SOURCE: McCandless, David. “‘I'll Pray to Increase Your Bondage’: Power and Punishment in Measure for Measure.” In Shakespearean Power and Punishment: A Volume of Essays, edited by Gillian Murray Kendall, pp. 89-112. London: Associated University Presses, 1998.

In the following essay, McCandless emphasizes the “sadopornographic” quality of Measure for Measure and the psychological and thematic effects of sexuality and punishment in the drama.

The first and most striking instance of power and punishment in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure is also the play's true beginning: At Angelo's command, Claudio is publicly disgraced, enchained, and paraded through the streets to prison. The preceding action—the Duke's inexplicable departure and hasty deputizing of Angelo, Lucio's scurrilous badinage about venereal disease—amounts to a prologue. The punishment of Claudio, which manifests Angelo's “mortal” power, is the incident upon which the play's entire action turns. It seems to me absolutely crucial that this scene...