Editing Measure for Measure (section)

===Resolution===
The plot comes to a climax with Vincentio's "return" to Vienna. Isabella and Mariana publicly petition him, and he hears their claims against Angelo, which Angelo smoothly denies. As the scene develops, it appears that Friar Lodowick will be blamed for the accusations leveled against Angelo. Vincentio leaves Angelo to judge the cause against Lodowick, returning in his disguise when Lodowick is summoned moments later. When Angelo attempts to seal the case against Lodowick, Vincentio reveals himself, exposing Angelo as a liar and confirming Isabella's and Mariana's allegations. He proposes that Angelo be executed, but first compels him to marry Mariana, so that his estate may go to Mariana as compensation for her lost dowry.

Mariana pleads for Angelo's life, even enlisting the aid of Isabella (who is not yet aware her brother Claudio is still alive). Vincentio pretends not to heed the women's petition until he reveals that Claudio has not, in fact, been executed, at which point he relents. He then proposes marriage to Isabella. Isabella does not reply. For Shakespeare's audiences, silence would have been interpreted as an unequivocal "yes", meaning that additional dialogue was unnecessary. This is one of the "open silences" of the play, and has been variously interpreted in different adaptations.

A subplot concerns Lucio, who frequently slanders the duke to the friar, and in the last act slanders the friar to the duke, providing opportunities for comic consternation on Vincentio's part and landing Lucio in trouble when it is revealed that the duke and the friar are one and the same. Lucio's punishment is to be forced to marry Kate Keepdown, a prostitute he impregnated and abandoned.