Gods and Children: Shakespeare Reads The Prince

Naive youth frequently allows itself to be manipulated by cunning old age. The idea of an antagonism between youth and old age is explored in this essay, which focuses on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and, in particular, on how Angelo and Duke Vincentio struggle with each other. Not merely a description of the "conflict between generations," this kind of clash also has a strictly political significance. We observe how the youth—a symbol of spontaneity, idealism, and novelty—falls prey to the ambitions of a power-seeking man in old age. As a result, youth grows old, while its enthusiasm is transformed into resentment.