| The following seems to sum it up: Want to know where Measure for Measure is set? Shakespeare set Measure for Measure in the Catholic city of Vienna. By the time Shakespeare’s audiences were watching his plays Englaqnd had become a strict protestant country. In this play Shakespeare wants to create an environment in which there are still nunneries, as the play has Isobel’s life as a nun as a central idea. Like Shakespeare’s London, though, Vienna is teeming with prostitutes and pimps, and disease is rife. In the London of Shakeseare’s time building were being demolished to try and control the plague: In the Vienna of the play brothels are being torn down to try and stem venereal disease, and the acting Duke, Angelo has issued a decree making sex outside of marriage an offence carrying the death penalty. The drama springs from that, making Vienna a crucial and clever choice of setting for Measure for Measure. |
