In the final trial of Measure for Measure (in Act 5), the Duke as the presiding judge condemns Angelo for the death of Claudio and imposes the death penalty. He summarizes his judicial reasoning when he proclaims (alluding to the name of the play):
The very mercy of the law cries out
Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
"An Angelo for Claudio, death for death."
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.-- (5.1.463-7).
What kind of argument is he making? Is this a key idea of the Duke's jurisprudence or is he trying to mock it (after all he does pardon Angelo later in the scene)? Does the play make a comment on this kind of judicial reasoning? What is the measure of "measure for measure"?
I think these lines are very crucial in understanding what Shakespeare was trying to demonstrate with this play because it tackles the judicial system and the idea for the same punishment for the same crime, measure for measure, and he is poking fun at Angelo because he is being a hypocrite in not taking his punishment that he put on Claudio for the same crime. There is a sense of hypocrisy in this play with Angelo and Claudio and I think it has to do with how much empathy the judge has on someone and how far that will go into decision making. I think the Duke is making an argument that Angelo must have a taste for his own medicine and cannot bend the rules for a special person or ones self for benefit. I think the Duke realizes this and is pointing out that “measure still for measure” is a lot more than just judicial reasoning, but how we take people’s case and how we judge our own actions and the actions of others. I personally think he is mocking this sentence because he does take it all back in just a couple pages later but I think he stated these values that a judicial system should have a measure for measure idea to their sentencing instead of doing it case for case, which is fair on some levels. I think this line brings together the idea of hypocrisy and using different punishment for the same crime while also measuring the punishment on harshness. I think the measure in “measure for measure” in this case is reasoning because we must compare something to the other and here it is reasoning of Claudio and Angelo’s case, and they measure the same.
ReplyDeleteAt first glance it appears the Duke’s judicial judgement in the final trial of Measure for Measure was swayed by the pleading of Isabella and Mariana and that he actually believes in the jurisprudence of measure for measure. The Duke declares, “The very mercy of the law cries out… ‘An Angelo for Claudio, death for death.’ Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure” (5.1.463-468). The Duke argues for retributive justice, that a death must be payed for by another death. Mariana and Isabella plead to the Duke to spare Angelo’s life and Isabella argues that Angelo’s crime was not equivalent to Claudio’s. She tells the Duke that Claudio was justly punished for his crime of fornication while Angelo doesn’t deserve the same fate because although he intended to sleep with Isabella, he actually slept with Mariana. Clearly, Angelo still committed the same crime as Claudio, fornication, and if anything, it’s worse because there was mutual consent and understanding between Claudio and Juliet when they had pre-marital sex. Considering how calculating the Duke is and certain words and phrases that he uses, I think that he is actually mocking the principle of retribution as a basis for judicial decisions. For example, the Duke tells Angelo that “the very mercy of the law cries out” (5.1.463), a direct reference to something Angelo said to Isabella when he defended his decision to sentence Claudio to death. In response to Isabella asking Angelo to show pity, Angelo says, “I show it most of all when I show justice” (2.2.128). The Duke mocks Angelo’s jurisprudence while threatening his life with it, toying with him as the play defends proportionality in judicial reasoning instead of retributive justice. The final nail in the coffer for me regarding how the Duke views retributive justice is how he pardons Angelo after orchestrating the unveiling of a living Claudio. The Duke clearly knew that the covered up prisoner was Claudio, signifying that he put on a show to mock Angelo’s judicial reasoning (and to propose to Isabella).
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ReplyDeleteIn Measure for Measure, during the scene in which the Duke condemns Angelo for his murder of Claudio, the Duke makes it apparent that he is judging retributively, meaning that he is punishing Angelo by doing to him what he did to Claudio. This is neither a key part of the way that the Duke judges Angelo nor is it mocking retributive justice, even though it is true that the Duke pardon’s Angelo for what he has done during the play. In fact, the role of the Duke’s judgement in this situation is to reprimand Angelo for the crimes that he would have committed in cold blood and the wrong doings and bad morals that he had expressed throughout his time in power in an (in my opinion) intelligent and effective way. The duke essentially scares Angelo into being a better person through this judgement at the end of the play. I think that, though it doesn’t seem as profound as some of the opinions that the play gives on other issues, Measure for Measure does make a comment that it actually isn’t a good decision to seek retribution or to punish someone with the same thing that they were convicted of through the surprise that is created when this scene occurs. The reaction that the audience is supposed to have and that the surrounding characters do have during this scene reflects the surprise and discontent that is meant to be evoked. This is compounded when the Duke goes back on almost every judgement that he gives in order to depict how much better lenience was in these situations.
I believe one of the reasons the Duke brought Angelo onto his staff was to show his people that the way he rules is better than that of a strict tyrant. This is apparent in the last scene when he gives Lord Angelo a taste of his own medicine. The Duke is known for being a lenient judge, but in this scenario, he wants to make a statement. He wants Angelo to know what we was doing was wrong by enforcing the laws to an unnatural degree. When the Duke says, “Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure” (Shakespeare, 5.1, 465) he means that Angelo deserves this based on the way he ruled. In the end, he still pardoned Angelo because he believes actually enforcing laws is unnecessary. The whole play is a mock of the justice system and this last scene proves it. I don’t know what was going on in the time Shakespeare, but I personally believe Shakespeare thinks that the punishment for petty laws in senseless. He did this by giving us the case of a crime nearly everyone commits and then placing in one person the government sends in to scare people straight, but in the end it is just to scare people. Shakespeare is saying the government is flawed and things need to change. They need to look at everything from the beginning and then make a decision and stick with is.
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