Isabella Critics Flashcards
What does John Mullan say Isabella imagines herself as?
Isabella imagines herself as a Christian martyr, so takes pleasure from punishment.
Geckle summarizing the three criticisms of Isabella
“First, Isabella is too harsh toward Claudio; secondly, she seems too “rigid” in her chastity; thirdly, she taints herself by her participation in the bed trick”
Link to AO1: ‘I made my promise, upon the heavy middle of the night…’
Quiller-Couch called her chastity
‘rancid’
adjective: rancid
(of foods containing fat or oil) smelling or tasting unpleasant as a result of being old and stale.
highly unpleasant; repugnant.
Fermor on chastity
Chastity is not a sin-but neither, as the play emphasizes, is it a virtue”
Stevenson attacks Isabella
This is a very encompassing quote, have as much memorised as possible
“She is the living antidote to all human charity”
Represents 1960s (20th Century audience)
Full exposition of quote:
David Lloyd Stevenson agrees with Lever’s view and continually denigrates Isabella in the course of a new full-length study of Measure for Measure.
Stevenson’s position is illustrated by such statements as the following:
“As audience, we feel it is her vanity, her picture of herself as a saint, that she is defending when she cries out, ‘More than our brother is our chastity.’”
More-over, when Isabella attacks Claudio, “she is the living antidote to all human
charity, to all generous, deeply concerned sympathy and love, Jacobean or
twentieth-century”
What does Dionisotti say about Isabella in regard to Claudio?
‘Isabella has a great need to wipe him completely off the slate. I think the journey Isabella goes through in the second half of the scene is a total annihilation of all values. His speech is deeply irreligious, it appals her.’
What does Penelope Wilton (Isabella actress in Jonathan Miller’s 2013 ‘chamber’ Production) say about Isabella’s treatment of her brother?
In Jonathan Miller’s 2013 ‘chamber’ Production of M4M
‘Her vilification of her brother shows her as a hysteric, as a neurotic, and it shows her as a religious maniac.’
What does Marian Cox say about Isabella?
A Level Student Guide
‘Isabella has to learn to moderate her chastity with charity, and condemnation with forgiveness.’
What does Marian Cox say about Isabella’s ability to weigh with certainty?
‘Isabella’s ability to weigh with certainty is not shared by other characters, and it is perhaps her youth and naivety which prompt her to take up absolute positions.’ -Marian Cox
What does (Isabella actress) Paula Dionisotti say about Isabella in Barry Kyle’s 1978 production of M4M?
‘I think she’s scared. My Isabella was very frightened of sexuality. My Isabella was going to be the bride of Christ- that costume was actually her wedding dress.’
How does Juliet Stevenson argue that the production must support Isabella so that the audience should be sympathetic to Isabella?
‘The production- if its objective is that the audience should recognise Isabella’s dilemma as opposed to merely observing her in critical detachment- has to support Isabella.’
What does Jesse Goldberg say about Isabella’s final scene, should we feel sorry for her?
‘Isabella pleads her case only to be called a ‘poor soul’, a ‘wretched woman’ and ultimately to be carried off and silenced while the Duke- all the time knowing well the truth- entertains evidence bought forth by Friar Peter in the form of Mariana’s testimony.’
What did John Mullan say about Isabella’s virtue?
‘even the virtuous must taste the bitter fruit of their virtue.’
What did John Mullan say about Angelo and Isabella?
‘Angelo’s opposite is Isabella but she is also his twin- his fellow absolutist. She too has some extreme attitudes to punishment.’
What does John Mullan say about her marriage at the end?
‘even her final reward has felt to some like a kind of sentence.’
What does John Mullan say she imagines herself as?
‘She imagines herself as a Christian Martryr, and so, in imagination at least, takes a kind of pleasure in being punished.’
What does Rob Worral say about Isabella?
‘Does Isabella see what is wrong with Vienna, feel that, as a woman, her grasp of the problem will be either ridiculed or ignored(or both!), and, thus decides her life will be less frustrating by retreating into the cloister?’
What does Brendan Jackson say about Isabella and Freud?
‘Isabella and Angelo have both, in freudian terms, sublimated their sex drives. They are ‘in denial’.
What does Baines say about Isabella’s silence?
Isabella is ‘not silenced, but, instead, chooses silence as a form of resistance to the patriarchal authority.’
What does Stevenson say about Isabella’s sexuality?
Isabella ‘recognises her own sensuality and the need to apply strict control over it.’
Link to AO1: ‘I partly think a due sincereity governed his deeds till he did look on me; since it is so, let him not die
Link to AO1: ‘wishing a more strict restraint’
What does Wharton say of Isabella’s forgiveness at the end?
‘Isabella makes mercy supersede mere justice by her unvengeful and sacrificial pardon of him.’
Link to AO1: ‘O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes’
Link to AO1: ‘unhappy Claudio, wretched Isabella, injurious world, most damned Angelo’
What does Bennet say about Isabella’s speech in act 5?
‘wonderful… broken lines and simple abrupt phrasing suggests how hard they are to say.’
What does Hawkins say about Isabella and Angelo?
Isabella is the ‘feminine counterpart of Angelo… not only in her professed hatred of sex but in her underlying keen appetite.’
What does Bennet say about Isabella’s flaws?
‘Isabella’s flaws arise from her inexperience.’
