Zusammenfassung der Ressource
RELIGION
- The play dramatizes Christian doctrine in a prominent, in-your-face kind of way.
- Shakespeare invokes the concepts of sin, atonement, judgment, and mercy.
- The title, Measure for Measure, comes from the Gospel of Matthew and this biblical passage also
informs the main plot, in which a hypocritical deputy sentences a man to death for having sex with
his fiancé and then turns around and propositions a young woman.
- The play also features a Duke who spends most of his time disguised as a holy friar, a novice nun
obsessed with virginity, and man whose harsh and judgmental attitude resembles that of the
sixteenth-century English Puritans.
- Measure for Measure's critique of Angelo's Puritanical rigidness is also a critique of religious
extremism in general.
- Although Duke Vincentio fashions himself as an all-knowing, justice delivering, god-like figure, when
he disguises himself as a friar and takes confession, his behavior is more sacrilegious than anything
else.