"Measure for Measure" Analytical Essay by JPWrite

This paper explains that, in William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", one character, Pompey Bum, servant of Mistress Overdone, a bawd, serves better than the other characters to highlight the impossible hypocrisy of the play's social situation in which the Viennese legal system conflicts with human nature when public law forbids illicit lovemaking and makes the crime punishable by death. The author points out that Pompey appears at first to be a minor character; however, if Pompey were different, or even absent, the play's weighty morality might well outstrip Shakespeare's need for humor in this hybrid creation. The paper relates the story of the play demonstrating that Pompey's attitude extends beyond the current themes of virtue and morals and moves into the realm of accepting the inevitable that people will always strive to satisfy themselves especially their sexual desires.