Dear "The Duke", What the heck are you doing, buddy?

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While reading through Measure for Measure, I find myself drawn to The Duke's "Undercover Boss" approach to things.

That's really what this play kind of is... a really trippy and shady episode of "Undercover Boss"... (Throwback to McKenna's wonderful post)

Even with that kind of explanation, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around "Why?". I get it, you get bored, you decide to shake things up, but there's too much here to just chop it up to that. The Duke was too "soft" when it came to ruling and Lord Angelo being almost the exact opposite of that can't be a coincidence. Surely, The Duke could have seen that coming... at least a little bit.

So, again, why? Was he trying to learn to be a more merciless ruler by observing Angelo? Was he just hoping Angelo would take care of it all at once and leave The Duke with all the jobs done upon his return?

Poor Isabella, the timing of this must have been stressful.

The Duke's motivations are rather... unclear and it makes me think about the difference between complicated characters that are always one step ahead and characters that straight up are just a guessing game. I believe The Duke to be the latter. He's not pulling off some complicated scheme, he's just doing things to better his current situation; be it boredom, a learning experience, or taking advantage of a more merciless personality. Not to mention he really just pretended to be a friar, that's not exactly the definition of complicated undercover mission.

So when I say it can be hard to pinpoint his exact motivation, I think it's because the situation is all too simple and maybe The Duke wasn't really thinking at all. Maybe he was just like, "Well, let's see how this does," and rolled with it.

While manipulation is a part of his game, there could be a form of impulsiveness behind it, too. The Duke isn't a perfect character by a landslide but it was his decisions that had to actually start the plot so it feels like you can also answer "for plot reasons" when you ask "Why are you doing this?"

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