Comparing Wealth, Power, and Virtue in Measure for Measure and Mrs. Warrens Profession :: comparison compare contrast essays

Wealth, Power, and Virtue in prise for ginmill and Mrs. Warrens Profession As reden in the dramas Measure for Measure and Mrs. Warrens Profession, the Elizabethan and Victorian periods make water divergent views of wealth, power and virtue. To compare these views, one should start by defining the incompatible views of virtue. The people of the Elizabethan meters see virtue in obtaining a balance of their three souls and as promoting order within their society and city. likewise in this period of time, wealth and power were rarely gained, but when they were, it was due(p) to virtue. Conversely, in Mrs. Warrens Profession, virtue is interpreted as a person trying to change how the poor were treated by the industrialists and this could exactly be done when a person already had wealth or power. In Measure for Measure, Isabella starts off seeming to be a precise virtuous person she is entering a very strict nunnery and surviving a purely rational an d sinless life. As the play goes on she chooses to keep her virtue by not sleeping with Angelo. However, we start to see her virtue come into question when she coldly and with no compassion tells her sidekick Claudio to Die Quickly (III, i, 135) This shows that she is not using her emotional soul. But, at the bar of the play, Isabella shows that she has the ability to utilize her emotional soul when she forgives Angelo at the same time proving she has a balanced soul. From this action, the Duke realizes that Isabella is truly virtuous and then, because of this, asks her to marry him (V, i, 530). We can all the way see that Isabella is rewarded for her virtuous actions at the remnant of Measure to Measure. This positive conclusion demonstrates the Elizabethan societys tendency to prize virtue as achieved through a balanced soul. Isabella is not only seen to be virtuous because of her balanced soul, she would have also been seen as virtuous because her actio ns to preserve order in Vienna. At the beginning of Measure for Measure, the Duke goes into