TITLE:
Moral Conscience and Psychological Conflict in Shakespeare’s Character Angelo from the Play Measure for Measure
AUTHORS:
Giuseppe Giordano
KEYWORDS:
Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Morality, Freud, Psychological Conflict
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Literary Study,
Vol.9 No.4,
October
29,
2021
ABSTRACT: Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare that represents moral issues concerning corruption, virtue, justice and purity. A prominent character of the play, Angelo, holds the position of Deputy and representative of the law but his conscience is tormented by a psychological conflict around the desire to bribe a young and innocent lady, Isabella, for his own interest and pleasure. The aim of this paper is to analyze the mental distress of Angelo’s moral conscience in relation to Sigmund Freud’s models of functioning of the human mind. An extract from the play has been chosen for this investigation, which is the character’s monologue in Act 2, scene 2, lines 167-191 since it clearly represents the relationship between moral reflection and the psychological effects on the psyche.