"Measure for Measure" concerns itself with human behavior. 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.
The congruence between outer actions and inner values is one of the overriding themes of the play, especially as it is manifest in the issue of seeming and being. The Duke himself notes the difference between appearance and reality as he speaks about his deputy Angelo, who appears to be the perfect deputy and the disciplined (even puritanical) character (Act I, Scene I). Noting Angelo's character, the Duke also questions the integrity of his inner and outer worlds: Lord Angelo is precise; stands 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 tho...