Angelo AO1/AO5 Pairs Flashcards
(6 cards)
The Duke describing Angelo before his deputisation, expressing his suspicion (but ultimately deciding to see if “power changes purpose”
Quote + named critic
Quote: “Lord Angelo is precise, / Stands at a guard with envy/ Scarce confesses that his blood flows” (1,3)
AO5: Dollimore asserts that Angelo is “a representation of authoritarian repression” (Dollimore)
After she finds out about her brother’s impending execution, Isabella to Angelo to spare her brother’s life. Angelo responds with this defense, saying he is simply following the law and that he would have passed the same judgment if Claudio were his own brother or even his son. Of course, the audience knows that this is likely not the case, especially considering how, at the beginning of play, Vincentio told Angelo he could enforce the laws to whichever extent he desired.
+ named critic, who describes how Angelo’s growing desires and lists for Isabella violates and traverses moral and social boundaries
AO2: “Be you content, fair maid/ It is the law, not I, condemn your brother”
AO5: “ Angelo’s transgressive desire… is potentially the most subversive; he more than anyone else threatens to discredit authority” (Dollimore) {works with the “desire her foully quote also”}
• In a soliloquy, Angelo reflects on his confusing feelings for Isabella
• He realises that he respects Isabella for her virtue and chastity
• He says that he would not desire an immoral and promiscuous “strumpet”
• Angelo says that “foully desiring” a woman outside of marriage is something he would usually condemn
Analysis
• Angelo uses emotive language to reflect on his responses to women:
• He says an immoral woman would not “stir” his “temper” but a virtuous female would subdue him
• Angelo shows his disdain for promiscuous women by using a derogatory term, “strumpet”
• The oxymoron of “foul” and “good” conveys the dichotomies in the play regarding female sexuality
• Angelo’s reflections comment on the hypocritical standards for women in Jacobean society
AO2: “Oh fie, fie, fie!/ What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?/ Dost thou desire her foully for those things/ That make her good?” (2,2)
AO5: Widmayer asserts that Isabella and Angelo coincide on placing “a higher value on chastity than on life” (Widmayer)
Full AO5: “His plea…for death indicates that he too places a higher value on chastity than on his own life” (Widmayer)
Strumpet vs Chaste Isabella Quota
“Never could the strumpet../ Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid/ Subdues me quite”
Angelo has placed her in a nearly impossible situation, highlighting her essential powerlessness in the face of his privileges as both a man and regent. Notably, Angelo’s arrogant response to Isabella, “my false..” illustrates that he has complete faith in appearances’ ability to trump reality.
2 related quotes, named critic who relates Isabella and Angelo in their collective wishes to restrain all desires, and use their pursuit thereof to excuse their actions/omission thereof/or absence of responsibility. It could be argued, however, that the key difference is Isabella’s aim being more virtuous and honorable than Angelo, who does not follow an equally meaning religious endeavour in doing so
AO1: “Who will believe thee, Isabella?/ My unsoiled name, the austereness of my life.. (2,4)
AO1: “My false o’erweighs your true”
AO5: Widmayer hypothesises that “Isabella is Angelo’s female counterpart— determined to keep her appetites under the strictest restraint” (Widmayer, 2007)
In another earlier scene (II. i. 29-31), Angelo stated that, guilty of Claudio’s crime, he would ask for the just penalty of the law (“Let mine own judgement pattern out my death”) and he too lives up to his claim. However, this may be too merciful for Angelo, as those who he has threatened and harmed psychologically receive no remorse or tangible recompense.
Quote and named critic
AO2: “ Immediate sentence, then, and sequent death/ Is all the grace I beg” (5,1/resolution)
AO5: Widmayer proposes that “Public disgrace is essential to the deputy’s reformation, but so is remorse for the pain he has caused others” (Widmayer, 2007)
