Quotes Flashcards
Act 1, Scene 1
Escalus describing how Angelo is worthy of being the Duke’s deputy (both Escalus and the Duke speak highly of him), like both Macbeth and Othello he has the potential to be a good leader
“if any in Vienna be of worth / To undergo such ample grace and honour / It is Lord Angelo”
Act 1, Scene 1
Angelo protesting that some test should be made of his worth before he is given such huge responsibility and power, suggests he is modest and responsible, sees himself as unworthy
“Let some more test be made of my metal / Before so noble and so great a figure / Be stamp’d upon it”
Act 1, Scene 1
Angelo being respectful and addressing the Duke and Escalus with the utmost respect
addresses both men as “my Lord” and the Duke as “your Grace”
Act 1, Scene 1
the Duke’s desire for seclusion and to retreat from public life, links to James i and his own dislike of crowds
“i love the people / But do not like to stage me to their eyes”
he tells the friar that he has “ever loved the life removed”
Act 1, Scene 1
the Duke advising Angelo to share his talents and qualities, they are not his to keep selfishly and must be shared, otherwise they will be wasted
“thyself and thy belongings are not thine own so proper as to waste thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee”
“Heaven doth with us as we with torches do / Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues / Did not go forth of us, twere all alike / As if we had them not”
Act 1, Scene 1
Angelo seeming to be servile, humble and respectful, there is little to suggest he will be an evil and corrupt character
“always obedient to your Grace’s will”
Act 1, Scene 1
Angelo referencing heaven, recognises that the Duke may have links to it (divine right of kings), ironic as the Duke disguises himself as a friar later on in the play
“may heaven give way to your purposes”
Act 1, Scene 2
Lucio surprised that Claudio is being punished at all due to how weakly the law is usually enforced in Vienna, vast change from the Duke to Angelo
“is lechery so looked after?”
Act 1, Scene 2
Claudio’s faith in Isabella’s powers of persuasion, ironically foreshadowing how easily Angelo is tempted by her and how she will end up nearly sacrificing her virginity for her brother’s life
“for in her youth / There is a prone and speechless dialect, / Such as move men… And well she can persuade”
Act 1, Scene 3
the Duke describing the laxity of the law in Vienna and how it has not been taken seriously or enforced properly while he has been in power
“We have strict statutes and most biting laws… / Which for this nineteen years we have let slip”
Act 1, Scene 3
the Duke describing Angelo as puritanical, with strong and unbending morals
“Lord Angelo is precise”
Act 2, Scene 1
Escalus talking about Claudio, demonstrates that the way a person is treated within the justice system is largely determined by their social class, shows clear injustice and inequality in the law
“this gentleman, whom I would save, had a most noble father”
Act 2, Scene 1
Angelo’s quote about temptation
“Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus / Another thing to fall”
Act 2, Scene 1
Angelo’s quote about the jewel
“The jewel that we find, we stoop and take’t / Because we see it; but what we do not see / We tread upon, and never think of it”
Act 2, Scene 1
Justice reinforcing Angelo’s severity and harshness, significant that this comment is made by the character of ‘Justice’, suggests Angelo lacks justice
“Lord Angelo is severe”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo dismissing the pregnant Juliet, harsh and cold-hearted and impatient, keen to punish her by only giving her what she absolutely needs rather than letting her be comfortable while in labour
“Dispose of her / To some more fitter place, and that with speed”
“See you the fornicatress be removed / Let her have needful but not lavish means”
Act 2, Scene 2
Isabella pleading with Angelo to have mercy on Claudio, although she recognises that he has broken the law
“I do beseech you, let it be his fault, / And not my brother”
“Condemn the fault and not the actor of it”
Act 2, Scene 2
the Provost asks for confirmation about Claudio’s execution seeing as it is rare for the law to be enforced in this way, Angelo finds this disrespectful and commands the Provost to do his job
“Do you your office, or give up your place”
Act 2, Scene 2
Lucio encouraging Isabella to carry on arguing with Angelo and trying to persuade him to pardon Claudio
“Ay, touch him; there’s the vein”
“Ay, well said”
“you are too cold”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo attempting to depersonalise the situation and hide behind the law, portraying himself as merely an agent of the law, dismissing Isabella and distancing himself
“Your brother is a forfeit of the law, / And you but waste your words”
“Be you content, fair maid. / It is the law, not I, condemn your brother”
“He must die tomorrow”
“He’s sentenced. ‘Tis too late”
“Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, / It should be thus with him”
Act 2, Scene 2
Isabella arguing that Angelo should be merciful, it is his responsibility as a ruler to show mercy, echoes Christ’s teachings in Sermon on the Mount
“If He which is the top of judgment should / But judge you as you are? O, think on that, / And mercy then will breathe within your lips / Like man new-made”
Act 2, Scene 2
Isabella’s observation that many have committed the same crime as Claudio, yet he is the one being punished all of a sudden
“Who is it that hath died for this offence? / There’s many have committed it”
Act 2, Scene 2
Isabella pointing out how tyrannical Angelo is being
“O, it is excellent / To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant”
Act 2, Scene 2
Isabella’s quote about judgement and morality being subjective
“We cannot weigh our brother with ourself”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo’s aside revealing how he is becoming seduced and tempted by Isabella’s virtue, morality and sincerity
“She speaks, and ’tis such sense / That my sense breeds with it”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo is influenced by his desire and arranges for Isabella to return tomorrow
“I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo giving into temptation, links to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, a tale about giving into temptation, like Angelo is now giving in to his desire
“For I am that way going to temptation”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo questioning himself, struggling to deal with his newfound desire, unsure of who he is, he is questioning his own morals and everything that he believes he stands for
“What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?”
Act 2, Scene 2
Angelo arrogantly believing that he is a saint and that the devil is trying to tempt him with another saint (Isabella), seeks to blame anyone and anything except himself, unwilling to take responsibility for his desires
“O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint, / With saints dost bait thy hook”
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo feeling suffocated and overwhemed, links to James I not liking crowds
“So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons, / Come all to help him, and so stop the air / By which he should revive”
Act 2, Scene 4
Isabella naively using sexually suggestive language, dramatic irony as the audience knows what Angelo is desiring due to his soliloquy only a few lines ago
“I am come to know your pleasure”
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo proposing the ‘monstrous bargain’, linking virginity to money and value
“either / You must lay down the treasures of your body / …or else to let him suffer, / What would you do?”
Act 2, Scene 4
Isabella’s ironic use of sexually suggestive, sado-masochistic language, naively tempting Angelo even further, shows her extreme character
“keen whips I’d wear as rubies / And strip myself to death as to a bed / …ere I’d yield / My body up to shame”
“Then your brother must die”
Act 2, Scene 4
Isabella’s quote about false seeming and hypocrisy, she reocgnises that she has contradicted her own morals and arguments by condemning Angelo for proposing the same crime that she seeks to defend Claudio
“we speak not what we
mean”
“I something do excuse the thing I hate / For his advantage that I dearly love”
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo and Isabella being mirror images of eachother, agreeing on female frailty, Isabella’s views on female vanity and how easily women are manipulated by men and vulnerable to exploitation
“Nay, women are frail too” - Angelo
“Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves… Nay, call us ten times frail, / For we are soft as our complexions are, / And credulous to false prints” - isabella
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo’s declaration of ‘love’, he is truly overcome with desire, Isabella responds by pointing out his hypocrisy, she cleverly manipulates his words throughout, always turning them back to her argument, even after he has propositioned her like this
“Plainly conceive I love you”
“My brother did love Juliet, / And you tell me that he shall die for ’t”
“He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love”
Act 2, Scene 4
Isabella threatening to expose Angelo if he does not pardon Claudio, capable of blackmail, shows that she may be innocent but she is not entirely naive
“Sign me a present pardon for my brother / Or with an outstretched throat I’ll tell the world aloud / What man thou art”
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo gives full control to his desire and submits to temptation
“And now I give my sensual race the rein. / Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite”
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo recognising that no one will believe Isabella if she does try to expose him
“Who will believe thee, Isabel? / My unsoiled name, th’ austereness of my life, / My vouch against you, and my place i’ th’ state”
“Say what you can, my false o’erweighs your true”
“you shall stifle in your own report / And smell of calumny”
Act 2, Scene 4
Angelo becoming even more cruel and aggressive, blackmailing isabella and threatening to cause Claudio even more suffering if she says no, impatient and frustrated
“Redeem thy brother/ By yielding up thy body to my will, / Or else he must not only die the death, / But thy unkindness shall his death draw out”
“I’ll prove a tyrant to him”
the Duke having mysterious motives and Lucio providing a valuable assessment of the Duke’s character
“the old fantastical duke of dark corners” - Lucio
Escalus’ description of the Duke desiring to understand and discover himself, this may be a possible reason for him leaving (a means of self-discovery)
“he contended especially to know himself”
Isabella desiring strict rules and regulation, wishing to have control over herself, parallels to Angelo
“have you nuns no farther privileges?”
“I speak not as desiring more, / But rather wishing a more strict restraint”
Isabella’s quote about chastity, she immediately determines that her virginity is more valuable than her brother’s life and refuses to sacrifice it
(avoiding direct first person, appears to be a formal statement rather than a revelation of feeling, is she a heartless and selfish puritan? or is she a saintly heroine true to her higher calling?)
“Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die. / More than our brother is our chastity”
Lucio’s description of Angelo as inhuman and unnaturally cold, he provides valuable insights into numerous characters
(Shakespeare plays on Angelo’s name in the sense that an “angel” is a celestial being, there’s nothing angelic about the corrupt deputy but, throughout the play Angelo is described as a non-human or other-worldly being, the clearest example of this is when Angelo admits that he’s never before experienced the most basic of human desires: lust)
“Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some, / that he was begot between two stockfishes”
“his urine is / congealed ice; that I know to be true”
Isabella’s accusations in the final scene
Isabella calls Angelo a…
“murderer”
“hypocrite”
“adulterous thief”
“virgin-violator”
descriptions of Angelo repeatedly use images that express his coldness and rigidity
“a man of stricture and firm abstinence”
“whose blood / is very snow-broth”
“most strait in virtue”
“severe”
Claudio’s description of Angelo using horse imagery
Claudio describes Angelo as a rider using a spur to cement authority over the horse, which may also reflect Angelo’s need to restrain his own animal desires
it is significant that Angelo also uses horse imagery when he talks about the release of his sexual desires (“I give my sensual race the rein”)
Angelo is not a clear villain, he cannot be said to be truly evil or malicious, as seen when his behaviour is revealed and he makes no excuses, only craving death and punishment for his desires
he craves “death more willingly than mercy”
“Immediate sentence then and sequent death / Is all the grace I beg”
Angelo expressing regret at Claudio’s execution, displays some redeeming features that complicate his character and suggest he is not truly evil
“he should have lived”
