Cadet Will Reeves

3/27/17

Help Received: See works cited

Short Assignment on Measure for Measure

Part 1

Early modern English perspectives on resistance to the monarch varied widely.  Some writers emphasized the fact that subjects’ ultimate duty is to obey God, and thus that if the monarch’s commands are in opposition to the law of God, subjects must obey God.  According to Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos, written by an author with the pseudonym Stephanus Junius Brutus, subjects would not be acting wrongfully toward their monarch if they refused to submit to a law or command of his that contradicted the law of God.  In A Dialogue Concerning the Due Privilege of Government in the Kingdom of Scotland, George Buchanan, who tutored King James I when James was a child, espoused the idea that when a monarch takes his oath of office, he is bound by contract to rule in accordance with the kingdom’s established laws.  If he violates these laws, the contract is void, and his subjects are no longer bound to submit to him (Kamps and Raber 142).  In addition to the concept of the contract, Buchanan also notes that it is justified to use violence against thieves caught in the act as well as against the armies of other countries when a dispute can be settled no other way.  He posits that a tyrant is an “enemy” of the people, and thus the use of violence against him is justified (169-70).

Other thinkers, however, posited that the commands of God and the commands of the monarch are one and the same.  Subjects who resist their monarch also resist the will of God.  Even the commands of tyrants are backed by the authority of God, and God often uses tyrants to punish a people for their wicked deeds (Kamps and Raber 142-43).  Such thinkers would likewise condemn the act of slander against the king by any of the king’s subjects.  The suppression of free speech by the monarch was common in early modern England.  King James I was especially vehement in his condemnation of slander against the monarch, comparing it to crimes such as murder and incest (Kamps and Raber 145).  Because slander against the monarch is the first step toward rebellion against him, many monarchs and thinkers at that time viewed it as acceptable for the monarch to harshly punish those who spoke ill of him.

Part II

When viewing the story of Measure for Measure through the eyes of Isabella, Shakespeare seems to support the idea that opposing or subverting the authority of a monarch is justified if the monarch governs wickedly.  Shakespeare sides with the thinkers of his day such as George Buchanan, who believed that subjects’ ultimate duty is to obey God, and thus that if the monarch’s commands are in opposition to the law of God, subjects must obey God.  Isabella proves herself dutifully obedient to what she perceives as just authority, but also resorts to any means necessary to subvert the authority of Angelo when he acts maliciously toward her.

Isabella is clearly the type who does not normally resist authority.  In fact, she wants a life governed by strict authority.  That seems to be why she is entering a nunnery: she craves its rules and regulations.  After the nun Francisca explains to her all of the restrictions of the nunnery, Isabella asks in an almost disappointed manner, “And have you nuns no farther privileges?” (I. iv. 1).  She clarifies, “I speak not as desiring more, /But rather wishing a more strict restraint” (I. iv. 3-4).  Moreover, as much as she would not like to see her brother put to death, she acknowledges that the law of the land is just.  In the beginning of her first conversation with Angelo, she seems to resign herself to the fact that her brother must die, exclaiming, “O just but severe law!” (II. ii. 45).  Thus, she normally embraces the rules which those in authority place upon her, even if they cost her her brother’s life.

However, when Angelo makes his wicked deal to Isabella that would save her brother’s life at the cost of her own honor, her subsequent opposition to him goes beyond resistance: She pursues a personal vendetta against him.  She cannot stand to allow Angelo get away with punishing Claudio for the same crime that he himself intends to commit.  She laments in anger, “O perilous mouths, /That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue, /Either of condemnation or approof, /Bidding the law make curtsy to their will…!” (II. iv. 173-76).  The things she is willing to do after Angelo’s horrifying offer is surprising for a woman who intended to live a pious life as a nun.  She is highly intrigued by the Duke’s plan involving Mariana, and complies with enthusiastic zeal.  She is instrumental in making the arrangements such that Angelo accidentally has sex with Mariana instead of she herself.  Nor does she hesitate to slander Angelo to the Duke’s face, calling Angelo “the devil” (V. i. 30), an “adulterous thief, /An hypocrite, a virgin-violator” (V. i. 42-44), and an “archvillain” (V. i. 60).  She goes even farther than slander, though, by threatening Angelo on several occasions.  On the first occasion, she threatens him to his face that she will expose to everyone the disgusting deal that he has offered her.  Also, when the Duke tells her that Claudio has been executed, but entreats her to be calm and patient nevertheless, she explodes with fury, “O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!” (IV. iii. 106).  Angelo becomes a despicable character, and Shakespeare portrays Isabella and her resistance to Angelo in a generally favorable light.

Thus, it becomes clear that Isabella believes true justice is rooted not in obedience to earthly rulers, but in a transcendent standard of justice that comes from God.  From her very first interactions with Angelo she emphasizes that it is a right for a monarch to hold power, but wicked for a monarch to abuse that power.  She pleads with Angelo, in words that would prove to be prophetic, “O, it excellent /To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous /To use it like a giant” (II. ii. 112-14).  Later, she remains firm in her conviction that Angelo’s actions have been unjust, and is desperate for true justice that will hold Angelo accountable, and punish him.  She gets on her knees and begs the Duke to give her “justice, justice, justice, justice” (V. i. 26).  By having the audience sympathize with Isabella’s resistance to Angelo and her pursuit of true justice, Shakespeare upholds the early modern English view that a subject’s first duty was to obey God and his commands, and to resist an earthly monarch who contradicted those commands.

Works Cited

Buchanan, George. A Dialogue Concerning the Due Privilege of Government in the Kingdom of Scotland. Measure for Measure: Texts and Contexts. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Ivo Kamps and Karen Raber. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. 168-70. Print.

Kamps, Ivo, and Karen Raber, ed. Measure for Measure: Texts and Contexts. By William Shakespeare. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure. Ed. Ivo Kamps and Karen Raber. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004. Print.

One of the main themes in Merchant of Venice is the concept of justice. It is often difficult to decipher within the play who is being just and who is being unjust. Early modern English perspectives on Jews complicate the issue. In the final court scene especially, readers will likely have differing views on the questions of whether Shylock was justified in seeking the literal fulfillment of his bond, whether judge Portia’s ruling was fair and accurate, and whether Antonio exacted revenge against or showed mercy toward Shylock at the end of the scene.

Cadet Will Reeves

3/8/17

Help Received: See works cited

Short Assignment on Othello

Part 1

Early modern English writers differed in their perspectives of the nature of jealousy.  Francis Bacon believed that jealousy was the result of one person loving another person to too great an extent.  For Bacon, this was not a virtuous kind of love, but a twisted love characterized by extreme sexual passion (Hall 328).  Benedetto Varchi and Robert Burton both view jealousy as an intense emotion, related to love, but not really the result of love (Hall 328).  Furthermore, Varchi believes that some kinds and groups of people, such as women, Venetians, and Africans, are by nature more prone to feeling jealous (Hall 328).

Benedetto Varchi notes that people who perceive themselves as generally inferior to other men and women are often jealous.  They are especially bitter that they are not esteemed or thought attractive by the women in their lives, and become jealous of the men and women who enjoy each other’s respect and approval (Varchi 333).  Nevertheless, Varchi concludes that jealousy is in fact a natural emotion that is actually virtuous in the appropriate context and in the appropriate quantity.  Feeling jealousy for one’s own reputation or the reputation of one’s wife are examples of circumstances where jealously is appropriate (Varchi 333-34).

Robert Burton describes the mind of a jealous man.  The jealous man is in a frenzied state.  He can never rest, but continuously views the actions of his mistress with suspicion, asking himself what may be the secret motives behind each of her seemingly insignificant words or actions (Burton 335-37).  Furthermore, his suspicions of her manifest themselves in his own actions.  He may one moment adore his mistress and speak lovingly and intimately to her, and then, after he has misinterpreted and blown out of proportion some small thing she has said or done, insult her, act violently toward her, and cast her out of his presence.  His suspicions also extend even beyond his mistress alone, and may include anyone among his own friends and family whom he suspects of becoming romantically involved with his mistress (Burton 336-37).  After discussing several options for curing this frenzied state that is jealousy, Burton concludes that a mistress’s only option is to exercise patience with her man until his jealousy subsides (Burton 337).

Francis Bacon points out that in order for a man to envy someone else, he must have someone to whom to compare himself.  A man compares himself to others who are of similar status as himself, but whom he perceives as being slightly better than himself.  For example, kings are not jealous of any one of their subjects, but instead kings are jealous of other kings.  Therefore, a man who focuses mainly on his own affairs and is not continually looking at the achievements of others is less prone to jealousy (Bacon 339).  Bacon also notes that, unlike other feelings, which arise from time to time when they are evoked by some situation, the feeling of jealousy exists constantly in man.  Bacon ultimately condemns jealousy as the most heinous emotion, and the one that best characterizes the Devil himself (Bacon 340).

Part II

The final scene of the play reflects many of these writers’ perspectives.  Othello’s unstable mental state is apparent throughout the play once he begins to buy in to Iago’s lies, but it is displayed most prominently through his interactions and conversation with Desdemona in the final scene.  Othello’s actions with Desdemona at the beginning of the scene particularly reflect Robert Burton’s description of the frenzied mind of a man who is at one moment adoring of his mistress, and at the next moment filled with contempt for her.  Even as Othello is preparing to strangle his wife to death, he cannot resist still loving her, as shown by his kisses.  The fact that he is still kissing her at line 19 and then has strangled her by line 87 is telling of his mental state.  Indeed, by the end of the scene, Othello has himself acknowledged that his own excess of love for Desdemona spurred on the feelings of jealousy that Iago kindled.  He laments, “Then you must speak /Of one that loved not wisely but too well; /Of one not easily jealous but, being wrought, /Perplexed in the extreme” (V. ii. 353-56).  These lines reflect the views of Bacon that jealousy is the result of loving another person to too great an extent.  Othello seems to believe that he loved Desdemona so much that when it was even suggested that she was being unfaithful to him, he lost his mind and thereby doomed her.  He explains this further by claiming that he is not by nature prone to jealousy, but that someone else, that is, Iago, used his own intense love for Desdemona against him (V. ii. 355).

What makes the end of the play even more disturbing is the fact that the feelings of jealousy that Iago causes to arise in Othello were actually appropriate and justified according to most early modern English writers.  (In fact, modern audiences would, in general, also view jealousy as an appropriate reaction to the suspicion that one’s spouse is being unfaithful.)  Shakespeare’s portrayal of Othello makes clear that the jealousy Othello felt was not a wicked emotion.  This portrayal of Othello is shown when Lodovico wonders aloud what he can even say to Othello, to which Othello replies, “Why, anything. /An honorable murderer, if you will, /For naught did I in hate, but all in honor” (V. ii. 301-03).  Thus, Shakespeare affirms Varchi’s proposition that jealously, in the appropriate context, is natural and justified.  It was right for Othello to be jealous when he believed that Desdemona had been unfaithful.  Thus, Iago never really did corrupt Othello’s character; he merely convinced Othello of his lies about Desdemona and Cassio.  Othello’s only fault was to believe Iago.  At the end of the play, the audience is deeply disgusted and angered by way Iago manipulated Othello.  On the other hand, the audience is actually sympathetic toward Othello, whose jealousy, which would have been justified had Iago’s rumors been true, ultimately destroys him and the lives of those he loves.

Works Cited

Bacon, Francis. The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 338-40. Print.

Burton, Robert. Anatomy of Melancholy. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 335-37. Print.

Hall, Kim F., ed. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. Print.

Varchi, Benedetto. The Blazon of Jealousy. Othello. By William Shakespeare. Ed. Kim F. Hall. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 330-34. Print.