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Substitutions
Measure for Measure features many instances of one person being substituted for another. The play’s first example of this phenomenon occurs when the Duke hands his authority over to Angelo, making him the deputy who will act as his substitute. This first act of substitution results in numerous problems, as Angelo turns out to be a bad substitute for the Duke. He overextends his authority in tyrannical ways that lead to numerous arrests and generally rile the citizens of Vienna. Even more importantly, he uses his deputized power to coerce Isabella into an unlawful act. To counteract the chaos spawned by Angelo, the disguised Duke arranges a series of additional substitutions. Mariana substitutes for Isabella in the tryst with Angelo. Barnardine is initially meant to substitute for Claudio in death. However, when he refuses to die in Claudio’s stead, the Duke conspires to send Angelo the head of Ragozine the pirate, pretending that it’s Claudio’s. These later acts of substitution produce additional confusion in the play, but they ultimately lead to the restoration of order. By the play’s end, all substitutes have again been replaced by their originals.
Veiled Speech
Just as disguised identities play an important role in the play, so too does veiled speech. At many moments in the play, characters use veiled speech to hide their true intentions. For instance, when Angelo initially propositions Isabella, he does so through hypothetical scenarios that conceal the intensity of his desire and confuse the object of that desire. Consider the lengthy hypothetical Angelo uses to set up his proposition:
Admit no other way to save his life—
As I subscribe not that, nor any other—
But, in the loss of question, that you, his sister,
Finding yourself desired of such a person
Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
Could fetch your brother from the manacles
Of the all-binding law, and that there were
No earthly mean to save him but that either
You must lay down the treasures of your body
To this supposed, or else to let him suffer,
What would you do? (2.4.95–105)
Without explicitly identifying himself as the one who desires Isabella, Angelo makes his seduction that much more difficult. Indeed, given the vagueness of his proposition that she “lay down the treasures of [her] body,” Isabella can swiftly answer him in the negative. Only after further confusion will he address her plainly. Despite experiencing the frustration of Angelo’s veiled speech, Isabella goes on to veil her own speech when telling Claudio about Angelo’s proposition. Once again, the obfuscation of meaning leads to confusion. Other examples of veiled speech appear elsewhere in the play. The Duke, for instance, constantly obscures his intentions and manipulates others through lies and half-truths. Mariana also speaks in a riddling language in the play’s final scene, where she declares: “I have known my husband, yet my husband / Knows not that ever he knew me” (5.1.212–13).
The Language of Weights and Measures
The characters in Measure for Measure frequently use the language of weights and measures to discuss matters related to law and morality. This is a language that conjures the image of a scale, which has long been used as a symbol for justice. Balanced scales represent a suitable match between crime and punishment, determined through a neutral and objective method. Yet in this play, the scales of justice are often out of balance. Angelo implies as much when he warns Isabella against making his proposition to her public: “As for you, / Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true” (2.4.183–84). In other words, whatever she might say about him, he possesses such great moral authority in the community that even his false testimony will outweigh the truth of her report. In contrast to Angelo, however, other characters in the play are concerned with restoring balance. The Provost, for instance, calls on Abhorson the executioner to retain strict neutrality: “Go to, sir; you weigh equally. A feather will turn the scale” (4.2.30–31). The Duke echoes this call at the play’s end, reiterating the need for restoring balance: “Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; / Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure” (5.1.466–67).
