Measure for Measure Marriage Quotes

The nature of Claudio and Juliet's relationship status is pretty fuzzy. When Claudio admits he went to bed with Juliet, he claims, "she is fast my wife, / Save that we do the denunciation lack / Of outward order." Some literary critics think that Claudio and Juliet have made a binding marriage contract but haven't had a religious ceremony (required by the Church) to seal the deal. In seventeenth-century England, a marriage contract was considered legal under common law if the bride and groom got together in front of witnesses and said "I marry you."

Why does any of this matter? Because Claudio has been sentenced to death for sleeping with Juliet out of wedlock.

Claudio claims that he and Juliet haven't yet made a public announcement of their betrothal because they were waiting for Juliet's relatives to cough up a dowry. (A dowry is the money, goods, and/or land that a woman brings to the marriage – it becomes her husband's property once the couple is married.)

It turns out that Angelo (the guy who sentences Claudio to death for fornicating with Juliet) was once engaged to Mariana.  What's interesting is that Angelo broke off the engagement when Mariana's dowry was lost at sea.  A woman's dowry is just as important to Angelo as it is to Claudio.  The difference, however, between the two men is that Claudio doesn't abandon Juliet because she didn't bring enough money to the relationship. 

When the Duke devises a bed trick (when one sexual partner is secretly substituted for another) that will deceive Angelo into having sex with Mariana, he reasons that, once Angelo sleeps with his ex-fiancé, he'll have to marry her.

This literary devise is a favorite of Shakespeare's, who also uses it in All's Well That Ends Well, where Bertram is duped into sleeping with Helena. In both Measure for Measure and All's Well, the bed trick is geared toward securing heterosexual marriage.

Here, we learn that Lucio has jilted Kate Keepdown, the mother of his child.  Why did Lucio break his promise to marry Kate?  Keep reading....

Lucio declares 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).  (Apparently, it's OK for him to have sex with Kate, but Lucio wouldn't deign to marry her.)  Lucio feels that marriage to a "whore" will compromise his masculinity and destroy his life.

Mariana knows that Angelo is no good but she wants to be married to him anyway.  But why?  Angelo broke off their engagement because she didn't have a dowry and later tried to coerce Isabella into sleeping with him.  So, what's the deal with Mariana wanting to be with this jerk?

The Duke pardons Angelo and revokes the death penalty, but he orders him to wed Mariana and to love his wife.  Angelo doesn't have much to say about this, which makes us wonder if he feels like his marriage to Mariana is a form of punishment.

When the Duke asks Isabella to marry him, we're not sure if she's happy or mortified because she never responds.  Is the Duke's offer to marry Isabella a welcomed proposal or an unwanted proposition?  We can interpret this moment either way because Shakespeare is being completely ambiguous. 

Again, when the Duke mentions marrying Isabella, our girl is completely silent.  Is this because Isabella still has ambitions to be a nun and doesn't want anything to do with the Duke?  Or, has Isabella changed her mind about sex and marriage?  How would you play this scene if you were an actor?