Talking to Isabella, the Duke calls Angelo “well-seeming” which implies that the Duke does not believe Angelo to be genuine. This makes the audience wonder what the Duke means by this and ponder exactly what it is that the Duke knows and we don’t. This makes us wonder if the Duke is being hypocritical in comparison. How genuine is he? How much good or bad does he intend to do?
The Duke tells Isabella of Mariana and Angelo’s business, which to modern audiences would probably be perceived as no better than gossip mongering and this would not usually be expected of someone in such high authority as the Duke. He talks of Angelo in no forgiving tones, and tells Isabella exactly what he thinks of Angelo and his deeds. The Duke says that Angelo told people dishonest, lies about Mariana to make her look bad:
“Pretending in her discoveries of dishonour”
If all the Duke has to go on is what Mariana has told him, then he could be doing precisely the same thing. He seems to trust Mariana completely and with no prior knowledge of the Duke’s relationship and conversations with her, a modern audience might ask why.
This is when the Duke begins to try and convince Isabella to “help” Mariana. He says:
“It is a rupture that you may easily heal”
and tells her it is in her best interests, and her brother’s, to do so.
The Duke convinces Isabella, which a modern audience could not expect. How could someone who wants to be a nun understand a need to be so deceptive? We can, as a modern audience, only understand it as Isabella complying with the Duke because she thinks he is a monk and she sees him as her superior in rank and with the closeness to God, and Isabella wanting to save her brother. Isabella was not willing to do anything for her brother; she will only go so far. Isabella may see this as the most she can do without compromising herself and her principles.
The Duke talks Isabella into a bed-trick. He asks Isabella to agree to Angelo’s requests, on the surface at least, but to lay down conditions. He tells her they will arrange for Mariana to take her place. The Duke says that if Angelo sleeps with Mariana, Angelo will be obliged by law to marry Mariana, even if Angelo believes himself to be sleeping with Isabella.
All this seems like madness to a modern audience. Why doesn’t the Duke simply re-instate himself and sort this mess out himself? I think the reason is that this play is based on themes, and one of these themes is power. The Duke has power but the way he uses it is very odd, he abuses power when he shouldn’t and ignores power when it would probably be the best idea to use it.
The Duke tells Isabella that he will organise the trick and that it will answer everyone’s problems. Isabella says just the thought of it makes her happy. This is a very odd thing for Isabella to say - a modern audience expects someone in so holy a position to be appalled by the whole idea even if she does agree to it for the sake of others.
After bidding each other farewell and setting off on their separate missions, we come to Act 3 Scene 2. In this scene the Duke is revolted by Pompey’s behaviour and calls him a “wicked bawd”. He lectures Pompey on his doings in a very patronising and hypocritical way. What the Duke is preparing to do is just as bad as the pimping Pompey has done, but the Duke must believe himself superior to Pompey and therefore beyond judgement.
The Duke lectures Pompey, and says that it is wrong to rely on such a trade for his living. Modern audiences, I think would have more sympathy for Pompey in this situation and think it more wrong to do such things without having to survive on it. We can see why Pompey does it, he has to, and it is his job. He does it to live, but I think what the Duke does is not understandable; his reasons for arranging the bed-trick are unclear, but hint at perversion.
Further on in the scene Lucio asks the Duke, (dressed as a friar), if he knows any news of the Duke. The Duke replies that he does not (a blatant lie) and asks what Lucio has heard.
Lucio speaks of other countries where the Duke is rumoured to be, then asks the Duke where he thinks the Duke might be. The Duke replies:
“I know not where, but wheresoever, I wish him well”
This is the first of a succession of things that the Duke says to compliment himself in this conversation with Lucio, and makes him seem very odd to Lucio, and very egotistical to the audience.
Lucio says that Angelo is too strict, but the Duke says that the problems in the city are too widespread, and that strictness is the only way to stop these problems. Why then does he condemn Angelo for all he does? (The Duke had the laws already in place; all he had to do was enforce them! Why did he not do it?) Lucio does not agree though, and says that nothing will stop the problems and to think that rigidity alone can rid the city of all its problems is no more than wishful thinking.
Lucio then says that the citizens of Vienna think Angelo too cruel to be human, and that he agrees with them. Lucio then goes on to describe some ways in which Angelo is said to have been created. Lucio says he isn’t sure which theory is correct, but that he thinks Angelo is unbelievably cold,
“But it is certain that when he makes water, his urine is congealed ice”
The Duke then comments that Lucio is pleasant, in sarcasm, I think. After this comment Lucio says that the Duke would not have punished Claudio so heartlessly for the Duke was guilty of those same crimes. Lucio goes on to say that the Duke was not even fussy about women, would even sleep with a beggar and enjoyed his alcohol. Lucio continues to talk of the Duke in derogatory terms and calls him
“A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow”
The Duke then seems to lose his temper, and his stance of seeming like a real friar and retorts:
“Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking”
and starts to rant about the Duke’s good reputation. The Duke tells Lucio that what Lucio is saying is rubbish and Lucio does not know what he is talking about.
Lucio replies:
“Sir, I know him, and I love him”
But the Duke dismisses this:
“Love talks with better knowledge,
and knowledge with dearer love”
Lucio says
“Come, sir, I know what I know”
This comment is sure to make audiences react in a certain way. Lucio is so sure of himself, maybe there is some truth in it? This is one of few portrayals of the Duke that is not said by the Duke. Lucio seems adamant, so maybe the Duke is not as pure as he likes to make out.
The whole episode gets very heated, and a modern audience realises that if Lucio knows the Duke as well as he claims to, he would be sure to recognise him. The Duke disregards his disguise in this passage, letting his ego affect his acting. The Duke eventually appears to threaten Lucio:
“He (the Duke) shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you”
Lucio says he doesn’t care and the Duke seems offended, ranting:
Lucio attempts to quash the argument here, which makes modern audiences think he realises he is in over his head
Later, after hearing Mistress Overdone’s accusations about Lucio, the Duke tells all that are there that the Duke is no longer in the country, and asks again after himself, after asking Lucio in their previous conversation.
Talking to Escalus, the Duke tells Escalus that Angelo is doing the right thing, unless he commits offences that he has judged others for and consequently judges himself.
“If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself.
This seems as though he is giving Escalus a hint as to what Angelo is really like. Perhaps the Duke doesn’t want Escalus to look like a fool at the end of all this, after all, they go back a long way, and the Duke must feel as though he has betrayed him enough, by hiding from him what he is really doing and not being honest with him.
When the Duke is alone he makes an extravagant speech, in which he condemns those who condemn others for their own faults. But this is a fault he possesses himself, for example, when he calls Pompey a “wicked bawd”, he is condemning himself as he condemns others. In actual fact his whole speech could be about himself.
In Act 4 Scene 1, we meet Mariana, she is sitting in her garden with a boy, who’s singing about lost love. Mariana tells the singing boy that the Duke has often comforted her crying. The modern audiences are once again left baffled. Does this mean then that the Duke has dressed as a friar to counsel her before or that she knows his real identity? If the Duke has dressed as a friar before to come and talk to Mariana, maybe this is why the friar was reluctant to lend him the habit, and believed the Duke to be going to meet a ladylove? To modern audiences this questioning is very interesting. It does seem, though, that one of these solutions must be correct, whichever it may be, as he is dressed as a friar and she still recognises him.
Mariana apologises for the singing and asks to be excused. The Duke tells her that she should be wary of music, as you can’t trust it:
“’Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm
To make bad good and good provoke harm”
The Duke seems to be saying that music is distorting and can make things appear as they are not, or even the complete opposite of what they are.
When Isabella arrives to talk to the Duke, he seems anxious that everything is pre-arranged and that nothing must go wrong. Since neither Isabella nor Mariana seem to know who he really is, this is puzzling, as if anything did go wrong, it could not be traced back to him anyway, so why he is so worried is not comprehensible.
The Duke asks Mariana if she believes that he respects her and she replies
“Good friar, I know you do and have found it”
This, again, suggests that the Duke has met with her many times, disguised as the friar.
The Duke makes a short speech while Mariana and Isabella are talking, he seems to be quite paranoid and his words propose he is still brooding over what Lucio said.
“Oh place an greatness, millions of false eyes
Are stuck upon thee; volumes of report
Run with these false and most contrarious quest
Upon thy doings; thousand escapes of wit
Make thee the father of their idle dream
And rack thee in their fancies…”
The audience would find this odd because as a Duke he should be able to handle people talking about him. He should recognise that he is a celebrity in Vienna.
In Act 4 Scene 2, the Duke is once again in the prison. The Duke asks the Provost if he has had a countermand for Claudio, but the Provost tells him that there has not been one, nor he does not believe there will be one. A messenger arrives and the Duke believes that it is the news he has wanted to hear:
“This is his pardon, purchased by such sin
For which the pardoner himself is in.
Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
When it is borne in high authority.
When vice makes mercy, mercy’s so extended
That for the fault’s love is th’offender friended.”
This speech is contradictory because the Duke assured Mariana what she was doing was not a sin. Perhaps he told Mariana what he believed to be the best thing; maybe he has since changed his mind. The only thing we know for certain is that he seemed ready to do anything for Claudio’s life to be spared. But, the news is not good, and it is the exact opposite of what the Duke has been expecting, it is a note from Angelo, he has condemned Claudio for a crime he has committed himself, without condemning himself. Angelo is shown to be someone who does not keep his promises and a hypocrite.
After tricking Angelo into thinking Claudio has been beheaded, the Duke decides to tell Isabella that Claudio is dead.
“I will keep her ignorant of her good
To make her heavenly comforts of despair
When it is least expected”
He tells her in a very plain way:
“His head is off, and sent to Angelo”
This is a very harsh and confusing thing to do, he has saved Claudio, so how could he be so cruel as to put her through such a terrible pain? Isabella has done as much as she felt she could to save her brother and the way she feels must be awful already, even with just the fear that her brother might die. This shows us how heartless the Duke can be. A modern audience would wonder what is going on here. If the Duke doesn’t lie to Isabella and tell her that her brother is dead, she wouldn’t be in any pain, so there would be no despair to rid her of. This is enormously strange.
The Duke has another quarrel with Lucio when Lucio calls the Duke:
“The old fantastical Duke of dark corners”
This means mysteriously vanishing and hidden. Should we assume that this is just Lucio’s view, or is it perhaps the view of all Vienna’s citizens? This would puzzle audiences because it sounds almost as though Lucio has found out the Duke. He is so close to the truth it must make the Duke uneasy.
The Duke tells Isabella and Mariana that he might speak badly to them, but it will come right in the end. The Duke is procrastinating unnecessarily. The audience is still wondering why he doesn’t just get everything out into the open and in order.
The Duke is false towards Angelo. He pretends to be happy with him, it is as though the Duke wants Angelo to be shocked and publicly humiliated.
The Duke refutes absolutely everything that Isabella pleads, and snaps at Lucio for attempting to aid her tale. The way in which the Duke talks to Isabella and the way in which she beseeches him gives the audience what may be an insight into his thinking. Isabella is so emotional because she believes her brother is dead, especially when compared to her conversation with Angelo. He goes so far as to have Isabella taken away, guarded. This seems to an audience terribly uncalled for.
The Duke leaves Angelo to judge himself. The Duke is delaying the climax for as long as possible. He appears to want it to be as explosive as possible too! The Duke finally starts to give it away in his speech, in which he says:
“The Duke
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he
Dare rack his own”
And later when he says
“I protest I love the Duke as I love myself”
The Duke is discovered and finally starts to resolve all the problems he has helped to create. He tells Angelo
“Hold no longer out”
This is another hypocritical comment, because all he has done throughout the play is hold out and hold back information.
Perhaps the most bewildering thing to a modern audience is that he persists to tell Isabella that Claudio is dead. There can be no reason for this anymore, and he can only be dramatising the end solution. And as he mocks Isabella with grief, he also does it to Mariana by marrying her to Angelo and then telling her Angelo must be beheaded, to which she replies:
“Oh, my gracious lord,
I hope you will not mock me with a husband”
Eventually the Duke is persuaded and also reveals Claudio to Isabella, but as he does he also proposes to Isabella! Modern Audiences are unbelievably shocked by this and find it implausible that Isabella would agree, but it is implied that she does.
The Duke marries Claudio and Juliet but punishes Lucio in a way that most audiences agree to be the most evil of all the punishments. He torments him with tales of torture, marriage to a prostitute and death and only repents when Lucio begs
“Do not marry me to a whore”
It is as though when the Duke realises this is the last thing Lucio wants this is what he does, letting him off without his other punishments.
The Duke is shown to be egotistical, dishonest, a liar, a hypocrite and also rather evil. He feels no compassion or forgiving for others, and considers himself inferior to no-one. He has an inflated sense of his own importance and is not a nice character at all.