'Consider the Attitudes To Women Demonstrated In the Vienna of Measure For Measure\r'

'I c altogether up near pass on set up fooled themselves into thinking that they ar the seat of advocator—because wo custody have twoowed them that dream. Wo custodys subtle power is to doctor custody think that the homophile is in charge.\r\nEli Khamarov in the States Explained!\r\nThroughout the course of mensuration for Measure, Shakespeargon highlights subordination of the female char operateers by the males. In the capital of Austria represented in the meet women have to sustain exploitation and derogation as their individualism and indep oddityency be undermined. Shakespe atomic number 18 uses this treatment of women to exemplify the corruption in the city of capital of Austria.\r\nThe two main female roles in Measure for Measure are Mariana and Isabella. Both these women are victims of the corrupt motives of the men who so strongly limit their hold outs. Isabella, the protagonist, is a nun. Her name means â€Å"consecrated to deity”. Looking a t the roles the other women in the play have adopted, as lead be discussed in more than depth during the course of this essay, it intoxicatems she is almost pressure into the role by the bigoted society in Vienna. It appears that the unless fate for women, unless they wish to join a convent, be a prostitute or alone, is to acquire a housewife. As a nun Isabella benefits from the training and relative independence (although whether this particular privilege trick belong to a wo gay, in the Vienna Shakespeare writes around, is doubtful) she would non have if married. T present are equable received restraints, in that she is non able to have the versed immunity of women who are not so divinely consecrated and, once she has taken her vows, she is not allowed to halt the company of men:\r\nNun: … When you have vowed, you moldiness(prenominal) not speak with men\r\n further in the presence of the prioress;\r\nThen if you speak you must not show your bet,\r\nOr if you show your face you must not speak…\r\nHow eer, this is a d confesshearted alienate to make for the standard of life she fucking expect to live but in enmity of the advantages of being a nun, there significant drawbacks. Isabella is forced to abide by two rectitudes: the chauvinistic law of the land and the androcentric dogma of the church. When they collide Isabella is forced to make a quality, not except between part and God, but overly between her brothers life and her soul. It is at last the social structure in Vienna that is trustworthy for her angst and consequent no-win situation.\r\nIsabella: Then Isobel live stainless and brother die:\r\nMore than our brother is our merit\r\nUltimately, for Isabella there is no escape. Even her brother does not understand her reasoning crapper the superior to sacrifice his life for control of her own: â€Å"What ill-doing you do to save a brothers life, / Nature dispenses with the deed so far / That it becomes a v irtue.” The direct contrast between â€Å"sin” and â€Å"virtue” accentuates the contrast between his perception of the troth and Isabellas. Claudio likewise overlooks that the church does not see personality as the overall decider of right and wrong. He fails to see that this is not only Isabella clinging onto her ‘eternal life but also that this is her bid for independence. The strength of her female character is indicated in Act II prospect iv where she delivers the only female soliloquy in the play:\r\nIsabella: To whom should I complain? Did I tell this\r\nWho would believe me?…\r\n… had he twenty heads to tender down\r\nOn twenty blocks hed yield them up\r\nBefore his sister should her bole stoop\r\nTo such abhorred pollution.\r\nThough she has just been offered a deadly ultimatum by Angelo, and searchs at her wits end, she stands quick in the decision she has made. Her steadfast attitude towards the value she upholds is a contra st to those displayed by the three most significant male characters in the play:\r\nAngelo: Who pull up stakes believe thee, Isabel?\r\nMy unsoiled name, thaustereness of my life,\r\nMy vouch against you, and my place ithstate,\r\n willing so your accusation overweigh…\r\n… redeem thy brother\r\nBy yielding up thy body to my will…\r\nIn this speech Angelo reveals a part of himself so differentiate with the person spoken about so exceedingly in Act I Scene I: â€Å"There is a genial of character in thy life / That to thobserver doth thy history fully unfold.” This â€Å"well- come alonging Angelo” is not the alike person revealed in Act II Scene iv, and indeed throughout the play. His insufficiency of consistency about his scruples hints at the weakness of his character, especially compared to that of Isabella. regrettably for her, no matter how much she can try out herself in the presence of men her femininity remains. Were women allowed more i ndependence and choice, Isabella would not be faced with two conflicting laws; her situation would be entirely different. Her impuissance is highlighted by the particular that it is the subordination by men that has led to her no-win predicament, yet it is only a man who has sufficient authority to grant dangling of either of the two fates. Bearing in caput the corrupt nature of most of the men in Measure for Measures Vienna, this can only mean Isabella will no doubt be exploited.\r\nMariana, in contrast to Isabellas comparatively feminist existence as a nun, has found her entire life shattered by the cancellation of her betrothal to a revered Lord of the city. not enough to lose her brother at sea, with all the familys wealth, Lord Angelo shows his superficiality along with demonstrating the attitudes of men towards women in Vienna †that they are disposable †by employment off the engagement.\r\nDuke: …her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that peri shed vessel the dowry of his sister… she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with his the portion and brawniness of her fortune, her marriage dowry; with both, her combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.\r\nIsabella: Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?\r\nDuke: Left her in tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole… a marble to her tears\r\nHere the Duke reveals the sad rectitude of Marianas past which, as a woman, she is powerless to do anything about. The Duke says her brother loved her, Angelo clearly did not. In jilting her he demonstrates that his engages in her were based purely on the specie she can access from her family. Kathleen McLuskie writes in The elderly gussy up: â€Å"There is evidence to suggest that marriage was regarded as just an instrument of social control…” The fair play of this is slowly revealed throughout the play, though remains c onceal until the final scene, especially in this scene. The accuracy of McLuskies line of reasoning resonates through this scene the significance of its fact is seen in Marianas daily life. The Dukes second statement describes Angelos lack of interest in Mariana besides as a blood line of riches and probably business relations of rough sort. Since the Duke describes Angelo as a model person, this appears to be sure as some sort of norm amongst the nobility in Vienna. Through Mariana is shown the effect this self-interest has on the women in the society.\r\nMariana is now confined to a moated grange where she has short company and even less to deal her clock time. Shakespeare uses Marianas character later in the play to inflate the forgiving nature of women, one of the few compulsive attributes he bestows upon the female characters in Measure for Measure.\r\nMariana: Oh, my beloved lord,\r\nI crave no other, nor better man.\r\nAlthough the women in Vienna are stripped of th eir freedom and seem to have their sense of responsibility undermined, they retain their principles and live up to the roles they hope to be given. They remain firm loyal: Isabella to the doctrines of the church and Mariana to Angelo, regardless of the price they have to pay. Their devotion is often presented as submission:\r\nIsabella: (to Duke) I am directed by you.\r\nWhat Isabella does not know when she utters these words is the situation to follow. This whitethorn be a premonition (as frequently occur in Shakespeares plays) of the respectfulness the Duke of her in the final scene. Perhaps what Eli Khamarov claims in America Explained! is true also in Shakespeares Vienna, that women allow men power over them. Then the question inescapably to be asked, â€Å"What do women gain from permitting men to tyrannise them?” Sexual freedom is certainly not the answer. The informal constriction of Isabella and Marianas lives is a stark contrast to that of the prostitutes, whic h make up a large Viennese sub-culture, in particular schoolmaam Over make.\r\nLucio: Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes. I have purchased as many diseases under her crown as come to [judge]\r\nThis brothel-owner is nicknamed Madam Mitigation by Lucio, since she ‘alleviates mens versed tension. Her liberalism is however save as much of a bane to her as Isabellas probity is to Claudio and Angelo alike when, on the promotion of Angelo to â€Å"acting duke”, the brothels are ordered to close.\r\n schoolmistress Overdone: But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?\r\nPompey: To the ground, mistress.\r\nMistress Overdone: … What shall become of me?\r\nCaught in a vicious cycle, Mistress Overdone cannot join, since no man wishes to marry her because she is a prostitute. If she cannot marry she must support herself; the only trade women are welcome in is whoredom hence she must remain a prostitute. But this in turn means no man will marry her. Mistress Overdones lack of choice in her own life is another practice session of the double standards adopted by the corrupt men in Viennese society. This is a culture where women are used for sex yet still pass judgment to remain pure and chaste.\r\nTheir civil rights are abused, they are treated as second-class citizens, and their freedoms of speech and choice are taken from them. The comparison of the female characters suggested in the first paragraph of this essay when establishing Isabellas choice of comme il faut a nun is a good starting point for this. Mistress Overdone has the most freedom of any woman, but she pays for this with any emotional surety department she could hope for. Isabella has emotional aegis within the constraints of religion, but no freedom. There is also the possibility she whitethorn have little companionship. Mariana has no emotional security or freedom. When Juliet exercised her freedom within her emotional security; she had both take n from her. Since, even though the women in Vienna are stripped of their freedom and seem to have their sense of responsibility undermined, when a man is sentenced to death for impregnating his fianc�e, the moral responsibility of the action is position on the woman.\r\nDuke: So then it seems your most offenceful act\r\nWas mutually committed.\r\nJuliet: Mutually.\r\nDuke: Then was your sin of a heavier kind than his.\r\nJuliet: I do confess it, and repent it, father.\r\nAlthough the Duke is here posing as a friar, either he is adopting the attitude of the church he is representing, or he is following his own moral code. By acquittance along with the churchs belief Shakespeare is using him to show the patriarchal set-up of the religion in Vienna. If the Duke is using his own ideals as a guide, this is similarly as worrying since he is the ruler of the city and has the superseding voice.\r\nThe exploitative nature of the men in Vienna is shown by the treatment of both Is abella and Mariana by Angelo and the Duke throughout the play. They are humiliated in public and subordinated in private.\r\nAngelo: For that her reputation was disvalued\r\nIn levity. Since which time of five years\r\nI never spake with her, truism her, nor heard from her\r\nAngelos jilting of Mariana leads to a decline her self-esteem whilst the Dukes use of the two women results in his exultation and their continued lack of choice, as he marries Mariana to Angelo and demands Isabellas own hand in marriage. This lack of respect for womens own abilities to make choices renders them powerless over even their own lives.\r\nWhat Shakespeare says about Vienna through the mens treatment of women is evident. Men who do not respect others, and who strip the rights of women to save their own face not achieve their goals. Nonetheless Shakespeare does not show them suffering, especially not at the hands of the women. Angelo ends the play married to a woman who loves him dear and will pand er to his every want. Claudio, in his unfitness to understand Isabellas decision to let him die, finds himself not having to. The Duke is still asking for Isabellas hand right up to the end of the scene. Her name suggests she will not give in.\r\n barely it is not only on the account of conquering that men stand accused of maltreating females, Shakespeare strongly highlights issues including sexual double standards and general moral hypocrisy. Claiming that the Vienna in Measure for Measure was indicative of the capital of the United Kingdom of his time, Shakespeare shows what little he thinks of the values adopted by his peers and contemporaries. The images he conjures up of dirty streets and lavish mansions are also historically accurate representations of life in London powerfully supporting the supposition that the city was the quash of Shakespeares criticism. Perhaps Shakespeare is offering a theory behind the state of London and what can be done to change it.\r\nHe also make s reference to what he feels womens role is in society through the characters of Isabella, Mariana and Mistress Overdone in particular. These are three women who do not fit into the role of wife and apiece have different ways of life, yet still find their destinies have been handed over to men. It is possible that in this play Shakespeare is criticising the misogyny of 17th ampere-second London and maybe even King pack I (although the latter is highly unlikely he would get away with it). A counter-argument is offered by Linda Bamburs comic Women, Tragic Men: a Study of sex and Genre in Shakespeare, that â€Å"the writer fails to attribute the paired sex characters the privileges of the other” hints at Shakespeares own discriminatory attitude. She hints that the treatment of women in Measure for Measure is a parody for Shakespeares own attitude towards them. Truth be told, his subliminal messages in Measure for Measure may never be known, but one fact remains. Whether as a result of playwrights like Shakespeare, or simply because of a gradual change in attitudes, two centuries after this play and its highlighting of constituted patriarchy, the first feminist movement sprang up. London has never been the same.\r\n'