Theme of Innocence in William Shakespeare's "measure for Measure"

Theme of Innocence in William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"

The forces of will, sex, passion and love are in themselves innocent in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure. It is when they are criminalizes and demonized by various institutions, namely law and society tries to control and legislate natural human emotions that they become dangerous .The first instance of ‘love' occurs within the play is the love between Claudius and Juliet ,which is innocent and consensual. The two are engaged to be married, nothing amoral about this. It is when law and religion intervene and attempt to separate love from sex. Claudius is, however, to be executed under Angelo's rule for impregnating Juliet.

The second instance of ‘love' in the play is the familial love between Claudius and his young sister Isabella. The conflict begins early in the play, on Isabella's first encounter with Angelo. Critics have often seen Isabella as a wholesome innocent nun-to-be, an individual who pleads for Claudius's life and is met with Angele's debased preposition to give her chastity in return of her brother's life. In her desire to protect herself against corruption, she rejects not only sex, but intercourse with men and most forms of intercourse with women. She rejects the world, including love, and in doing so, comprises her own full humanity. Angelo embodies corruption. His strict adherence is not dissimilar to the puritans who were around during the time of ‘Measure for Measure'? In his stringent desire of order and morality, he has had to separate love and sex. The institution of religion deems such natural passion as amoral. When Angelo finds himself attracted by Isabella, what is to prevent him simply declaring his love for her? He is the kind of man she admires. If he freely pardoned her brother he would stand in her good grace. But for him love and lust have become separate as good and evil.

The second incidence of sex within the play is linked intrinsically to a situation of passion, the passion of Angelo for Isabella. During the time Shakespeare wrote "Measure for Measure" there were political tensions in England. Elizabeth I was reaching the end of her monarchy and there were transitional fears as Kingship was passed to the Scottish James I. These tensions are represented in the play through the themes of just and fair rule explored through the character of Angelo and Duke. When a corrupt deputy sentences a man to death for the crime of fornication, Shakespeare asks us to consider whether or not mortality can or should be legislated. On one hand, the play warns the men and women don't necessarily have the right to pass judgment on their fellow human beings, at the same time, "Measure For Measure" suggests that a person who can commit a crime or sin should be made to pay either by making some sort of restitution