ISABELLA Flashcards
Introduction
Introduced as an aspiring nun, about to enter the order of Saint Clare faced with obstacle after obstacle, all of which she battles dutifully and ardently, it is safe to say Isabella is one of the most prominent and outstanding characters of the play, high up in the class of powerful female characters of Shakespeare, such as Merchant of Venice’s Portia or Macbeth’s Lady Macbeth. she is assertive, virtuous and passionate. An excellent orator with an incredible ability to argue and persuade with a good balance of logos, pathos and ethos.
Language and Style
According to Juliet Stevenson, an actress who played Isabella Shakespeare’s rhythms, his pauses… there is a pulse in the verse that will tell you as much about the character as anything she says. Isabella has a very polite way of speaking, suggesting polite nun like mannerisms. she speaks gracefully and eloquently, and when the time arises- persuasively and assertively.
Her words express the extent of her self-conviction in topics of morality, faith, mercy and justice. her convincing argumentative skills are displayed in her interactions with Angelo.
although she does not speak in the same heightened poetic manner as the Duke- her speeches have a song like quality, desperate thrumming; an urgency not just in her voice but in the rhythm of her words.
There is a distinct conviction and strength in her voice, despite being portrayed as a submissive aspiring nun. she maintains her strong sense of morality and priority; this is expressed both verbally and through her actions.
Isabella’s Christian Conviction
Isabella’s brillant speeches with Angelo on Christianity, power and mercy, and to her fiery denunciation of Angelo’s treachery and her brother’s cowardice showcases her level of faith and virtue.
it is however an extreme, she is a flawed character in the sense that she herself doesnt subject herself to equity- the prime moral of the play. but personally i believe her reasons to subject herself to this extremity is justified (note possible illusions). the acutevirtue she possesses leads her to be cruel and unempathetic to her brother when he pleads her to save his lifeby subjecting her body to Angelo.
Isabella is highly criticised for her the importance she places in her chastity. Critics like Mariana Cox believe she should moderate her chastity with charity.
i find this argument confusing, Isabella is essentially being berated for refusing to have non-consensual coercive sex. this almost feels like a representation of modern day misogyny. contemporary critics feel she is in the wrong, because she is strongly unwilling to be raped? Claudio asked Isabella, his own sister to subject herself to one of the worst forms of violations to save himself. death is cold and unpredictable according to Claudio, but the aftermath of being a rape victim in 16th Century English-like society is total societal ostracisation- isabella would never find a day of peace in her life and find herself subject to the same cruel nature of patriarchy she tried so hard to escape and according to her faith- eternal damnation. is it not plausible to be furious? to be unable to concieve the idea that her own brother would make such a suggestion knowing the consequences?
although i am personally biased towards Isabella because of the undeserving treatment she had gotten throughout the play- i believe both the reactions of the siblings was very human. To expect Claudio to act rationally while standing before a death sentence it is natural to cling onto any hope of survival, no matter how gruesome the conditions. it is, for the average person nigh impossible to be selfless enough to give up a life like that. and for claudio to be presented as an average person, Shakespeare portrays these middling characters to be the quintessential common folk, devoid of extremes, devoid of higher power. Claudio is just a man, he has the average weaknesses, the average flaws and hence the average wants- in this case a strong desire to live.
Isabella’s Virtue and its possible allusions
There is no doubt that Isabella is incredibly virtuous seeing she puts her chastity- a symbol of her virtue above her own life as well as her brother’s. while it may be true she is feverently religious and god-loving this is explored in a number of ways.
- Literary Critic, Brendan Jackson’s Freudian theory- Isabella along with Angelo have both in Freudian terms sublimated their sex drives, they are in ‘denial’.
- John Mullan hypothises Isabella believes herself to be a Christian Martyr.
> Catholic saints such as Agatha, Agnes, Bibiana and Lucy, who had been tortured and killed in the protection of their virginity, would have been held up as role models for nuns like Isabella
this explains her readiness to die rather than give up her virginity as well as her romantic view of herself as a martyr, as this is what she has been taught is the right thing to do
these saints act as a reminder of the importance and meaning of purity, it is a treasure to be guarded and protected at any cost
- Dionisotti commented on the portrayal of Isabella in his production of Measure for Measure as representing her to be scared of sexuality; His Isabella was going to be the bride of Christ- that costume was her wedding dress.
Perhaps virtue was something that Isabella weaponised to cope with the vehemently Patriarchal society. she has seen how her fellow sisters have been treated and unwilling to be submit to the same shameful degradation, belittlement, objectification and borderline enslavement by men- she tries to give herself liberty, out of the scope of her male counterparts, leading a life dedicated to god devoid of everyday patriarchal oppression. similar to literary critic and professor, Baines’s belief that silence was Isabella’s way of coping with Patriarchy.
Isabella’s relationship with Claudio
Isabella and Claudio seem to have had a strong bond characterised by mutual love and understanding.
Isabella’s initial reaction to Claudio’s imprisonment was one of denial; this may have been because she thought of it to be implausible- trust in her brother.
her reaction upon hearing his crime was not one of judgement but instant solution. later in the second act of the play we can see Isabella’s dilemma on full display. her hate for his crime is largely overcome by her love for her brother.
after angelo’s proposal or rather blatant blackmail, Isabella backed into a corner believes that her chastity is worth more than her brother’s life. a cruel decision but one that makes sense in her belief system. she had to not only choose between eternal damnation and her brother’s life but also believed that her brother could never find peace in his extended life in the first place knowing what she had to subject herself to.
in the end its not that she chose herself between her and her brother its moreso she chose god. her faith was more important to her than even her own life; she mentions to claudio if she was told to trade her life for his she would do so without question. her chastity a symbol of virtue was her most important posession, something she had to treasure, to honor god.
Claudio and Isabella’s falling out may be seen as a selfishness on both their parts. act 3 scene, scene 1 was truly a gut wrenching episode to unfold. either sibling could trade their sentence for the other but what was being held against them was their most vital possessions. in the end despite these cruel circumstances i find myself siding with Isabella a bit more than I do with Claudio. What Claudio asks of her is to subject herself to coercive rape, there is no consent here but ironically consent enough to still damn Isabella. Isabella’s apallment was a worthy reaction. to process that her own brother, who she deemed to be a virtuous man, someone who loved her and cared for her, would subject her to this kind of punishment- Isabella may have even underreacted.
its not hard to empathise with Claudio, i understand why he would plead for her compliance.he’s a drowning man, afraid of the dark oceans, uncertain what horrors it may have stored for him he reaches out to grab whatever he can to save his own life, the results of this may just drown those he grabs. but a drowning man is a drowning man. Like this hypothetical drowning man- Claudio finds himself in a similar situation: desperate for any hope, for another chance at life, to escape the unknown realm of death, he grabs Isabella despite the fact that it just translates into an unhappy life and possibly an eternity of damnation for both of them. but that is the only thing he can do. simply put; being rational wasn’t an option for either sibling, this is the cruel quality of their position. Angelo had torn them apart before even actually taking action.
there is no canonical evidence that Isabella and Claudio make up after this feud during the ‘happy-ending’. however, many of the productions of the play portray them to have an ecstatic reunion.
part of the reason audience’s demonise Isabella more than Claudio is because its easier to relate to Claudio; a more empathiseable balanced character compared to his sister. its easy to understand his fear of death its harder to understand the complex reasons behind Isabella’s seemingly cruel absolution regarding her chastity.
Isabella’s fate
It goes without saying, that Isabella deserved a more prominent role in the ending of the play. The Duke largely overshadows her with his display of his grandeur and show of benevolence and justice.
her role essentially in the end was to express the great injustices done unto her by the cruel Angelo and to be then subsequently berated and publicly humiliated in front of her apparent rapist. it was not a very good role to have.
the cherry on top was the duke basically taking her hand in marriage, considering the power dynamics as well as the fact Isabella does owe the Duke for saving her brother’s life it feels as if she is being taken advantage of. The duke was probably not even taking advantage of her maliciously he is too dense to understand their social position difference as well as too absorbed in his own greatness. truly a tragic fate.
in addition there was no hint at them falling for each other neither was there any hint at Isabella’s disinterest in becoming a nun. perhaps Shakespeare uses marriage to essentially ‘reward’ and tie up the play with a happy ending for everyone. The duke, the sensational, just and merciful protagonist of the play deserves a good wife; and who better than Isabella- the epitome of a desireable woman. Literary critic, Norman Nathan notes Isabella’s marriage to the Duke fits the notions of the sort of wife a duke must have as prescribed in Basilik Doron by King James I.
In John Barton’s RSC production, he challenged the notion of the play having a complete happy ending and Isabella was left alone on stage at the end
Isabella by this point had been stripped of dialogue, symbolising the patriarchy silencing women depite their efforts to fight. truly portrays the sight of women in the 16th Century as popularly noted- they lived in a state little better than slavery.
alternatively, it may be theorised that Isabella by becoming a nun would hence be a bride of christ and her fate was exactly that, if the duke is a mortal representation of god much like christ, Isabella meets the fate that she had seeked, to be a bride of god.
Audience Reaction
To speak of audience reactions; in general, i dont think any of these characters were meant to be glorified by its viewers; English Essayist, Hazlitt finds his sympathies were repulsed by the main characters. however that is a little extreme, the characters that are represented are a set of flawed, complex, often extreme characters whom audiences may find themselves difficult to relate themselves or feel empathetic too. Isabella is like-wise a dramatised extreme character.
shakespeare possibly tried to show his audience a complex female character; a woman whom by definition fits perfectly into male expectations and demands- docile, pure, innocent, viruous, well-mannered and more. but instead of her being just this white petal periwinkle, she is a woman with strong beliefs and moral judgement who is not afraid to speak up, argue and take a stand for what she believes is right. i personally believe his portrayal of Isabella or any strong female character wasnt a display of his revolutionary feminist way of thinking, he may have just been unable to view any person as one-dimensional.
this display of female autonomy and character depth had not been taken well by audiences for centuries. Juliet Stevenson, an actress who played Isabella’s role in the Adrian Noble 1982 production states that the audience should recognise Isabella’s dilemma as opposed to merely observing her in critical detachment… otherwise the audience will not really be challenged by the play and in order for that to work the production must also support Isabella’s character.
Measure for Measure truly started gaining appreciation in the 20th Century, Feminists appreciated the breaking of gender stereotypes expressed in Isabella’s character.
Personally, I believe Isabella’s character must be more appreciated and accepted by audiences and critics. she faces cruel decisions; moral dilemmas between love and faith and yet she remains strong. faced with these precarious and unseeming situations theres no way to act truly ‘perfectly’. part of the reason i believe the audience may be pulled away from her, is because of the inability to empathise with her. Isabella along with all the other characters are so distinct by themselves and their situations- verstehen becomes hard to achieve.
Conclusion
Isabella, despite being one of the strongest, most outspoken, well fleshed out female charcaters of Shakespeare, the ending of the play makes her a truly tragic character. Shakespeare makes her happy ending a disguise for what is really her tragedy.
Isabella was still a very dynamic and well-written of a character despite the lack of spotlight and satisfactory ending. Shakespeare portrayed her as pure, innocent, submissive and moralistic, dueting it with a vigour and intensity making her into a memorable character.
