Masculine+Authority+and+Female+Submission+in+Shakespeare's+_Measure+for+Measure_

In Act 4, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, the Duke, disguised as a friar, imposes the final steps of his plan to bring down Lord Angelo, and right the acting-Duke's previous wrongs, to Mariana (spurned at the altar by Angelo) and to Claudio (set for execution for the crime of pre-marital sex). In pulling off the plan, he will ask Mariana to sleep with Angelo, but he'll believe he is actually sleeping with Isabella, who on the way to completing her vows as a nun was presented with a means of saving her brother, Claudio: have sex with the executioner, Angelo. In this scene, the Duke asks Isabella to explain the plan to Mariana, and both women are utterly submissive to the Duke's/Friar's wishes. A careful analysis of the scene requires raising issues of gender, gender roles, and sexual-power relationships.