Assumed Morality | The Duke, the Fey, etc.

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Throughout our discussion of Measure for Measure, there was a near-constant question of why the Duke was going about things the way he was. To that, I pose this question:

Why not?

And with that question, I’d imagine there’d be a small army of answers about ‘it’d be easier if he did…’ or ‘none of the issues with the play would be a problem if he had done…’. And with that, I’d pose the original question: Why? Why would he care to go about his little performance in a way that’ll do the least amount of harm?  Yes, he rules over these people, But in a society without elections, does the ruling class truly need to care about how their people feel about them? There’s little doubt the Duke’s actions are questionable in terms of morality and effectiveness, that with that comes another point.

Bold of us to assume morals have any meaning to him.

His actions strike me as reminiscent of fey, particularly the ones featured in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The chaos that makes up a majority of that particular comedy stems from the faire folk interfering with the mortal realm – not because mortals bear any meaning to them beyond an evening’s entertainment. Why, the entire fey part of the story stems from Oberon getting back at Titania and simply blowing out of proportion.

The fey play by a different set of rules, so does the Duke, as we’ve seen. Why, he even demonstrated the same roundabout and needlessly complicated approach to solving an issue as we see with Puck. And while this by no means excuses his actions, this does set him apart from other characters of his position of power.

We see a similar situation with Isabella and her brother. However, since I can't relate them to the fey, I consequently don't care about that example. Oh well, might as well explain it now. With Claudio being a less faith-based character than Isabella, it makes total sense for Isabella to sleep with Angelo to save his life. And while Isabella and some readers are completely appalled, one has to understand that when faith means next to nothing to him, he has no reason to care about it. Unless you count being a good person as a reason, and even then you have to wonder if he cares about being a good person.



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