Isabella in Marlowe’s Edward II

Queen Isabella is perhaps one of the most complex characters in the whole range of Marlowe’s drama, Edward II: The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer. She is drawn from various angles and she plays a very pivotal role in the progress of the plot and devised the destiny of the play. Overall she appears as a passionate wife, a bundle of pretension a greedy, self-seeking woman.

From the very beginning of drama none can identify the true character of Queen Isabella. At first she appears as a deeply devoted and loving wife. She is ready to sacrifice everything for the shake of her husband. She wants to leave the court and live in the forest in order to find the happiness of her husband with Gaveston. Though she is ill treated by her husband yet she is found to be worried about her husband’s safety. The ill treatment that Queen Isabella has received from Edward II is beyond to bear for the shake of peace and to avoid civil war. She agrees for the repeal of banishment order of Gaveston. She requests the barons not to revolt against the king. She succeeds in bringing back Gaveston but she fails to bring back the love of Edward-II for her. All her womanly zeal is crushed. She is stricken out and perhaps this cause is in working to bring forth the aspect of her character.

Isabella is a split personality she is the first real woman character of Marlowe.  She is more alive, at any rate than the corpse of Zenocrate or the Wrath of Helen. Isabella cherishes a soft corner for younger Mortimer. The king accuses her for her adulteress. She meets Mortimer secretly and tells him about the king’s suspicions. She vividly expresses in a soliloquy her love for younger Mortimer: 

                   “so well hathst thou deserve sweet Mortimer

                   as Isabella could live with the forever”.

She is a dissembler. She assumes the role of the Machiavelli and displays her marked characteristic of dissembling – she knows what to say and what to do and in what time and in what place. The change in her character can easily bring out her split personality. It is clear from the soliloquy of the Earl of Kent:

              “Dissemble, or thou diest; for Mortimer

                And Isabel do kiss while they conspire;

                  And yet she bears a face of love forsooth”.

Her hypocrisy is a marked one. She wants to kills two birds with one stone. In one hand to please her husband she pleads the barons to bring back Gaveston, on the other hand she conspired with the barons to kill Gaveston. She was sent to France by Edward-II to ease the situation but she returns England with force and defeats the king and even imprisons him. She asks Mortimer to make her son the king of England and yet she likes to control all over the kingdom.

Marlowe makes everyone keep before the queen the idea that she is in love with Mortimer. Gaveston says this openly the king seems willing to belief it; the courtiers glance and whispers. There could scarily be better preparation for the relations between Queen and Mortimer.

This is undeniable fact that Queen Isabella has great love for her son and she truly wants to make him the king of England. She wants to protect her son from every possible danger. It is ironical that the Queen once again is caught in adversities. The young prince suspects the hand of younger Mortimer and his mother in the imprisonment and murder of king Edward-II.

            “Mother you are suspected for his death

            And therefore we commit you to the tower

            Till further trial may me maid there of;

            If you be guilty, thou I be your son

            Think not to find me slack of pitiful”.

Evil begets evil only Isabella now faces her Nemesis. She thought to lead to happy go live after her son becomes the king but on the contrary she finds herself utterly destitute when the secrecy is revealed. The new king comes to know the actual doings of his mother and sentences her to be imprisoned. The wheel of happiness is sung into quagmire of misery.

Isabella is a multicolored character. When she is introduced to us she seems to be an innocent wife but as the play rolls on mystery of her character becomes clear. But she is also a victim of circumstances. Further her mind and action lead to the events taking place in the plot of the play.

Text from Ardhendu De