Measure for Measure

The law as figured in the Ten Commandments can speak to behavior, distinguishing between what is good and what is bad; but it cannot speak to attitude and intention. Moreover, in its specificity, the law is prone to become concrete legalism, a pharisaical focus on the letter of the commandment, a process that allows individuals to focus on the details of the law rather than the intention of the law to create holy people. That is why Lucio talks about the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table (Act I, Scene II).

"Measure for Measure" concerns itself with human behavior, to be sure. It considers the need for statutes, laws to govern human appetites and ensure domestic tranquillity. But it also focuses our attention on the inner world, that aspect of the individual which functions according to values and which may be called the moral center of the person.

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I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare (Act I, Scene IV). Isabella, consciously or unconsciously, presents herself as one whose inner life demands curbs and restraints. Whether she is conscious of this problem and she seems loath to admit it Isabella is expressing the need for some kind of restraint because her nature itself is liable to err. Her virtue, then, is lacking in some essential aspects. At best, it is passive and defensive rather than active and aggressive. It is not enough to flee evil, (as one does, for example, by entering a convent); a good person must also promote the good. How to deal with this inner corruption this total depravity is one of the major concerns of the Duke as well as the play. The role of the king was to inhibit evil and to promote virtue at least that was the orthodox position (though, to play on Hamlets statement, a position sometimes more honored in the breach than the observance). So it is that the Duke has a problem to solve at the beginning of the play. The Duke had permitted the society to follow its natural course: he had allowed the laws to go unpunished for too long, permitting vice to flourish and go
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Approximate Word count = 2319
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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