Isabella Critics

Question 1

What does John Mullan say Isabella imagines herself as?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Geckle summarizing the three criticisms of Isabella

Answer 2

“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”

Question 3

Quiller-Couch called her chastity

Answer 3

‘rancid’

Question 4

Fermor on chastity

Answer 4

Chastity is not a sin, but neither- as the play emphasizes, is it a virtue”

Question 5

Stevenson attacks Isabella

-living?

Answer 5

“She is the living antidote to all human charity”

Question 6

What does Dionisotti say about Isabella in regard to Claudio?

Answer 6

‘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.’

Question 7

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

Answer 7

‘Her vilification of her brother shows her as a hysteric, as a neurotic, and it shows her as a religious maniac.’

Question 8

What does Marian cox say about Isabella?

Answer 8

‘Isabella has to learn to moderate her chastity with charity, and condemnation with forgiveness.’

Question 9

What does Marian Cox say about Isabella’s ability to weigh with certainty?

Answer 9

‘Isabella’s ability to weigh with certainty is not shared by other characters, and it perhaps her youth and naivety which prompt her to take up absolute positions.’

Question 10

What does Dionisotti say about Isabella in his production of M4M?

Answer 10

‘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.’

Question 11

How does Juliet Stevenson argue that the production must support Isabella so that the audience should be sympathetic to Isabella?

Answer 11

‘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.’

Question 12

What does Jesse Goldberg say about Isabella’s final scene, should we feel sorry for her?

Answer 12

‘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.’

Question 13

What did John Mullan say about Isabella’s virtue?

Answer 13

‘even the virtuous must taste the bitter fruit of their virtue.’

Question 14

What did John Mullan say about Angelo and Isabella?

Answer 14

‘Angelo’s opposite is Isabella but she is also his twin- his fellow absolutist. She too has some extreme attitudes to punishment.’

Question 15

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

Answer 15

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

Question 16

What does John Mullan say she imagines herself as?

Answer 16

‘She imagines herself as a Christian Martry, and so, in imagination at least, takes a kind of pleasure in being punished.’

Question 17

What does Rob Worral say about Isabella?

Answer 17

‘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?’

Question 18

What does Brendan Jackson say about Isabella and Freud?

Answer 18

‘Isabella and Angelo have both, in freudian terms, sublimated their sex drives. They are ‘in denial’.

Question 19

What does Baines say about Isabella’s silence?

Answer 19

Isabella is ‘not silenced, but, instead, chooses silence as a form of resistance to the patriarchal authority.’

Question 20

What does Stevenson say about Isabella’s sexuality?

Answer 20

Isabella ‘recognises her own sensuality and the need to apply strict control over it.’

Question 21

What does Wharton say of Isabella’s forgiveness at the end?

Answer 21

‘Isabella makes mercy supersede mere justice by her unvengeful and sacrificial pardon of him.;

Question 22

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

Answer 22

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

Question 23

What does Hawkins say about Isabella and Angelo?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What does Bennet say about Isabella’s flaws?

Answer 24

‘Isabella’s flaws arise from her inexperience.’

Question 25

What does Gless think Isabella’s preoccupation with her chastity shows?

Answer 25

‘spiritual arrogance.’