Angelo and Isabella: ‘Angels on the Outward Side’

In contrast to the mysteries and ambiguities of the Duke’s behaviour, the characters of Angelo and Isabella seem transparent and single-minded. What is at issue is the nature of our response to these two highly-principled characters. Angelo in particular is created very largely by what other people say about him. The Duke’s opening description is followed, as we have seen, by a less certain account, and there is doubt and incomprehension in many references to Angelo which set a distance between him and the more overtly fallible law-givers and law-breakers of Measure for Measure. After being twice asked his opinion of the transfer of power, Escalus takes up a note which is to be heard several times during the play:

If any in Vienna be of worth

To undergo such ample grace and honour,

It is Lord Angelo. [ii 22–4]

‘If any’ must convey a flicker of a possibility that nobody could really ‘be of worth’ to undertake this task. Even though Claudio never questions the justice of his death sentence, his comments on Angelo’s behaviour again underline the strain between the man and his office: