Measure for Measure Contents
- Social / political context
- Religious / philosophical context
- The Theatre
- Act I
- Act II
- Act III
- Act IV
- Act V
Juliet
There are five women in Measure for Measure:
- a nun, Francisca
- Mistress Overdone, who runs a brothel
- Isabella, who is a sister in two senses of the word (novice nun and sibling) and who perhaps marries the Duke at the end of the play
- Mariana, who is, as she agrees in Act V, ‘neither maid, widow, nor wife'
- Juliet, who is married according to an exchange of vows, though not in a binding church ceremony (see also Social/political context > The Stuart monarchy) and who is pregnant.
It is clear that Shakespeare has carefully selected his characters to reflect different kinds of women with different attitudes and values. (He does the same in Othello, contrasting Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca.)
Juliet's social standing
Was mutually committed?
- Juliet is first spoken of in Act I sc ii by Mistress Overdone, who describes her by the respectful title of Madam Julietta, revealing that she is ‘with child'.
- When Claudio enters, being led to prison, he too stresses her respectable status:
You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order. This we came not to
Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends…
Save that we do the denunciation lack
Of outward order. This we came not to
Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends…
- Her social standing is confirmed when we learn from Isabella in Act I sc i that she and Juliet were affectionate school–friends (Isabella herself ‘had a most noble father' – the term ‘noble' implying both social status and fine character).
Juliet as ‘mutually' guilty
Claudio tells Lucio in Act I sc ii that he and Juliet had enjoyed ‘mutual entertainment' – that is, their love-making had been a mutual decision. This clearly makes their behaviour much more moral than Angelo's attempt at what is, effectively, the rape of Isabella, and adds to the irony of Claudio's condemnation by the corrupt judge.But it also adds an interesting depth to Juliet's character, in that she accepts the disguised Duke's judgement that, though a mutual sin, she must bear most blame:
Duke: So then it seems your most offenceful act
Was mutually committed?
Was mutually committed?
Juliet: Mutually.
Duke: Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
Juliet: I do confess it, and repent it, father….
I do repent me as it is an evil,
And take the shame with joy.
I do repent me as it is an evil,
And take the shame with joy.
Although a contemporary audience may focus on the inequality of such a judgement, to do so misses the significance of the exchange: that Juliet's acknowledgement of sin, and her full repentance, are indications that she is ready to receive the grace – the undeserved forgiveness – of God, which can only come after acknowledgement of guilt. (See also Themes and significant ideas > Judgement on earth and in heaven.)
Juliet's awareness of life and death
The last words spoken by Juliet in Measure for Measure (in Act II sc iii) reflect the poignancy of her situation. She is not to be executed like her lover, because she is pregnant, but her very pregnancy is the evidence that has condemned him:
O injurious love,
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror!
That respites me a life, whose very comfort
Is still a dying horror!
A woman who has chosen to enter a religious order for women, and taken the appropriate vows.
A new entrant to a religious order; not having taken all the vows of that order and therefore able to leave freely.
1. Term for a worshipping community of Christians.
2. The building in which Christians traditionally meet for worship.
3. The worldwide community of Christian believers.
Where the surface appearance of something is shown to be not the case, but quite the opposite. Often done for moral or comic purpose. An ironic style is when the writer makes fun of naive or self-deceived characters.
1. Someone given authority to preside in a court of law. 2. In the Old Testament, name given to leaders of Israel before the period of the kings.
Disobedience to the known will of God. According to Christian theology human beings have displayed a pre-disposition to sin since the Fall of Humankind.
The act of turning away, or turning around from, one's sins, which includes feeling genuinely sorry for them, asking for the forgiveness of God and being willing to live in a different way in the future.
Undeserved favour. The Bible uses this term to describe God's gifts to human beings.
1. The action of forgiving; pardon of a fault, remission of a debt.
2. Being freed from the burden of guilt, after committing a sin or crime, through being pardoned by the one hurt or offended.
The Bible describes God as the unique supreme being, creator and ruler of the universe.
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