Mercy vs Justice

No, I'm not talking about that song by Kanye West. And  no, I'm not talking about that teenybopper store either. I'm talking about the actual words, what they mean (at least what they mean to me), and how they both play major roles in this play.

Mercy, at least to me, means to have the ability to inflict pain, punishment, death, etc. upon another being but choosing not to. This is a quality I have seen in the Duke as well as Mariana. I've seen this in the Duke when he eventually decides not to sentence Angelo to death. True, it was because Mariana protested against it, but as a duke, he could easily ignore her protests and kill Angelo anyways. Mariana shows mercy towards Angelo because, even though she had been wronged by him, she still forgave him for his actions and wanted him to have life.

So, I suppose good things really do happen to bad people. Angelo better praise Jesus (or Satan) for giving him a merciful woman such as Mariana.

The topic of justice that we discussed in class immediately reminded me of Javert from Les Miserables, which is yet another play (or musical, rather) that is a great illustration of mercy vs. justice. I mean, the dang thing opens with a bunch of dudes pleading for mercy and Javert (the law/justice) basically saying "No. You guys stole bread and now you have to pull this giant ship."

I'm a huge (and I mean HUGE) Les Miserables fan, so let me just include the reprise of the song by Gavroche and the rest of the underprivileged Parisians for your enjoyment. Notice how the privileged few seem to just turn a blind eye to the cries for mercy.

In this play, I believe Valjean represents mercy and Javert represents justice. Valjean shows mercy towards Javert by sparing his life, even though Javert has been a huge scumbucket towards him throughout the entire sequence of events. Javert was acting as the law, because as we all know, he is the law and the law is him.  Law is most commonly associated with justice and...you get it.

Anyways, mercy and justice battle it out throughout both of these plays. Ultimately, if you are looking at both plays through the lens of mercy vs. justice, mercy wins. In the case of Javert and Valjean, I think at the point where Valjean spares Javert's life is the point that shows Javert the dangers of blindly seeking justice without any mercy. I think that this leads Javert to look back on his life and how he had been living it and made him see that justice without mercy is really no way to live a righteous life (and we all know Javert is all about being righteous). So, he kills himself after yet another huge soliloquy and actually succeeds in making the audience feel sorry for him (or at least me).

Also, I ask you to please ignore Russel Crowe's mediocre singing. I just chose this class because the acting is good and I think that seeing the scene acted out really puts the whole thing into context.

Anyways, back to Measure for Measure (FINALLY!). In my opinion, Angelo most closely parallels Javert at least in the scene where Isabella is asking Angelo to show mercy towards her brother. Angelo responds "It is the law, not I, condemn your brother." (Act 2 Scene 2). This is a very Javert-like thing to say. Angelo could very well pardon Isabella's brother because...well...his offence wasn't that bad considering he was getting married to his lover soon (just like all Valjean did was steal some bread to feed his family). However, he showed no mercy and ended up (SPOILER) marrying Mariana. Not as bad as flinging one's self off a bridge, but whatever.

The Duke most closely parallels Valjean due to the fact that he purposefully spares Angelo's life even though killing him would be the most "just" thing to do, at least by the standards set at that time. However, he was merciful and spared him from the death penalty.

So, what I got from this is that, in the end, mercy always wins. But that's just me.