Gentlemen
Who is Gentlemen?
The two gentlemen who open the play's second scene alongside Lucio trade jokes about venereal disease and the perils of the trade they patronize with an easy, unbothered cynicism that sets the tone for Vienna's casual sexual culture before Angelo's crackdown reaches the audience's attention. Their banter with Lucio establishes the social world Claudio's offense belongs to - common, unremarkable, and, until Angelo's sudden severity, unpunished.
Two idle companions of Lucio whose opening banter about venereal disease establishes the casual sexual culture of Vienna before Angelo's crackdown begins.
Appears In
Biography
Neither gentleman is individuated beyond this scene; they function collectively as a chorus of Vienna's idle, pleasure-seeking class, providing the ordinary backdrop of casual vice against which Angelo's extraordinary punishment of Claudio will register as disproportionate.
Motivation
The Gentlemen are motivated by nothing more than idle pleasure and companionship, representing the ordinary, unpunished vice of Vienna's streets.
Personality
The Gentlemen function as an undifferentiated pair, their bawdy banter with Lucio establishing the casual, unpunished vice of ordinary Vienna against which Angelo's sudden severity toward Claudio will stand out so sharply.