Moral And Legal Vice And Corruption Shakespeare's Measure For Measure

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‘I have seen corruption boil and bubble.’ What does Shakespeare present about corruption in Measure for Measure?

Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure explores the city of Vienna within a state of great moral decay. Shakespeare highlights the widespread and deeply penetrating nature of the vices of a society governed with excess laxity, as he illuminates both the moral and legal corruption that prevail within the city. Shakespeare suggests that the vices of temptation and sin are inherently present within all humans, with corruption being an inevitable and inextinguishable product of man’s fallibility.

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Shakespeare highlights prevailing moral corruption to be the result of excess lenience and a lack of legal consequence. Shakespeare illuminates the extent of the immorality occurring under the Duke’s reign, as both high- and low-life characters comment proudly on the ‘many diseases [they] have purchased’ within the city’s brothel district. Shakespeare suggests that so widespread is sexual profligacy within Vienna, that venereal disease has afflicted all social classes and is no longer seen as a threat, but rather accepted as a commonality of Viennese life. In this way, Shakespeare demonstrates a society unfearing of the consequences of the moral corruption occurring, as a lack of legal accountability allows such behaviour to prevail unmitigated. As the Duke himself admits that he has ‘given the people scope’ through his excessively merciful leadership, Shakespeare employs the metaphor of ‘liberty pluck[ing] justice by the nose’ in order to highlight the complete role reversal that has occurred under Vincentio’s reign. Thus, as the law is ‘more mocked than feared’ by the Viennese citizens, Shakespeare demonstrates moral corruption in the form of sexual vice and licentiousness to be a powerful force, which requires legal discipline and punishment in order to be controlled.

Shakespeare highlights the moral corruption which can arise from the inherent self-interest of a leader. The Duke’s dispensing of justice at the end of the play sees him attempt to match the punishment to crime, as he rules ‘an Angelo for Claudio, death for death’ in a display of substitutional justice. In this way, Shakespeare exhibits a leadership style emulative of the Old Testament ideology of an eye for an eye, as the Duke is shown to feel satisfied that ‘measure still for measure’, and that he has successfully delivered justice. Shakespeare calls into question whether the Duke’s cold substitutions truly allow him to achieve an operational and effective justice system, or whether the more nuanced approach suggested by the play’s title, is necessary. Shakespeare draws a contrast between a ruler’s human attempts to achieve justice, and the ‘power divine’ of heavenly judgements, as he in turn highlights man’s inability to emulate divine justice. Shakespeare affirms the arbitrary and subjective nature of the Duke’s judgements, as he allows the value of his reputation to overpower Barnardines clear violation of the law. In this way, Shakespeare portrays the inherently self-serving and subjective position of a ruler, as he illuminates that this legal corruption and lack of objectivity can lead to the miscarriage of justice.

Shakespeare demonstrates the fallibility of mankind, as he presents corruption to be present within all characters, regardless of their attempts to resist such vices. Shakespeare’s initial presentation of Angelo, with his name itself evoking the image of an angel, is of an aggressively restrained character. In illustrating a man who ‘scarcely admits that his blood flows’ and who ‘makes urine’ of ‘congealed ice’, Shakespeare suggests that Angelo was ‘not made by man and woman’ and is thus not linked to humanity itself, as he is therefore presented to be capable of resisting the human emotions of temptation and sin. However, as Shakespeare later reveals Angelo to be ‘that way going to temptation’, overcome by ‘filthy’ desires for Isabella, Shakespeare presents a character vulnerable to human emotion, despite his best attempts to achieve restraint and discipline. Thus, as Angelo himself admits that ‘we are all frail’, Shakespeare illuminates that even Angelo, one who ‘never feels the wanton stings’ of vice and sin, is vulnerable to the desires present within him, and is thus incapable of resisting the corruption which tempts him. Shakespeare affirms the futility of attempts to resist human instinct, as he presents the crumbling of Isabella’s strict resolve against sexual vice. Despite maintaining that ‘more than our brother is our chastity’ and that she would ‘strip [her]self to death as to a bad’ before allowing her soul to be ‘stained’, Isabella later allows Marianna to be ‘blistered’ by the same sin that she ‘abhors’, in a plan that she deems to be ‘prosperous perfection.’ In this way, as despite her religious fervour, Isabella’s morals are corrupted by the temptation to save her brother’s life, Shakespeare illuminates the inherent drive of self-interest present within even the most restrained and disciplined of characters. He, therefore, elucidates the capacity for temptation and vice to overcome all humans, and thus illustrates the futility of all attempts to eliminate all corruption.

Shakespeare illuminates the moral and legal vice and corruption present within Vienna, as he demonstrates both the necessity for legal discipline in order to mitigate sexual deviance and the inability for a leader to emulate divine and objective justice. In this way, Shakespeare ultimately shows corruption to be inherent to human nature, as he highlights the fallibility of mankind, and suggests that corruption will always be present within humanity.

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