Measure for Measure: look to the future

As I finish skimming the surface of Lake Measure for Measure, I’m readying myself for some deeper dives into the text.

Some of the concepts I’m considering:

  • foreshadowing (pirates, dowry)
  • Mariana (parallels to All’s Well That Ends Well‘s Helena; her pasts, Tennyson’s poem)
  • concept of a woman’s role
  • the duke and women
  • Angelo
  • Angelo/Isabella parallels
  • sexual harassment
  • male power
  • symbolic settings
  • in-play playwrights
  • marriages and the future of Vienna
  • prostitution and the London suburbs
  • character ages
  • the quality and quantity of mercy
  • doubling/substitutes/deputies

plus, of course, the usual suspects of the trip to Bawdy-ville, textual stage directions, scansion for acting clues, midpoint, and a look at the numbers.

Any other suggestions?

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