act 2 : scene 2

Question 1

who speaks the most? why? what does this suggest about that character and their relationship with the other characters in the extract?

Answer 1

Very even between Isabella and Angelo. Shows the power dynamic becoming more even as opposed to Angelo having all of the power. Isabella does overall have more power/lines, but Angelo has a soliloquy

Question 2

is the extract in blank verse or rhyming couplets or prose? is this consistent throughout? if not, where does it change and why?

Answer 2

Blank verse throughout

Question 3

are imperatives used?

Answer 3

Imperatives are used

Question 4

word placement

Answer 4

‘Bribe’ meant to be innocent but sounds seductive

Question 5

repetition of a word/phrase - is the repetition from the same character or does one character repeat another character’s words?

Answer 5

not really…

Question 6

how does the extract connect to the themes of the play? - disguise, power, religion, appearance/reality etc.

Answer 6

power and religion

Question 7

sentence length

Answer 7

varies massively as power dynamic changes

Question 8

asides

Answer 8

used throughout

Question 9

contrasts/opposites

Answer 9

goes against Bible. old Testament and New Testament. Disagreements throughout

Question 10

is there a soliloquy?

Answer 10

Yes. Angelo has one at the end when processing feelings towards Isabella

Question 11

what is the tone of the extract? does the tone change? if so, what words indicate the change?

Answer 11

Serious tone throughout as it is a debate

Question 12

imagery - simile, metaphor, personification

Answer 12

like God

Question 13

sibilance, alliteration

Answer 13

come back to

Question 14

what is happening in the scene:

Answer 14

1. Encouraged by Lucio, Isabella visits Angelo to plead for Claudio’s life
2. Angelo will not yield and asserts the justice of his sentence
3. Angelo wavers and tells her to return the next day
4. Angelo reflects on how she has aroused his lust

Question 15

key point of this scene: 1

Answer 15

One of the most important scenes in the play

Question 16

key point of this scene: 2

Answer 16

The Provost sets the tone of this head-to-head encounter when he repeats the humanitarian argument and that no man should die for it. Angelo is certain that he will not regret his ‘judgment’ and does not expect to repent at leisure or to suffer remorse

Question 17

key point of this scene: 3

Answer 17

Shakespeare invests Angelo with psychological realism and the balanced mean must have a measure of each human quality in his soul

Question 18

key point of this scene: 4

Answer 18

Shakespeare, in G. Wilson Knight’s words show that Angelo is “the symbol of a fake intellectualism ethic divorced from the deeper springs of the human instinct.” Knight means that Angelo’s “spotless reputation” intimidated those around him is the “reason abstracted from emotion” and therefore, Angelo refuses to admit that passion (as opposed to compassion) has a place in the human scheme of things

Question 19

key point of this scene: 5

Answer 19

Isabella also agrees that fornication is a capital offence and can only be pardoned under extenuating circumstances. Reason must be weighed against emotion. Against Isabella’s natural instinct, there must be measure for measure

Question 20

key point of this scene: 6

Answer 20

Isabella originally argues that Angelo should condemn the sin rather than the sinner. With the Doctrine of Original Sin, Isabella should know that the function of God’s Deputy on Earth can only be to punish those who commit sins

Question 21

key point of this scene: 7

Answer 21

Isabella’s response expresses her respect for this Old Testament judgement. Lucio mentions that Isabella’s art will not prosper if she continues to play Angelo at his own game and that her powers of persuasion will prove inadequate if she continues to share his belief in the ‘severe; rule of law. This leads her to speak in that ‘prone and speechless dialect’ that ‘moves’ men

Question 22

key point of this scene: 8

Answer 22

She tells Angelo off and lectures him. She is adamant that his apparel does not necessarily proclaim a judicious man

Question 23

key point of this scene: 9

Answer 23

Isabella applies the Golden Rule: if the roles had been reversed, Claudio would not have done this

Question 24

key point of this scene: 10

Answer 24

Her next move is to pit the New Testament against the Old Testament and goes so far as to suggest that God showed mercy to man by sacrificing his own Son. To follow this Christian example, Angelo should show this mercy

Question 25

key point of this scene: 11

Answer 25

Angelo’s reactions carry the Old Testament prose. He seems to lack the courage of his own convictions and to hide behind the law. Angelo is a humanist, not a humanitarian and makes out the case for the rule of law on the solid ground that one man’s freedom is another man’s tyranny

Question 26

key point of this scene: 12

Answer 26

In executing Claudio for such a common infringement, Angelo sees himself as encouraging others and thereby acting in the defence of others’ civil liberties

Question 27

key point of this scene: 13

Answer 27

This scene is like a chess match. Every move made by Isabella (in white) is promptly matched by Angelo’s counter-move

Question 28

key point of this scene: 14

Answer 28

She amplifies her next speech by means of an emotive imagery: (Lines 118-121) which ceases to make rational sense of the legal situation and tries instead to make poetic sense of it

Question 29

key point of this scene: 15

Answer 29

Isabella’s art begins to prosper and begins to make an impact upon Angelo’s ego and shows how ‘well she can persuade.’ The point of this diatribe against man is to put him in his cosmic place

Question 30

key point of this scene: 16

Answer 30

For the best part of thirty lines, he has remained in silence. Self-knowledge has begun. This insists that Angelo examine his understanding of his own manhood. The conviction of men being guilty of sexual feeling strikes a chord in Angelo’s breast and stirs his genitals. She has awakened in him those feelings of sexual desire that he has been striving to repress. Isabella’s use of a ‘bribe’ is suggestive to Angelo and finds seductive

Question 31

key point of this scene: 17

Answer 31

Angelo is acutely conscious that in defiance of the Lord’s Prayer, he is being led in ‘to temptation’. In his soliloquy, he attempts to apportion blame for human misconduct and constitutes a profound analysis of male sexuality

Question 32

key point of this scene: 18

Answer 32

He experiences the need to recognise man for the ‘poor, bare, forked animal’ that he is. In the course of this self-examination, Angelo attempts to come to terms with the appetitive/passionate part of his tri-partite (like God) soul. He is responding to the qualities that he most admires

Question 33

key point of this scene: 19

Answer 33

Angelo need not be merely enthralled by a basic desire to deflower a virgin; there is nothing perverse of unwholesome (as Angelo supposes) about this sexual attraction.

Question 34

key point of this scene: 20

Answer 34

This soliloquy dramatises the debate in Angelo’s head: not about what kind of man he is, but of what kind of creature man is. Shakespeare’s blank verse monitors the movement of Angelo’s mind as it moves to and fro; its rhythm is functional in following the manouveures of a mind engaged in the act of agonised thinking. By means of enjambments and rhetorical questions, eleven of each, Shakespeare charts Angelo’s stream of consciousness and demonstrates how Angelo vacillates between self-righteousness and self-disgust

Question 35

points to include: 1

Answer 35

Angelo is getting frustrated because they are all disagreeing with his decision and accepts that he can’t take back the decision once it is made

Question 36

points to include: 2

Answer 36

Short sentences: not to be rude but to get to the point quickly

Question 37

points to include: 3

Answer 37

Isabella shows a lack of confidence, yet honest at first and does not start with a great way of convincing him and gives up shortly after. As Isabella gets more confident and Lucio helps her, her speeches get longer

Question 38

points to include: 4

Answer 38

Isabella mentions wealth and power and basically says her brother is a better person (Lines: 61-67)

Question 39

points to include: 5

Answer 39

Line 75: every human has done something wrong and has not been punished for it

Question 40

points to include: 6

Answer 40

Angelo tries to use the law as an excuse, yet he can change the law

Question 41

points to include: 7

Answer 41

(Lines 102-103) Make 10 syllables together. Equally balanced argument. Isabella can match and have an impression/ impact on him. He has power, she has power over him. Share a pentameter. Keep rhythm and speed

Question 42

points to include: 8

Answer 42

She accuses him of being a tyrant and saying he is not merciful unlike God. Apes imitate humans behaviour: find it funny like Angels find it funny when men start to act like they’re God

Question 43

points to include: 9

Answer 43

Isabella starts to have more power (imbalance of lines)

Question 44

points to include: 10

Answer 44

Angelo starts to like Isabella, yet is not a hypocrite because he didn’t break the law. He realises he is like other men and needs to get rid of these emotions. He can’t resist her and wants to see her again. He sees emotion and desire as weakness and is fearful

Question 45

points to include: 11

Answer 45

Soliloquy lets us see into Angelo’s thoughts and feel sympathy as what he thought about himself is not true. By the end he says he will not tempt her, but that he would like to. Choppy, full of rhetorical questions and broken phrases, expressing his coming to terms with new version of himself. We don’t get many soliloquy so are lucky to get this one

Question 46

points to include: 12

Answer 46

He likes Isabella’s virtue, but if they had sex, her virtue would be gone. He finds her modesty attractive as opposed to promiscuity and does not want a prostitute

Question 47

points to include: 13

Answer 47

It is fair to call him a saint, he has never done anything wrong. A prostitute has never tempted him and he wants to have sex because he “loves” her (more infatuation). He now understands why men want to have sex

Question 48

points to include: 14

Answer 48

Dramatic irony that Angelo will commit the same crime as Claudio later in the play