Measure for Measure Essay: The Virtuous Vanity of Isabella

The Virtuous Vanity of Isabella in Measure for Measure Shakespeares work, Measure for Measure, puts the difficulty in problem play as it, examines the difference between law and justice, virtue and goodness. Its a case study of abuse of power that has a particularly contemporary resonance. Isabella is a very intriguing Shakespearean female. She is one of the few intelligent females who are also innocent and holy. Measure for Measure focuses primarily on her moral dilemma. Does she save her brother and give up her valued chastity or does she save her own soul while allowing her brother to die? By playing on Elizabethan viewpoints concerning women, nuns, and chastity, Shakespeare uses Isabella in developing his plot and theme. While Isabella is chaste and merciful in all outward appearances, she is unwilling to give up her virginity to Angelo in exchange for Claudios life, yet she is ready to sacrifice Marianas chastity for the cause. Isabella is so virtuous that it becomes a vanit y for her. Sanctimonious, hypocritical, intelligent, beautiful, Isabella, who is a representative of restraint in the text. She in reality goes overboard in her desire for strictness, as shown when she asks one of the nuns if she could not have more strict restraint as one of the sisters there. This recalls the theme of indulgence and restraint, besides since Isabella is too much drawn to one of the poles, she will have to become more moderate in order to become truly human. Isabella is immediately effected as a rare female character when her brother describes her with the statement, she has prosperous art/ when she will play with reason and discourse, and well she can persuade(Shakespeare 1.2.161-163). Women in ... ...e of the play. Works Cited and Consulted Charlton, H. B. Shakespearean Comedy. London Methuen, 1938. Knight, G. Wilson. The Wheel of Fire Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeares Sombre Tragedies. London Oxford UP, 1930. Leech, Clifford. The Meaning of Meas ure for Measure. Shakespeare Survey 3 (1950) 69-71. New American step Bible. Reference ed. Chicago Moody Press, 1975. Pope, Elizabeth Marie. The Renaissance Background 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. Sypher, Wylie. Shakespeare as sophist Measure for Measure. The Sewanee Review 58 (1950) 262-80.