Shakespeare also uses imperative verbs to communicate a character's position of power such as when the Duke addresses Angelo by saying "Hold therefore, Angelo", "Live in thy tongue..." and "Take thy commission". These examples of imperative verbs expound to the audience that the Duke has the ability to command those who live in Vienna, simply because he has the role of Duke.
These examples show structural techniques, lexical choice and grammatical features to explain to the audience that the Duke has power, simply, because he is the Duke regardless of his intent, personality or capability, this reflects on the disorder of the city of Vienna highlighting the fact that the Duke is fleeing and leaving Angelo in charge.
Shakespeare uses the extract to show the antithesis of the two characters', Angelo and Duke Vincentio, relationship with power regarding each other. Shakespeare uses techniques to clearly show the audience that the Duke has power over Angelo. In this extract, the Duke is trying to pass his role of Duke onto Angelo without giving him direct authority, this is shown through the use of personification. The Duke uses the utterance "...nor Nature never lend...", although, this is a clear use of nasal phonology, it is also a clear use of personification as the Duke refers to 'Nature' with anthropormorphic features. The use of imagery shows that the Duke feels the need to manipulate Angelo into accepting the offer as by personifying nature, he is suggesting that it is essential for the Duke to offer Angelo his place whilst he is away.
Similarly in this speech, the Duke uses the concept of syntactical patterning in order to convey his divine right to Angelo. He uses a semantic field of spirituality and religion to show Angelo that the position of Duke is important and given by God. He uses lexis such as "Heaven", "Spirits" and "Goddess". Shakespeare uses this device in order to show the manipulation of Angelo by the Duke by using a theme (religion) throughout his speech to convince Angelo that he has a divine right and will be closer to God by accepting the Duke's place temporarily.
The Duke, again, uses imperative verbs but this time to show the contrast between power, such as "We shall write to you...". The use of the pronoun "We" shows that, although this is an imperative statement, he is implying that the Duke and his advisor, Escalus, hold more power in order to have the task of writing to Angelo rather than giving Angelo responsibility immediately, which shows that the Duke does not want to hand over his power to Angelo instantaneously but would rather slowly allow Angelo to take more power as time goes on. He also uses pronouns to emphasise a similar point, he uses juxtaposing personal pronouns to impose that the Duke holds the power and Angelo does not. For example "...do I leave you.." with the emphasis on "I" and "You" showing contrast between the two men.
The Duke uses sibilant features to show his manipulation through the utterance "...smallest scruple...". Using sibilance draws attention to the negative sounds produced and shows the audience that Duke's intention is to influence Angelo's decision. The phonetic feature is used throughout Measure for Measure in order to show the various positions of power held by the characters.
The use of imagery, lexis, grammar and phonology draws attention to the Duke's view that he can persuade and manipulate Angelo because he has power over him. This reflects back on the desperation felt by the Duke in order to hand his withering authority figure onto somebody new and a previously unseen leader in order to change the failing systems of Vienna. The Duke clearly feels the need to manipulate Angelo as without it, he might struggle to persuade somebody to take the position.
Angelo is presented in this extract to have a distinct lack of power and to have very little faith in himself as a replacement for the Duke of Vienna. The extract shows his respect towards the current authority figure as shown through the subtle use of the nasals in the phrase "Let there be some more test made of my metal". The phonology is distributed throughout the utterance in order to show the modesty felt by Angelo. He sees himself as an unworthy candidate for the role and through the nasal feature he is subduing himself. This may be because he feels as though he is not capable of being in authority, or perhaps he is trying to use his personal power of pretence in order to convince the Duke that his false modesty makes him a more worthwhile candidate for the role. Angelo also uses a hyperbolic utterance in order to please the Duke by exaggerating the 'greatness' shown by Duke Vincentio as Vienna's duke. This, again, shows Angelo's use of planned persuasion in order to get the power he wants from the Duke.
The phonetic feature of the onomatopoeia "stamp'd" in the phrase "Before such so noble and so great a figure be stamp'd upon it" shows that Angelo is letting the Duke have the power to lend authority. This shows careful manipulation by showing the Duke that he is able to "stamp" the authority onto Angelo without feeling forced into it.
This shows that Angelo, although trusted by the Duke, has already started manipulating people for personal gain from the beginning of Shakespeare's novel, which Shakespeare uses to set precedent of whom the character of Angelo is yet to become.
The use of phonology and lexis shows that, although it is a smaller section within the text, Angelo has clear intent towards how he wants to use his new found power in Vienna.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses structural features, grammar, imagery, lexical choice and phonology in order to portray three different types of power throughout this extract; the power of being a Duke, Duke Vincentio's power over Angelo and Angelo's power over the Duke.
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