Isabella Quotes Flashcards
What does Isabella say about restraint?
‘wishing a more strict restraint’
When Isabella finds out Claudio has got Julietta pregnant what does she say?
‘O let him marry her!’
~Isabella is willing to put aside her views about sex before marriage for her brother. She feels marriage will correct this
What does Isabella abhor? this is the first thing she says to Angelo
‘there is a vice that most I do abhor’
~referring to Claudio’s sexual ‘licence’, but in this context still pleading to Angelo for Claudio’s life to be spared and rather the ‘fault’ of his ‘vice’ be blamed despite her beliefs
(‘let it be his fault And not my brother’)
How does Isabella describe the law when talking to Angelo?
‘O just but severe law!’
~showing that she approves of the law and is already mourning her brother’s death. Lucio whispers to her that she should not give up so easily. He tells her to kneel before Angelo and speak with greater emotional force.
How does Lucio encourage Isabella be warmer to Angelo?
‘kneel down before him, hang upon his gown. You are too cold.’
How does Isabella suggest that her brother should be pardoned by Angelo?
‘I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.’
when Isabella starts to argue well with Angelo, what does Lucio say?
‘Ay, touch him, there’s the vein.’
How does Isabella argue to Angelo that her brother is not prepared for death?
‘He’s not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven with less respect than we do minister to our gross selves?’
How does Isabella compare Angelo to a giant?
‘O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.’
How does Isabella accidentally make a sexual reference when leaving Angelo for the first time?
‘Hark how I’ll bribe you.’
~she speaks of bribing him with prayers but could have been initially interpreted/introduced sexually in Angelo’s mind and this is remarked upon by Lucio.
How does Isabella make an accidental sexual reference the second time she meets Angelo?
‘I am come to know your pleasure.’
sexual connotations are unknown to Isabella
How does Isabella initially refuse Angelo?
Angelo: ‘to redeem him, give up your body to such sweet uncleanness as she that he hath stained?’
Isabella: ‘Sir, believe this, I had rather give my body than my soul.’
oxymoronic sweet uncleanness. She would rather die than have sex
How does Isabella express that she would rather be tortured than lose her virtue?
‘were I under the terms of death, the impression of keen whips I’d wear as rubies, And strip myself to death as to a bed that longing have been sick for.’
~she compares herself to saints that have experienced martyrdom rather than lose their virtue. She would like to be tortured over losing her virtue. This also has unintentional sexual connotations as it involves bed and whips
Translation: ISABELLA
I would do the same for my brother that I would do for myself. I mean, if I were sentenced to death, I’d gladly endure beating with whips, strip myself down to nothing, and lie sick in bed before I would surrender my body to shame.
How does Isabella’s religious views justify her opinion?
‘better it were a brother died once Than that a sister by redeeming him should die for ever.’
~she truly believes she would go to hell if she agreed
How does Isabella express Angelo’s hypocrisy?
Angelo: ‘plainly concieve I love you.’
Isabella: ‘My brother did love Juliet, And you tell me he shall die for it.’
How does Isabella threaten to expose Angelo as corrupt? What is Angelo’s response?
Isabella: ‘sign me a present pardon for my brother, Or with an outstretched throat I’ll tell the world aloud What man thou art.’
Angelo: ‘Who will believe thee Isabel? My unsoiled name, the austereness of my life, My vouch against you, and my place i’the state, will so your accusation overweigh.’
What is the important part of Isabella’s speech and rejection of Angelo in Act 2 scene 4?
‘had he twenty heads to tender down on twenty bloody blocks, he’d yield them up before his sister should her body stoop To such abhorred pollution. Then Isabel, live chaste, and brother, die; More than our brother is our chastity.’
~suggests that she feels Claudio would rather die than her her do this.
~sex as pollution
~she tries to weigh her chastity with her brother’s life but this is immeasurable. She says
(self-consolation, trying to use religious doctrine to vindicate her selfishness/guilt?)
How does Isabella inform Claudio that he will die?
‘Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift ambassador.’
~suggests she feels Claudio will go to heaven?? but she feels she will be dammed for the same crime
~Wishes to mollify/is sugaring the cruelty of his death
How does Isabella describe Angelo’s idea of mercy to Claudio?
‘There is a devilish mercy in the judge.’
How does Isabella use a metaphor of Claudio as a tree when speaking to him in prison?
‘consenting to’t (her sleeping with Angelo) Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear, And leave you naked.’
-idea of stripping bark from a tree. The tree is Claudio’s body but also has links to a family tree. The idea of nakedness shows the way he would be dishonoured and exposed to a hostile view.
How does Isabella try to reassure Claudio by saying the fear of death is worse than death itself? And that death is the same for all beings?
‘The sense of death is most in apprehension, And the poor beetle that we tread upon In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great as when a giant dies.’
suggests all creatures great and small feel the same death, in Isabella’s mind as little pain as a beetle stamped upon. However, the ‘pang as great as’ invites alternative interpretations that all creatures feel a big pain. Isabella is trying to console him but it’s not totally working.
How does Isabella express she would die for Claudio but not lose her virtue?
‘O, were it but my life, I’d throw it down for deliverance as frankly as a pin.’
~dying would be no big deal for her
-link to ‘I had rather give my body than my soul’ when refusing Angelo’s ultimatum
How does Isabella react to Claudio suggesting she should sleep with Angelo|? What does she call him?
‘O you beast! O faithless coward, O dishonest wretch!’
‘Heaven shield my mother played my father fair, For such a warped slip of wilderness Ne’er issued from his blood.’
~hopes he was born out of wedlock because she can't believe he is her brother. She is repulsed by him says he is a bastard. 'warped' shows she thinks he has a corrupt warped mind.
‘die, perish!’
‘I’ll pray a thousand prayers for thy death, No word to save thee.’
- as a religious woman this is a big deal to her
What does Isabella say to the friar about children born out of wedlock?
‘I had rather my brother die by the law than my son should be unlawfully born.’
