Adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays and other works have been featured in nearly 500 films and/or videos world-wide. That makes Shakespeare the most filmed playwright of all time! Here are the best, and most noteworthy, versions of Measure for Measurethat can help you study and better understand the play. The Complete […]

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Shakespeare coined many popular phrases that are still commonly used today. Here are some examples of Shakespeare’s most familiar quotes from Measure for Measure. You just might be surprised to learn of all the everyday sayings that originally came from Shakespeare! “Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the […]

Read more Study Help Famous Quotes from Measure for Measure

Measure for Measure was written during the same period as Shakespeare’s great tragedies: 1601 to 1608. In this brief time span, he wrote Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, as well as Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra. Critics frequently point out that Measure for Measure […]

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The theme of Measure for Measure is the temperance of justice with mercy. Merciful justice is juxtaposed throughout with strict enforcement of the law. The duke, Isabella, Escalus, Mariana, and the Provost all advocate mercy. Only Angelo demands strict adherence to the law, even to recommending his own execution when […]

Read more Critical Essays Themes in Measure for Measure

The title of Measure for Measure is taken from the Bible: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged and the measure you give will be the measure you get” (Matthew 7.1 and 7.2). This quotation from Christ’s Sermon on the […]

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Mariana’s substitution for Isabella in Angelo’s bed (sometimes called the bed trick) has received considerable attention from scholars. Isabella has been sharply criticized for her willingness to allow Mariana to make such a sacrifice. The heroine’s purity has been challenged on the basis of her easy compliance with the duke’s […]

Read more Critical Essays The Substitute Bed Partner in Measure for Measure

The characters and action of the subplot parallel to some extent those of the plot. Pompey and Mistress Overdone suffer from the sudden enforcement of Vienna’s morality laws, as does Claudio. Elbow, the simple-minded constable, enforces the laws in the subplot as Angelo does in the main plot. The subplot, […]

Read more Critical Essays Subplot in Measure for Measure

Although included in the comedy section of the First Folio, Measure for Measure has been called tragedy, tragicomedy, satire, and allegory by its critics. Scholars have argued that the play is a comedy only by the force of the contrived happy ending. Its theme, characters, and action are tragic, and […]

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Many books have assembled facts, reasonable suppositions, traditions, and speculations concerning the life and career of William Shakespeare. Taken as a whole, these materials give a rather comprehensive picture of England’s foremost dramatic poet. Tradition and sober supposition are not necessarily false because they lack proved bases for their existence. […]

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A young gentleman who has gotten Juliet with child, for which crime he is sentenced to death. He appears prominently only in Act III, Scene 1, when he speaks eloquently about his fear of death. Although he is the cause of the play’s action, he himself is not fully characterized. […]

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