The issues of are closely connected in Measure for Measure. Critic Ronald Huebert discusses the ways in which the male characters' "manliness" is formed by their sexual education combined with self-knowledge. Claudio, for example, exhibits the manly virtue of courage when faced with death for impregnating Juliet; however, when tempted with the possibility of reprieve- even at his sister's expense- he manfully comes to terms with the fact that his courage is not proof against temptation. By contrast, Huebert describes Angelo's rigid morality as "a caricature of genuine manliness" and asserts that the deputy achieves real manliness only after he openly acknowledges his own transgressions and learns to recognize his own sexual desires.

For many scholars, gender role and sexuality depend upon the nature of power in the play- how power is defined and who it is that wields it. David Sundelson remarks that for characters such...