SOURCE: MacFarlane, Linda. “Heads You Win, Tails I Lose.” Critical Survey 5, no. 1 (1993): 77-82.

In the following essay, MacFarlane discusses the restrictions on Isabella's freedom as a woman in the Renaissance Vienna of Measure for Measure.

                                                                                                              Be that you are, That is a woman; if you be more you're none. 

(Angelo, II. iv. 134-5)

In Measure For Measure Isabella is placed firmly in a no win situation. Even on the threshold of a convent, at the very moment of making a clear statement about her vocation, her desires and her sexuality, she is not safe. She is plucked back into the outside world to bear the responsibility for the sexual urges, misdemeanors and fantasies of four men.

As Lucio approaches to plead for Isabella's intervention in her brother's cause his greeting sexualises her: ‘Hail, virgin—if you be, as those cheek roses / Proclaim you are no less!’ Lucio clearly...