I didn't wanna get myself started with the Duke, but what the hell....

            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.”

What is a Villain?

As Rebecca mentioned in her blog post, I too have contemplated the idea of the Duke being the villain in this story, rather than Angelo. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a villain is a character who does bad things, evil things. If this is the case, there would be multiple villains in this story, and every story for that matter. I believe that a villain is someone who purposely does bad things, manipulates people simply for the pleasure of it and perhaps for some gain in power. With this definition, it is easy to see Angelo as the devil. Angelo was given the power of the Duke, and abused his power, simply because he thought he could (why not right? The Duke said he’s in charge of everything). Angelo enforced rules that the Duke had not, but he also made up some of his own (unless it’s apparently a law for an adulterer’s sister to sleep with the man in charge to save her brother’s life, but that seems a bit crazy to me). Anyway, I think Angelo is an evil person and a villain, by my definition of a villain.

                  If I were to judge the Duke’s status as a villain by the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition as well, he too would be a villain, but I no longer think he is. It is unclear what the Duke’s motifs were in the first place for leaving (maybe because he was terrible at his job, maybe he was afraid of having so much power, or maybe he secretly, maliciously wanted to see someone tear the land apart so everyone would hate the new man in power and not pay attention to the Duke’s lack of enforcing laws and doing poorly at his job). Although there are many possibilities, I have a hard time believing that the Duke was plotting for the land to fall apart. It seems much more logical to me that the Duke was having trouble enforcing laws, because his own personal morals were not the exact same as the laws; so, the Duke thought perhaps putting someone else in power would help laws be enforced, and he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about it because he was not enforcing the laws himself. Regardless of the Duke’s motifs, his actions do not mirror those of a villain (yes, maybe he was a bit entertained by the chaos, but who wouldn’t be?).