Isabella

Play

Measure for Measure

Summary

A novice about to enter the order of Saint Clare who is pulled from the convent to plead for her brother Claudio's life. She refuses Angelo's corrupt bargain — her chastity for Claudio's life — with fierce eloquence, making her one of the most passionately debated moral figures in Shakespeare: champion of spiritual integrity to some, cold and self-righteous to others.

Notable Quotations

"More than our brother is our chastity." *(II.iv)*

"O, it is excellent / To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant." *(II.ii)*

"Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves, / Which are as easy broke as they make forms." *(II.iv)*

Cross-references

• Measure for Measure — the play
• Comedies
• character_angelo_mm — the deputy who propositions her
• character_claudio_mm — her condemned brother
• character_duke_vincentio — who proposes marriage to her at the play's end