Psychoanalysis of Isabella in Measure for Measure

¶ … intervene on behalf of her brother Claudio, Isabella is fully entrenched in the convent and the sets of norms and values it represents. She finds its rules and regulations comforting, and even finds herself "wishing for a more strict restraint," rather than for additional freedom (Act I, scene iv, line 352). It is as if the Mothers in the convent are substitutes for Isabella's mother, whose absence in the play signals the sort of distance that might prompt the daughter's transference of maternal power to the surrogate. The fact that Claudio is Isabella's brother is therefore meaningful on several levels. One, Isabella perceives Claudio's transgression as a sin as well as a legal transgression. Her rigid moral beliefs constrain her view of her brother and end up mirroring both her True Self and False Self in the process. Second, Claudio's sexual transgression allows the emergence of Isabella's Oedipal/Electral desires. As she stands poised to confirm herself to the nunnery, Isabella sublimates her sexual desires before those desires have even been awoken. She remains safely within the confines of the convent until she is called upon to act in the real world -- with her True Self. Third, Isabella is challenged by her responsibility to her brother. The familial connection between the two becomes a salient tie between Isabella and the mother she lacks. Isabella's maturation is the central focus of Measure for Measure, and represents the process of ego integration through a breakdown of False Self and emergence of True.

Isabella's virginity is the most precious commodity until she can symbolically kill her False Self, doing away with the selfishness and self-centeredness that False Self uses to perpetuate its own reality. Because Isabella is "yet unsworn" to the convent, though, the window remains open for her True Self to emerge (Act I, scene iv, line 358). Her initial refusal to help Claudio seems ironically appropriate given the fact that losing her virginity would be a "death" every bit as real as Claudio's death by execution, and there is no reason why Claudio's life should be spared and not that of his sister.

As the play progresses, though, the situational variables increase in complexity and enable Isabella to make the choices that either strengthen her True Self or her False Self, leading either to ego integration and psychological health or to dysfunction. Part of healthy development demands successful ego integration especially at the stage during which the id demands (in Isabella's case, the demands to remain pure at all costs) are integrated as "part of the self," and not viewed as something external (Winnicott, 1960, p. 141). Isabella essentially needs to shift towards a self-concept in which virginity is voluntary and something she embraces as an extension of her True Self. Virginity cannot be something that is meaningless; it cannot be a proscribed behavior or artificial way of life if Isabella is to experience ego integration. Because she has only identified with her surrogate "mothers" in the convent, Isabella has never formulated a healthy sexual identity vis-a-vis a maternal figure outside of the convent who lives a healthy sexual life. The decision on whether or not to remain celibate is up to Isabella; whichever position her True Self takes remains ambiguous at the end of the play. The point is not whether Isabella leaves the convent, but whether she has achieved ego integration via mature emotional decisions and personal responsibility.

When the id demands can be integrated into the Self, not perceived as external, then "id satisfaction becomes a very important strengthener of the ego or of the True Self," (Winnicott, 1960, p. 141). Until Isabella meets the Duke, she has yet to make conscious her need to have empathy for others, and has also yet to believe that it is possible to have empathy and compassion for a man without breaking her vows. As the Sister tells her in the beginning, once she takes her vow, Isabella will not be even allowed to see a man unless she is fully covered. Buying into the rules of the convent, Isabella's False Self defends its life, protecting itself as best as it can. Isabella is an example of what Winnicott (1960) calls the "less extreme" version of ego development in which the False Self "defends the True Self," but the True Self is nevertheless allowed to live a "secret life," (p. 143). It is this secret life that allows for the emergence of her True Self. Her secret life first begins to whisper when she blushes, showing her "cheek-roses" to Lucio (I, iv, 366). The Duke later awakens Isabella's True Self even more, not sexually, but emotionally and intellectually. Isabella must weigh a moral choice: that of saving her brother's life by lying versus retaining her virginity. She chooses to go along with the Duke's plan, a sign of her encroaching maturation and moral development, as well as her integration. As Winnicott (1992) describes the process of ego integration, it "makes possible the beginning of a capacity for concern," (p. 25). When Isabella realizes that she indeed does have the power to help her brother and still preserve her virginity, she has empowered her True Self to a degree greater than she has ever experienced in her short lifespan. Also as Winnicott (1992) suggests, a "capacity for guilt-sense builds up in the individual," and this "guilt sense" is felt directly "in relation to the mother," (p. 25). Isabella is awakened to the fact that she and Claudio share the same mother, and thus her "guilt sense" is awakened. Moreover, any guilt that she might have felt for crossing over the moral lines befitting a nun would have vanished in light of the higher moral choice of saving the life of her kin. The concepts of both fear and guilt both drive Isabella toward ego maturation and integration.