Measure for Measure Gender Quotes

When Lucio brags about how much money he's spent at Mistress Overdone's brothel (and the number of STDs he's contracted), it's clear that the unruly Mistress Overdone thumbs her nose at the legal system and operates outside the sphere of masculine authority.  

Nuns at St. Clare's aren't allowed to talk to a man and show their faces at the same time. They can do one or the other but not both. Also, any speaking or showing of faces to men must be done in the presence of the prioress (head nun).

Brain Snack: In 1538, Henry VIII (the English king who broke with the Catholic Church) began the dissolution of all the monasteries and convents in England. This eliminated an important option for women who would seek life as nuns. By the time Shakespeare wrote Measure for Measure around 1604, there weren't any left. There were, however, plenty of them in Vienna (the seat of the Holy Roman Empire), which is the setting of Shakespeare's play.

In a previous passage, we saw how Mistress Overdone breaks the law by running a brothel. Here, when we first encounter Isabella, we find out she wants to join a convent (a very strict convent at that). But why? Is it because she's seeking refuge from the kind of corruption and sleaziness that's so rampant in Vienna? Or, is this another way for a woman to lead a life independent of men?

Why does Shakespeare place his two major female characters on opposite ends of the social spectrum? Is a woman's only option to be a virgin or a whore?

Lucio, a self-professed ladies' man, places Isabella on a pedestal and separates Isabella from other women because she's a virgin.  Angelo, on the other hand, is turned on by Isabella's chastity, but seeks to destroy it by blackmailing our girl into having sex with him.  What's up with that? 

When the Duke comes up with a "bed trick" to fool Angelo into sleeping with his jilted, ex-fiancé, Isabella and Mariana both go along with it.  Why?  We thought Isabella was anti-sex.  Also, why would Mariana want Angelo back after what he did to her?  For feminist scholars like Eileen Cohen, this kind of bed trick, which is a popular plot device in Shakespearean drama, is an expedient way for women to subvert patriarchal authority.

Isabella is then placed in a terrible position by a corrupt deputy – if she sleeps with Angelo to save her brother's life, she will compromise her values.  If she doesn't sleep with Angelo, her brother will die.  Here, she decides that that her chastity is more valuable than anything else, which all but invites the audience to judge whether or not Isabella makes the right decision.

Much like Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne, Juliet is jailed for having sex outside of marriage and gives birth to a child in prison.  Although Hester's crime is adultery and not merely fornication, the fates of both women are frightening reminders of what can happen when the government has the power to regulate sexuality and biological reproduction.

This passage is interesting, because the conversation between Duke Vincentio suggests that the only respectable title for a woman is "maid, widow, or wife."  According to Lucio's logic, if a woman is neither of these things, she must be a prostitute.  See what we mean when we say women have limited roles?

Lucio believes that marrying a prostitute is a fate worse than torture because being hitched to a promiscuous woman will make him a "cuckold" (a man cheated on by his wife). In other words, he feels that marriage to a "punk" will compromise his masculinity and destroy his life.

Interestingly, the woman Lucio has been ordered to marry is yet another jilted woman (like Mariana). Earlier, we learned that Lucio got a girl pregnant and promised to marry her, but left her high and dry after she gave birth to their child.