Saturday, September 20, 2008

Is there any character we can sympathize with?

Dissemble or thou diest, for Mortimer
And Isabel do kiss while they conspire;
And yet she bears a face of love, forsooth.
Fie on that love that hatcheth death and hate! (IV, vi, 12-15)

In class we've discussed how there is not one character in Marlowe's Edward II who we can readily identify with. Personally, in the first three acts I sympathized with Isabella. As she attempted time and time again to please Edward, he not only failed to return her love, but blamed her for his misfortune and misery. It was easy to feel sorry for her. Yet her romantic involvement with Mortimer, made apparent in Act IV, casts her in a different light. Although I understand her involvement with Mortimer, as her husband has continually ignored her, Isabella can no longer be considered an innocent character. We must question what has caused Isabella to abandon her husband to consort with his enemies. Was it Edward's ill treatment of her and his ruinous governing of England? Or did her romantic link with Mortimer truly sway her to join the nobles? I think which ever you believe, you can no longer pity Isabella as you once did.

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