How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to the Riverside edition.
Quote #4
LUCIO
Hail, virgin...
[...]
I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted (1.4.17, 36)
Lucio, a self-professed ladies' man, places Isabella on a pedestal and separates Isabella from other women because she's a virgin. Angelo, on the other hand, is turned on by Isabella's chastity, but seeks to destroy it by blackmailing our girl into having sex with him. What's up with that?
Quote #5
DUKE, as Friar
Go you to
Angelo, answer his requiring with a plausible obedience,
agree with his demands to the point. Only
refer yourself to this advantage: first, that your stay
with him may not be long, that the time may have all
shadow and silence in it, and the place answer to
convenience. This being granted in course, and
now follows all: we shall advise this wronged maid
to stead up your appointment, go in your place. If
the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may
compel him to her recompense; and here, by this, is
your brother saved, your honor untainted, the poor
Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. (3.1.269-282)
When the Duke comes up with a "bed trick" to fool Angelo into sleeping with his jilted, ex-fiancé, Isabella and Mariana both go along with it. Why? We thought Isabella was anti-sex. Also, why would Mariana want Angelo back after what he did to her? For feminist scholars like Eileen Cohen, this kind of bed trick, which is a popular plot device in Shakespearean drama, is an expedient way for women to subvert patriarchal authority.
Quote #6
ISABELLA
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die.
More than our brother is our chastity. (2.4.198-199)
Isabella is then placed in a terrible position by a corrupt deputy – if she sleeps with Angelo to save her brother's life, she will compromise her values. If she doesn't sleep with Angelo, her brother will die. Here, she decides that that her chastity is more valuable than anything else, which all but invites the audience to judge whether or not Isabella makes the right decision.