Critics Views on Isabella

Question 1

What does John Mullan say Isabella imagine herself as?

Answer 1

Isabella imagines herself as a Christian martyr, so takes pleasure from punishment.

Question 2

What does Penelope Wilson say about Isabella’s treatment of her brother?

Answer 2

‘Her vilification of her brother shows her as a hysteric, as a neurotic, and it shows her as a religious maniac.’
- she is a moral absolutist calling her brother a “beast” (fact check) after he asks her to give up her chastity to save her, showing a lack of compassion for his fear of situation.
-her obsession with moral purity

Question 3

What does John Mullan say about her marriage at the end?

Answer 3

‘even her final reward has felt to some like a kind of sentence.’

Question 4

What does Baines say about Isabella’s silence?

Answer 4

Isabella is ‘not silenced, but, instead, chooses silence as a form of resistance to the patriarchal authority.’
Whilst to some extent i agree there are societal expectations of women so her silence is one of the only ways she can resist the patriarchy.

Question 5

What does Bennet say about Isabella’s speech in act 5?

Answer 5

‘wonderful… broken lines and simple abrupt phrasing suggests how hard they are to say.’

Question 6

What does Hawkins say about Isabella and Angelo?

Answer 6

Isabella is the ‘feminine counterpart of Angelo… not only in her professed hatred of sex but in her underlying keen appetite.’