Themes of Shakespeares Comedy Measure for Measure

Themes of Shakespeares Comedy Measure for Measure Shakespeares Measure for Measure offers a number of themes, including: Judgment and PunishmentSexMarriageReligionThe Role of the Female Judgment and Punishment Measure for Measure asks the audience to consider how and to what extent one person can judge another. Just because someone holds a position of power doesnt indicate that the person is morally superior. The play questions whether it is possible to legislate issues of morality and how to do so. Had Claudio been executed, he would have left Juliet with a child and a tattered reputation. She would have no way to look after the child. Angelo was clearly in the wrong morally, but he was given a job to do and followed through. He wasn’t going to legislate against himself. The Duke has fallen in love with Isabella, Claudios sister, so  his decisions regarding punishment for Claudio and Angelo may have been skewed. The play suggests that people should be answerable for their sins but should receive the same treatment as they provided. Treat others as you would like to be treated, and if you commit a sin, expect to pay for it. Sex Sex is the main driver of the action in this play. In Vienna, illicit sex and prostitution are major social problems, resulting in illegitimacy and disease. This too is a concern for Shakespeare’s London, especially with the plague, as sex could result in death. Mistress Overdone represents the casual access to sex in the play. Claudio is sentenced to death by beheading for impregnating  his fiancà ©e. Isabella is told she can save her brother by having sex with Angelo, but she risks spiritual death and the death of her reputation. The play questions whether it is right for government to legislate against sexuality. Marriage Shakespeare’s comedies often are celebrated by a marriage, which is usually seen as a happy ending. In Measure for Measure, however, marriage is used as a punishment, Angelo is forced to marry Mariana and Lucio is forced to marry Mistress Overdone. This cynical look at marriage is unusual in a comedy. Ironically, marriage here is used to regulate and punish promiscuous behavior. Marriage saves the females reputation and gives them a position they would not have had. For Juliet, Mariana, and Mistress Overdone to an extent, this is the best option. Readers are asked to consider whether marriage would be a good option for Isabella, because she could marry the Duke and have a good social position, but does she love him or is she expected to marry him out of appreciation for what he has done for her? Religion The title of Measure for Measure comes from the gospel of Matthew. The plot includes a  passage where a hypocritical deputy sentences a man to death for fornication and then propositions a  woman. The main themes are associated with religion: morality, virtue, sin, punishment, death, and atonement. Its main character, Isabella, is obsessed with virtue, chastity, and her spiritual journey. The Duke spends most of his time dressed as a friar and Angelo has the attitude and demeanor of a puritan. The Role of the Female Each woman in the play is controlled by the forces of patriarchy. They are vastly different characters, but their social standing is limited by the men in their lives. A novice nun is blackmailed, a prostitute is arrested for running a brothel, and Mariana is jilted for not having a large enough dowry. Juliet and her unborn child are compromised by the attitudes she will face if she has an illegitimate child.

Writing a Reaction Paper

Writing a Reaction Paper Writing a Reaction Paper Writing a Reaction PaperIf you are writing a reaction paper, you should keep in mind a number of specific rules. In particular, reaction paper should be written critically, it is your task to provide critical response to a book, film, event, or even a person. The following example reaction paper is written about sex education. If you need individual help with reaction paper writing, do not hesitate to try our custom paper writing services. We are open 24/7 to provide high quality assistance with your academic assignments and essay papers! Do not forget to review free term papers medieval knights and sample term paper on cholesterol and lipids . You may also read an interesting article on how to write 3,000 words term paper SFU .Writing a Reaction Paper: Sample on Sex EducationThe effects of excessive secrecy, such hush-hush methods run counter to every principle of psychology and defeat their own purpose. One cannot successfully ignore such a significant theme in life as sex. Eve n a small child soon becomes conscious that his queries are being shunted aside in the most unsatisfying manner. But this does not allay his curiosityit merely intensifies it. He perceives that on certain subjects, which he did not know were different from any other subjects, his guileless questions produce a strange result on his parents. They seem disturbed, even shocked, and he doesn't know why; they will help him satisfy his curiosity on every subject but one. He soon realizes that he must look elsewhere for his information, for he must have it; it must be very interesting, or his parents wouldn't act so mysterious about it. His determination to know takes him to every source he can find, and so the typical method of acquiring sex information has begun. From tough boys, from the crude jokes and smutty stories of men, and sometimes from oversexed girls he picks up his information bit by bit, the whole often forming a most amazing mosaic. Such is the inevitable result of attemptin g to place sex in a special category by itself, something that is powerful but shameful, about which it is necessary to know yet about which one must not be taught. Such tactics automatically engender a curiosity far out of proportion to that felt about other factors in life, thus magnifying enormously the very thing parents sought to minimize. We can now perceive why Galloway was right when he said that sex education is more a matter of psychology than of biology, for our sex attitudes determine our whole physiological treatment of sex. The sex facts that children find out surreptitiously are not very important, but the emotional responses that develop are extremely important. Boys and girls who get their sex knowledge on the street frequently carry all through life the shame and fear reactions so commonly associated with certain words and actions. The mental images that they would forget are stamped indelibly upon their memories, making them ashamed to converse naturally on subjec ts properly related to sex. They may become overly self-conscious in the normal associations with the opposite sex, fearful lest some words of double meaning be wrongly interpreted. Such a preoccupation with unwholesome sex patterns often carries over into marriage, marring the relationship from which so much joy was rightly expected and proving the statement that sex education, in its end result, is marriage education.