In a play
(or really, semester) full of characters that are not-so likable, The Duke has
made his way to the top of my “you suck” list. I mean, this guy has been a
shmuck all these years, leaves this imbecile in charge who messes everything up
even further and then decides it’s appropriate for him to be the orchestrator
of this big scheme. Maybe it’s just me, but if I was such a royal screw up, I
would not give myself the responsibility of all these people’s lives,
virginity, ect. And then, as his great comeback, he decides to do this
elaborate finale where he bounces Isabella in and out of jail, summons the
Friar version of himself, who pretends to be too sick to show up, and then
shows up anyway (and then proceeds to confuse me). In the end, he thinks
everyone is happily ever after… but I disagree. Simply because in what universe
did Isabella show any interest, at all, in marrying the Duke (or Friar, or
whoever the hell he is). To me, she is not a character who really changed her
morals and personal beliefs throughout the play; if anything, she went through
a rollercoaster of emotions and seemingly stayed relatively true to herself. If
she wanted to stray from her goals of joining the super strict convent, then
she would have slept with Angelo, got her brother back, and moved on with her
life.
Also, how
in the world does the Duke get away with all of this stuff? It has been made
clear in this course that these people are more evolved than I previously
thought: they know the earth was round, they bathed frequently and they
SOMETIMES, I repeat sometimes, care
about women’s rights (or maybe that was only the Wife of Bath). If they’re not
complete morons, then they should be able to see that all these heads are, in
fact, not Claudio’s, and have enough reason to know that Angelo would see the
difference; if he can’t, he’s just dumb. I mean, I get death takes a toll on
these guys bodies (I can’t find the exact quote in the text but sometime along
the lines of it changing how someone looks) but I doubt, even with death,
Claudio looks like all the guys who are conveniently dying that day.
Overall,
the Duke gets away with everything, he’s an idiot, no one seems entirely happy and
this all doesn’t feel measure for measure, arm for an arm to me… cause this
jerk is still living “happily ever after.”
I have mixed feelings about the Duke. He clearly made some bad choices as a ruler, I think that the first of these is putting Angelo in charge. Even though he did not know that Angelo would become a power-hungry snake but if he knew Angelo then he should have had an inkling that power was his fatal flaw and that it would eventually catch up with him. At the beginning of the play I did not like the Duke, he was a terrible ruler but he was not the worst *cough Angelo cough.* I ended up liking the Duke a little more when he started talking to Claudio and sympathizing with him. The Duke could have turned his back on Claudio and let him die instead of helping him. The Duke gets brownie points for that in my book. There are much easier ways to save Claudio than the Duke's plan, this is where the Duke starts to lose my support again. But it was not until the very end of the play when the Duke tells Isabella that she will marry him that I lose all respect for him. I feel like he conned Isabella. He knows that she won't sleep with Angelo to save her brother, so the Duke helps her out, then he acts like she owes him her virginity (at least he plans on marrying her first)! This is where the Duke and Angelo even out a little bit. Angelo tells her straight what the price of her brother's life is. The Duke does not, he helps save her brother's life and then is like "oh yeah, ya know how I just saved your borhter's life, now you owe me yours, so you have to marry me." The Duke is definately not as bad as Angelo but at least Angelo made his intentions clear from the beginning and the Duke did not until Isabella owed him. The Duke gives this great speech about "An Angelo for a Claudio, death for death. Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leissure; like doth quite like, and measure still for meausre"(ll.465-468). While he is talking about Angelo dying because Claudio died, I think this also pertains to Isabella and the Duke. Only instead of death for death it is life for life. The Duke saves Claudio's life so his sister Isabella owes him hers, a life for a life and a measure for measure, just like the title says.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about the Duke. I do not hate him as much as I hate Angelo but I do not necessarily like him as a character. At the beginning of the play I did not like him, he screwed up and then instead of fixing things he pushes the problem onto someone else. He is aware that power might go to Angelo’s head and even though he suspects that Angelo might turn into a power-hungry snake he puts him in charge anyway... what the hell? Seriously, Duke...really? My feelings about the Duke changed when I read about his visits to Claudio and when he tried to help save his life. But, there are easier and simpler ways to save Claudio’s life. The Duke could have revealed himself earlier and just pardoned Claudio, that would save a whole lot of people a whole lot of trouble... but no. At the end of the play I got seriously pissed off at the Duke when he tells Isabella to marry him.
ReplyDeleteThe Duke makes this big speech about “An Angelo for Claudio, death for death, haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; like doth quite like, and measure still for measure” (ll.465-468). I think that Shakespeare uses this as a means of foreshadowing. Hear me out, the Duke believes that because Claudio is not dead that Angelo must live (despite how much he deserves to die). That being said (um, the Claudio/Angelo thing not the Angelo needed to die thing), the Duke saves Claudio’s life on behalf of Isabella, therefore, applying the Duke’s logic stated above, Isabella owes the Duke her life. The Duke gave her a life (that of her brother) so he deserves her life and he plans on obtaining such through marriage. Life for life and measure for measure just like the title.
I think the Duke is a total jackass. His failure to do his basic duties and then his total abandonment of his post to let someone else "clean up" his city? Scum-canoe. I'm not saying he's worse than Angelo, I think they are different types of terrible. He may "help out" Claudio and Isabella but they wouldn't be beholden to Angelo if the Duke hadn't left in the first place? He's helping fix a problem he himself was instrumental in forming. So is that really helping or just basically cleaning up after himself? The part that I can't stand is the ending when he just tells Isabella that she'll be marrying him. Like what? If Isabella has proven anything over the course of this play, it's that she's the independent type. His announcement makes me think he's going to revert back to act 2 Angelo. Which just sounds awful. I don't think anyone (excepting Claudio and Juliette) is happy with all the marriages at the end. Lord knows Lucio and Angelo aren't. It almost seems like everyone else is getting married so the Duke may as well jump on that band wagon and what better choice is there than Isabella? (Hint: None, because she's kind of awesome.)
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