M4M & King Lear

In Measure for Measure there could be no better illustration of justice being ill-used for personal gain. Duke Vincentio deputizes Angelo to enforce Venice’s long-dormant laws. The first action Angelo takes is to resume with vigor the enforcement of an old law which makes fornication a crime. Because Claudio seduces Angelo’s betrothed, Juliet, the new deputy arrests him and sentences him to death. Before going undercover, the Duke wonders how Angelo will handle his newly won powers to administer justice, “What figure of us think you her will bear? / For you must know we have with special soul / Elected him our absence to supply; / Lent him our terror, drest him with our love, / And given his deputation all the organs / Of our own power: what think you of it?” (Shakespeare 99).

Angelo is like a recent college graduate who takes

. . .
sacred chastity and of promise-breach / Thereon dependent, for your brother’s life,-- / The very mercy of the law cries out / Most audible, even from his proper tongue, / An Angelo for a Claudio, death for death. /Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; / Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure” (Shakespeare 124). Of course Measure for Measure is one of the problem plays because it cannot really be said that anyone who deserves to be punished is punished with any kind of severity. It is an appeal for clemency and mercy in powerful leaders who administer justice, lest a man like Angelo gains power and unfairly doles it out for his own self-interests. In King Lear, on the other hand, there is no Duke in disguise to dole things out measure by measure as appropriate. Instead, King Lear’s two daughters, Goneril and Regan, usurp justice by doling it out much like Angelo for their own aims. The weary and tired old Lear decides to gain a higher measure of peace by dividing up his lands into three portions for his three daughters. All the daughters have to do to get the lands is to profess their love for their father. Cordelia, the youngest daughter who loves the King more than the other two, will only swear
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Duke Vincentio, Mariana Duke, Goneril Regan, Measure Measure, King Lear, Lear Cordelia, Edgar Gloster, Regan Lears, Gloster Albany, King France, measure measure, king lear, administer justice, complete william shakespeare, william shakespeare york, lear cordelia, duke vincentio, shakespeare 101, duke disguise, random house 1975, complete william, shakespeare york random, goneril regan, york random house, justice justice,
Approximate Word count = 1709
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)