nds at a guard with envy; scarce confesses that his blood flows, or that his appetite is more to bread than stone: "hence shall we see, If power change purpose, what our seemers be" (Act I, Scene III). Angelo ultimately proves to be a seemer, one whose statements of virtue and self-control do not match his behavior. However, to call him a hypocrite misses the mark. He is as surprised at his lust as anyone else, at least at its onset, and he questions his moral status at first. His virtue had always been quite real for him, and his slide into sin catches him off guard (Act II, Scene IV).
When Angelo finds himself lusting after Isabella, he exclaims with surprise,
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 waste ground enough, Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie! What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo? (Act II, Scene II).
Angelo finds in himself, then, a double nature: the first is the virtuous individual that would have carried on with propriety; the second, a carnal, lustful, power-hungry character who, though surprising to him, is nonetheless part of who he is. His awareness of this duality within is echoed in the change in his speech. Until the point at which he attempts to seduce Isabella, his language had been straightforward, carrying single meanings. But when he begins to pursue his appetites with Isabella, asides characterize his speech and double entendres enter his rhetoric.
While the inner corruption he discovers in himself might surprise Angelo, it would have been no surprise to the audience. Reformation theology which was influential at the time of Shakespeare reminded people th...