Edward II-The Role Of Isabella: C.U. English Honours Part-II Notes
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Comment on the portrayal of Isabella
and examine the significance of her role in Edward II
A general
charge against Marlowe’s dramatic artistry is that his women are not
dramatically living. In fact his earlier plays are rather deprived of
substantial feminine characters. But in his play Edward II, he has presented a
female character as an important link in the whole action. This is Isabella,
the queen, who is much instrumental to the tragic fall of the weak king. In
this respect alone, Edward II can be safely deemed as superior to his plays.
Isabella,
as presented by Marlowe, has a change in her character with the advancement of
the play. She changes, in the course of time, into a hypocritical, vengeful,
ambitious and even cruel woman. Isabella, in the earlier scenes of the play, is
rather an object of pity. She is the queen but neither has she had the
queen-like personality nor does she enjoy the honour of a queen. Her husband is
rather cold cruel to her. He slights her and exploits her only to serve his
base passion for his favourite Gaveston. The king’s favourite proud Gaveston
even insults her openly. She is, in fact, subjected to much torment and insult
because of her unnatural husband. The queen, nevertheless, remains extremely
submissive and loyal and is ready to do anything to get the favour of her
husband. She prefers to bear her own sorrow silently to spare him from troubles
and worries.
The queen
is quite a different woman in the later scenes. Her husband’s follies and
frivolities drive her to desperation. She grows into a strong, determined,
shrewd and corrupt woman. She comes forward with the French army to avenge the
wrong, done to her by her husband. She conspires with Mortimer and other lords
against her own husband. She becomes a party to Mortimer’s cruel dealings with
the king. She is in an adulterous relation with Mortimer, and does all that she
can to foster her secret love for him. Gradually she turns into a power loving,
unscrupulous and immoral woman from a timid, submissive woman of the earlier
scenes.
Yet, a word
of praise must be said in favour of Isabella. She loves her son sincerely and
wishes him o be the safe king of England. Her words to younger Mortimer about
her love for her son testify to her motherly love or affection—
“And
therefore, so the prince my son be safe,
Whom I
esteem as dear as these mine eyes.”
The mother in
her is true and strong, though wife in her is wicked and wrong. Isabella’s
punishment comes from the son for whom she has tried so much. Her punishment is
the just retribution for the sin she has committed as a faithless wife and
hypocritical queen. There is hardly any pity for her as she is thrown into the
Tower of London as a prisoner. She must reap the bitter harvest for what evil
she has sown.
The change
in Isabella’s character is neither sudden nor abrupt. Marlowe has delineated
this change from a psychological standpoint. The role of Isabella is
distinctive in the action of the play. She is simply a helpless weal woman,
desperately seeking her husband’s love. She has one important function which is
to induce the barons to recall Gaveston. It is however this return of Gaveston
that foments the civil war. In the rising of the lords against the king along
with Mortimer, she plays a vital part in the pitiful fall of Edward II. She
gives the royal leadership that is so much needed for the defeat and capacity
of the king.
The
character of Isabella also serves to heighten the tragic grandeur of Marlowe’s
hero. She lights up, in the earlier scenes, the king’s failing as a husband.
Again, in the later scenes, her conduct—her hypocrisy and conspiracy with Mortimer
against the king—derives sympathy for the king and raises him to the dignity of
a tragic hero. In short, Isabella’s fury as a wronged woman is definitely
terrible as evident in Medea of Euripides.
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