Post Three: "Measure for Measure" at Globe Theatre

While my first impression of the production of Measure for Measure at the Globe was that the company tied things up too nicely by having everyone, including Isabella, married off, the Globe’s implication that Isabella accepted the Duke’s proposal in fact complicates the “problem play” even further. When Isabella finds out that Claudio is dead, she takes off her bonnet and throws it to the ground (an action not in the original stage directions), symbolically shedding her faith and her resolve to remain chaste. For the remainder of the play, her bonnet stays off and at the Duke’s proposal, Isabella walks slowly toward him and gives him her hand. This complicates the play further in that it calls into question Isabella’s priorities and her steadfastness to her faith, as the bonnet is a vestment of the nunnery.

            I felt at first that the ending was unsatisfactory because it seemed that Isabella had such a quick change of heart with the sight of her brother alive; on the contrary, the last act was compelling. Isabella’s change of heart wasn’t quite so sudden as to occur at the very end of the play. Isabella’s transformation began when the friar announced that her brother would be killed anyway; to which Isabella shouts, “Oh, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes!” and then “Most damned Angelo!” (Act 4, Scene 3) While she previously wished to dedicate her life to God, Isabella seems as though she has lost her faith in people, in good, and possibly God. Later, when Mariana asks Isabella to beg for Angelo’s life, Isabella pleads that before attempting to coerce her into having sex with him, Angelo truly did have some sincerity in his condemnation of Claudio, who Isabella now believes got what he deserved (Act 5, Scene 1). The Globe’s interpretation of Isabella’s pleading with Mariana was also compelling in that Isabella slowly walked around to the other side of Mariana and kneeled assuredly to beg for the life of the man who tried to take her virtue and then killed her brother, revealing that Isabella has truly changed, and setting up a believable circumstance for her marriage to the Duke.

            What is further complicated by the Globe’s interpretation of the play is that Isabella, who seemed like the most resolute character in the play, has actually turned out to be the most wavering. Upon finding out that the Duke had been manipulating her and everyone else throughout the entire ordeal, beginning-of-the-play-Isabella would’ve been furious and undoubtedly turned down the proposal or at least turned to God for guidance in replying to the Duke’s proposal. However, she quietly accepts. This could be read several ways. On one hand, she’s now free to live a more full life, which is an implied wish of hers at the very beginning of the play, “And have you nuns no farther privileges?” she asks (Act 1, Scene 4). On the other hand, Isabella could be sadly accepting that her faith in and dedication to morality were no match for deceit and corruption, which ultimately were successful, and thus she agrees to marry the most deceitful character in the play. Because of Isabella’s loss of control in her anger towards Angelo and then her sudden plea on Angelo’s behalf, Isabella is clearly not the same as she was in the beginning of the play, and thus the interpretation that Isabella accepted the Duke’s proposal is believable, if frustrating.