Sexuality, Religion and Power in Measure for Measure

초록

Measure for Measure unfolds “the properties of government”: the intricate relation of power to sexuality and religion. The play of the disguised ruler in the Renaissance represents the patriarchy in its attempts to control or at least observe sexuality among the young. Authority figures such as ruler and father disguise themselves to observe the sex life or “passes” of the young. Yet Vincentio’s disguise is more closely related to his political strategy. Throughout the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Vincentio is the only ruler who disguises himself peculiarly as a religious figure and meddles directly in the sex lives of subjects in no way privately related to him. Shakespeare divides Vincentio into duke and friar, and gives him an impressive combination of secular and religious power. Yet the writer also discloses the nature of power and demystifies the divine-secular authority. Not only is his subordinate Angelo’s secular authority challenged by Isabella’s moral superiority, but the duke’s religious authority is demystified through the play. This paper explores the inextricable relation of power to sexuality and religion, and demonstrates how the legitimacy of authority is challenged and demystified.

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