Answer two of the following for Wednesday's reading:
Q1: What is the purpose of Act 2.1, which is little more than an elaborate farce between Elbow, Escalus, and Pompey? Do we ever learn what Escalus accuses Pompey of doing to his wife? How does this all relate to the rest of the play?
Q2: We briefly discussed Isabella's powerful speech in Act 2.2, where she proclaims that if everyone used their power like Jove, "Jove would never be quiet,/For every pelting, petty officer/Would use his heaven for thunder,/Nothing but thunder" (67). According to her, what is the danger of punshing people within the full limits of the laws, as many judges do even today? Why not give someone the maximum sentence, if the point of a punishment is more to deter crime than than to punish the person themselves?
Q3: It was mentioned in class today that the play has resonances with the Book of Job, where God tests his most faithful servant to show Satan that some men are indeed true to the faith. How might this play be a kind of allegory for faith or virtue, and if so, who do you think is being tested: Angelo, or Isabella? Who might be the real protagonist of this play?
Q4: Re-read Angelo's famous soliloquy in Act 2.2, where he reflects on the effect that Isabella has had on him. What do you think he means when he says, "but it is I/That, lying by the violet in the sun,/Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,/Corrupt with virtuous season" (71)? Why is he not like the flower, and why is he doing "as the carrion does"? Does he think himself unfairly "assayed" by Isabella in this speech, or is he admitting to his own weakness and frailty? How well does he seem to know himself here (consider how Lear's daughters said "he does but slenderly know himself").
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