Angelo

In the play, Angelo has a reputation for rigid self-control and for supporting a strict moral code. Escalus considers Angelo to be "most strait in virtue." The Duke describes his deputy as "precise," or puritanical. Dissolute Lucio complains that Angelo is so cold and prudish that his blood "is very snow-broth" and claims that the deputy controls his p assions by fasting and studying. Angelo himself argues that people must see others punished before they themselves are willing to behave, and that being lenient with criminals only makes them disrespectful of law and order.

Critics have observed that despite these testimonials to his strictness, Angelo's apparent goodness and self-control are subject to doubt early in the play- even before he propositions Isabella. In Act I, for example, the Duke explains that part of his reason for deputizing Angelo with full authority to govern Vienna is to discover...