Isabella from “Measure for Measure”

Isabella - The main character, Isabella, is a very virtuous and chaste young woman who faces a
difficult decision when her brother is sentenced to death for fornication (unlawful sex). Isabella does
not approve of her brother's actions at all, but she pleads for his life out of loyalty and sisterly
devotion. Isabella is a spiritual person who starts off wanting to become a nun.

O you beast!
O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
Is't not a kind of incest, to take life
From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!
For such a warped slip of wilderness
Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance!
Die, perish! Might but my bending down
Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:
I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
No word to save thee.
O, fie, fie, fie!
Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.
Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:
'Tis best thou diest quickly

Claudio begs Isabella to do the deed so he can live. This, needless to say, doesn't
please Isabella.
She screams at her brother, calling him a beast, a coward, a wretch, and so forth.
Basically, she can't wait until he dies.
Claudio continues to beg, but Isabella refuses to listen.
The Duke, who has been spying the whole time, steps in. He takes Claudio aside
and tells him a fib. He says that Angelo didn't really mean it when he asked Isabella
to sleep with him. Angelo was just testing her virtue, which means Claudio should
prepare himself for death.
Claudio feels like a jerk for having asked his sister to, you know, prostitute herself for him
and says, "Yeah, I'm kind of sick of life at the moment. Dying doesn't sound so bad
anymore."
The theme of Measure for Measure is the temperance of justice with mercy. Merciful justice
is juxtaposed throughout with strict enforcement of the law. The duke, Isabella, Escalus,
Mariana, and the Provost all advocate mercy. Only Angelo demands strict adherence to the
law, even to recommending his own execution when his deeds are discovered.