A Parallel Between Isabella and Hamlet

Isabella is a woman with a seemingly over pious regard to herself and her virginity, placing the same over an individuals life and liberty. This is make evident in her statement Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die More than our brother is our chastity (Measure for measure 2.4.197-198).She thus relates how she finds her chastity to be worth more than her traffic and certainly worth more than life itself. In the following words she further expresses what torment it would be to continue life with chastity and purity interpreted from her And twere the cheaper wayBetter it were a brother died at once, than that a sister, by redeeming him, should die for ever (Measure for measure 2.4.114-117).She thus likens such life to dying each day that she woke up. However, she fails to take into account that this was the crime that her feature brother was jailed for. Should she then beg for his freedom thinking he was not liable for his wrong when she would thus consider the act if commi tted to her to odorous to live with? Certainly, if her brother is to be justified on account of his love then she in like manner would in the same way be absolved of any blame in acceding to Angelos request on account of her love for her admit brother, her own flesh and blood.Isabellas decision is quite contrary to that of sm whole towns. Hamlet having seen and heard of the unjust manner in which his father was slain puts aside his own self in order to take up the latters revenge. This is marked quite true in his wordsIll wipe away only trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and book of account of my brain. (Hamlet 1.5.104-108)With a focus on the monstrous crime that has been committed against his murdered father, Hamlet commits himself to right the same wrong at whatever cost it might bring upon himself. He throws aside the purity of a nephew bou nd to his uncle by kinship ties. He even discards the purity that is required of him as a prince and son, implemental to his King and Queen mother.In both the cases of Isabella and Hamlet they are handed the power to decide the fate of persons they confess to love. Isabella and Hamlet both are left to exhalation their brother and father respectively from chains that constrain them from freedom.In Isabellas case her brother was bound in jail and threatened with death while in Hamlets his fathers spirit was bound to earth given to unrest for the spell of eternity. With Angelos confession of lust he relinquished all wisdom in deciding the conviction of Isabellas brother, redeem thy brother by yielding up thy body to my will or else he moldiness not only die the death, but thy unkindness shall his death draw out to lingering sufferance (Measure for measure 2.4.177-180).Hamlet is given the same bushel power to achieve his fathers freedom given that he was the only one to whom the ghos t spoke regarding his murder.Both were required to commit acts wrong in themselves in order to accomplish the freedoms spoken of Isabella was required to submit to Angelos lust while Hamlet was required to commit murder. Whereas Hamlet readily acceded the fault that would be borne by his own hands, Isabella resolutely refused to do the same. Once again the conclusion that the loss of a womans chastity was more heinous an offense than the taking of a persons life was communicated in Shakespeares words.ReferencesShakespeare, W. (1997). Hamlet. In Greenblatt, S., Cohen, W., Howard, J. E., and Maus, K. E. (Ed.). The Norton Shakespeare base On The Oxford Edition. New York W. W. Norton.Shakespeare, W. (1997). Measure for Measure. In Greenblatt, S., Cohen, W., Howard, J. E., and Maus, K. E. (Ed.). The Norton Shakespeare Based On The Oxford Edition. New York W. W. Norton.