Measure for Measure Essay: The Pontification of Isabella

The Pontification of Isabella in Measure for Measure Within Measure for Measure the character of Isabella is characterized as an bare pure female, and there is a focus on her ever-present moral dilemma. By using Elizabethan perspectives on women, nuns, and chastity, Shakespeare uses Isabella to reveal character traits and morality of those almost her. However in opposition Isabella made be seen as an individual who pontificates too much when her brothers life is at stake, it is perhaps easier for Isabella to post the condemnation of a modern audience. Isabella is immediately established as a rare female character when her brother describes her with the statement, she has prosperous art When she will melt with reason and discourse And well she can persuade(Shakespeare 1.2.161-163). It is worth noning her that women in Shakespeares time were very recognized for neither their reasoning nor their speaking capabilities. In fact, women were not expected to voice their opinions wome n who chose to do so were deemed a threat to social order. It is, therefore, questionable whether Shakespeares audience would have approved of Isabellas skills at rhetoric. Although agreeing with her stance concerning Claudio (they, too, prob... ...The Wheel of push aside Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeares Sombre Tragedies. London Oxford UP, 1930. Leech, Clifford. The Meaning of Measure for Measure. Shakespeare Survey 3 (1950) 69-71. New American Standard Bible. Reference ed. Chicago Moody Press, 1975. Pope, Elizabeth Marie. The Renaissance footing of Measure for Measure. Shakespeare Survey 2 (1949) 66-82. Rossiter, A. P. Angel with Horns and Other Shakespeare Lectures. Ed. Graham Storey. London Longmans, Green, 1961. Shakespeare, William. William Shakespeare The Complete Works. Ed. Alfred Harbage. 1969. Baltimore Penguin, 1971.