘unscour’d armour’.
    • There are many examples of people hiding or changing their appearance in the play. In Act 2 Scene 4, Angelo accuses Isabella of manipulating him in the same way that beautiful women wearing ‘black masks’ appear even more attractive. In his soliloquy at the start of Act 2 Scene 4, Angelo references his own name when he says that simply writing ‘good angel on the devil’s horn’ doesn’t change the devil’s character.

    Money imagery

    • Money and treasure are used in Measure for Measure to describe how people can be tempted and what their characters are worth. Isabella, for example, in Act 2 Scene 2, puts the true value of prayer above coins and ‘fond sicles of the tested gold’. In Act 2 Scene 4, Angelo compares the sin of creating a child outside of marriage to illegally forging coins, ‘In stamps that are forbid’.
    • Shakespeare uses jewels and precious stones to create powerful, sometimes sensual images, such as when Angelo tells Isabella to ‘lay down the treasures’ of her body in Act 2 Scene 4 and Isabella declares she’d rather ‘wear’ the marks of whips ‘as rubies’ on her skin.
    • How many examples of money and treasure imagery can you find in the play and what do they add to the drama when they are used?

    Animals and Nature Imagery

    • Shakespeare uses some powerful and often disturbing imagery from nature in Measure for Measure. In Act 1 Scene 3, Claudio describes human attraction to evil like ‘rats ravin down’ the poison that kills them. Later in Act 3 Scene 1, the duke compares Angelo’s false image to ‘idle spiders’ strings’ that trap the small sins of others but break under the weight of his own. Lucio makes Angelo even more monstrous in Act 3 Scene 2, when he claims a ‘sea-maid spawned him’ between ‘two stock-fishes’.
    • In Act 1 Scene 3, Claudio describes the public as ‘A horse’ that Angelo is breaking in, letting them ‘straight feel the spur’. The duke admits in Act 1 Scene 2 that he has behaved like ‘an o’ergrown lion in a cave’ and neglected the laws of Vienna. In the same speech, the duke describes rules and laws as ‘needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds’. This image crops up again when the duke angrily criticises Angelo: ‘To weed my vice and let his grow!’ (3:1).
    • Take a closer look at the extract from Act 2 Scene 2 below to explore how Isabella uses a range of imagery to influence Angelo. Why do you think Shakespeare uses this language at this point in the scene? Why is animal and nature imagery so important in the rest of the play?

    Isabella
    So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
    And he, that suffers. Oh, it is excellent
    To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous
    To use it like a giant.
    Refers to a myth in which giants turned against the god Jove, but because they had strength and not intelligence, they were cruel and not god-like.
    Cruel use of power.
    Lucio
    (Aside) That's well said.
    Isabella
    Could great men thunder
    As Jove himself does, Jove would ne’er be quiet,
    For every pelting, petty officer
    Would use his heaven for thunder –
    Nothing but thunder. Merciful heaven,
    Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
    Splits the unwedgeable and gnarlèd oak
    Than the soft myrtle; but man, proud man,
    Dressed in a little brief authority,
    Most ignorant of what he’s most assured,
    His glassy essence, like an angry ape
    Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
    As makes the angels weep; who, with our spleens,
    Would all themselves laugh mortal.
    The king of the gods in Roman mythology and the god of sky and thunder.
    Small official.
    Thunderbolt.
    Unsplittable.
    A soft shrub, often used in imagery as a symbol of mercy.
    A small taste of power, a short revealing uniform.
    Unaware of his own mortality.
    Man's soul made in god's image.
    Imitating behaviour, mimicry.
    An important organ in the body.
    A living being that can die.
    Lucio
    (Aside) Oh, to him, to him, wench, he will relent.
    He’s coming: I perceive’t.
    Young woman.
    Giving in.
    Provost
    (Aside) Pray heaven she win him!
    Isabella
    Great men may jest with saints: ’tis wit in them,
    But in the less foul profanation.
    Ordinary person.
    Blasphemous, obscene.
    Lucio
    (Aside) Thou’rt i’th’right, girl, more o’that!
    Isabella
    That in the captain’s but a choleric word
    Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
    Angry.
    Against God.
    Angelo
    Why do you put these sayings upon me?
    Isabella
    Because authority, though it err like others,
    Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself
    That skins the vice o’th’top. Go to your bosom,
    Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
    That’s like my brother’s fault. If it confess
    A natural guiltiness, such as is his,
    Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
    Against my brother’s life.
    Sins.
    Covers up its sin.
    Let it not say a word.

    Thinking about Act 2 Scene 2, we’ve started to look at what the nature imagery and word choices in the scene tells us about Isabella and how she uses language to affect Angelo and strengthen her argument. See if you can complete the below grid and create four points which explain what this language shows about their relationship at this point in the play.

    Point

    Isabella attacks Angelo’s vanity.

    Evidence

    ‘His glassy essence, like an angry ape / Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven / As makes the angels weep; who, with our spleens, / Would all themselves laugh mortal.’

    Explanation

    Isabella uses images of heaven and angels to make Angelo consider his abuse of power compared to the high standards set by God.
    The words ‘glassy essence’ are well chosen as they have lots of meaning and the use of sibilance in the repeated ‘ss’ makes them stand out more. They remind Angelo that God made man in his image and expects him to behave well. The image of a mirror also reminds him that he is only a reflection of God; he is not a god himself. A mirror is also breakable and so, like a man’s life, will not last forever.
    The powerful image of an ‘angry ape’ helps lower Angelo’s image of himself to less than man, a ridiculous animal performing tricks. ‘Angry ape’ also has a repeated hard ‘a’, glottal stops which sound aggressive and ugly like his behaviour. Isabella chooses the image of ‘high heaven’, the most pure and beautiful setting, for such an embarrassing display, making the image even more pathetic and cringeworthy.
    Weeping angels is a very powerful image but Isabella take this one step further by having the angels laugh so hard, that if they were human, they would split their sides and die.
    In four lines, Shakespeare develops one image to such extremes so effectively that Angelo looks like he might change his mind.
    The iambic pentameter is regular, except for the last line which cuts off and misses a beat. This cleverly reflects the sudden death of the laughing angels and leaves a sudden surprise empty moment for her point to make an impact.

    Point

    Isabella warns Angelo of the destructive nature of power.

    Evidence Select an option

    Explanation Click text to edit

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    Point

    Isabella appeals to Angelo’s humanity.

    Evidence Click text to edit

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    Explanation Click text to edit

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    Point Click text to edit

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  • Analysing the themes

    As with all of Shakespeare’s plays, there are lots of themes that appear in Measure for Measure. It’s a great idea to keep a list of key quotes and themes in each act.

    Here are three themes that can be seen in Measure for Measure and are useful to look out for:

    Theme of power

    • The theme of power is central to Measure for Measure. The plays explores all different types of power, how it can change people and how it can be abused. Some of the most striking examples of power come from the way women are physically controlled by their surroundings. The ‘dejected Mariana’ has shut herself away in a ‘moated grange’ (Duke, 3:1), a secluded retreat, showing her as a prisoner of Angelo’s cruelty. In Act 4 Scene 1, Isabella’s description of the place where Angelo wants to sleep with her, the ‘garden circummured with brick’ with its maze of locked spaces, reflects how he wants total power over her and how restricted her choices are as a woman. Even Juliet, heavily pregnant, spends the play in a jail cell.
    • The abuse of power is a theme explored by the duke, who has made Vienna suffer by neglecting to use his own power correctly. He passes responsibility to Angelo to see ‘If power changes purpose’ (Duke, 1:4). Angelo spectacularly fails this test and his taste of power quickly reveals him as a ‘murderer’, ‘an adulterous thief’ and a ‘virgin-violator’ (Isabella, 5:1).
    • The different powers of men and women are examined in the play. Angelo lets the people of Vienna ‘straight feel the spur’ (1:3), a cruel and violent way of taking control compared to the more subtle actions of ‘maidens’ who ‘weep and kneel’ and make ‘men give like gods’ (Lucio, 1:4).
    • See how many references you can find in the play to power and control. Can these be split into categories of positive and negative power? In which situations is power used in a positive way and by whom? When is it negative?

    Theme of substitution

    • The entire plot of Measure for Measure relies on substitution and things or people swapping places. At the start of the play, the duke replaces himself with his deputy, Angelo - ‘In our remove be thou at full ourself’ - and swaps the restraints of public office for the freedom of a friar. Mariana’s virginity is substituted for Isabella’s in Angelo’s bed in the hope that ‘the doubleness of the benefit defends the deed’ (3:1), making the point that one woman is as good as another to men like Angelo, who doesn’t even notice.
    • The double substitution of Claudio’s head adds some comedy to the play when Barnadine refuses to be executed, meaning another head needs to be found to replace it. On a more serious note, the duke orders in Act 5 Scene 1 that Angelo’s life be exchanged for Claudio’s ‘death for death’ and ‘measure still for measure.’
    • Shakespeare uses the city of Vienna to stand in for Elizabethan London. At this time in history, Vienna was full of prostitutes and pimps and disease was common. In the London of Shakespeare’s time, buildings were being demolished to try and control the plague. This is echoed by Angelo’s ruling that ‘All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down’ (Pompey, 1:2) as the ‘suburbs’ were the places where the brothels were.
    • What other examples of substitution or things being swapped or exchanged can you find? What do these particular themes add to the play?

    Theme of justice and the law

    • The nature of justice is very important in Measure for Measure and the connection between God and justice is mentioned often. In Act 1 Scene 3, Claudio describes Angelo’s justice as a ‘demigod Authority’ which, like God, can decide to punish ‘whom it will’ and ‘whom it will not’. Isabella asks Angelo in Act 2 Scene 2 how he’d feel if God, ‘which is the top of judgement’, judged him like he is judging Claudio.
    • The fairness of justice is questioned a lot in the play. Escalus comments in Act 2 Scene 1 that ’Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall’ and even Angelo admits that justice is only as good as the men who use it when he asks Escalus ‘what knows the laws / That thieves do pass on thieves?’ (2:1). Justice can be used as a weapon but men can also use it to hide behind, like Angelo does in Act 2 Scene 2: ‘It is the law, not I, condemn your bother.’
    • Shakespeare makes us question the authority of the law by introducing Elbow, an overworked constable, who speaks in malapropisms (mistakenly using one word in place of another similar sounding word, often with comic effects). In Act 2 Scene 1, Elbow calls his prisoners ‘two notorious benefactors’ instead of ‘malefactors’ (criminals) and calls Mistress Overdone’s brothel a ‘respected’ house instead of a ‘suspected’ one. Why do you think this is important to the play? What does it make us think about the law in Vienna and the duke’s role as governor?

Teacher Notes

You can print the PEE grids from each of the sections on this page to help students explore the language of central characters and some of the imagery used in more detail.

The following insights into research and religion may also be useful.

How does research inform the Production?

This exploration can be found on page 12.