Incest in Pardon and Marriage - People Fas Harvard
Incest in Pardon and Marriage - People Fas Harvard
Incest in Pardon and Marriage - People Fas Harvard
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<strong>Incest</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pardon</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Marriage</strong><br />
with Angelo (<strong>in</strong>sofar as Isabella's unchaste sleep<strong>in</strong>g with Angelo would<br />
be "a k<strong>in</strong>d of <strong>in</strong>cest," <strong>in</strong>sofar as the planned death of Claudio is repaid<br />
by the planned death of Angelo, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>sofar as the actual or resur-<br />
rected life of Claudio is paid for by the life of Angelo) <strong>and</strong> also the<br />
<strong>in</strong>terchangeabilities of Isabella both with Mariana (apart from the<br />
bed-trick substitution, "Sweet Isabel, take my part," says Mariana<br />
[5.1.428], hop<strong>in</strong>g Isabella will bend down on her husb<strong>and</strong>'s behalf, as<br />
she has on Claudio's) <strong>and</strong> with Juliet (Isabella's "cous<strong>in</strong>" by nom<strong>in</strong>al<br />
adoption [2.4.45-471). With the help of Mariana, who played Isa-<br />
bella's role with Angelo (a role that, for Isabella, would have implied<br />
<strong>in</strong>cestuous <strong>in</strong>tercourse with Claudio), <strong>and</strong> with the help of Juliet, who<br />
gives birth to a child we can assume will be like Claudio, Isabella has-<br />
by substitution, adoption, <strong>and</strong> likeness-both slept with Claudio-<br />
Angelo <strong>and</strong> given birth to Claudio-Angelo. All the while she has re-<br />
ma<strong>in</strong>ed a virg<strong>in</strong>, like Mary the mother <strong>and</strong> daughter of God, <strong>and</strong><br />
Claudio has become one who begets himself, like the Christian God. If<br />
Isabella does not commit <strong>in</strong>cest, Isabella-Juliet-Mariana does. Thus<br />
Isabella does not pardon her brother's petition that she commit "a<br />
k<strong>in</strong>d of <strong>in</strong>cest" because that <strong>in</strong>cest, with its consequent birth, has been<br />
the bus<strong>in</strong>ess of the whole plot.<br />
As we have seen, Isabella's plea that Angelo's life be spared has the<br />
complementary effect of resurrect<strong>in</strong>g Claudio. This effect is ironic: <strong>in</strong><br />
virtually her last words to Claudio Isabella had said, "Might but my<br />
bend<strong>in</strong>g down 1 Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed"<br />
(3.1.143-44). Isabella, who refused to bend down to Angelo on Clau-<br />
dio's behalf, takes Mariana's part <strong>and</strong> kneels to the Duke on Angelo's<br />
(5.1.44 ')-an act, says the Duke, that should cause her brother to rise<br />
from the grave <strong>in</strong> "horror" (5.1.434). From this act Claudio is born or<br />
reborn the son of a "whore," an "Abhorson."<br />
The complement to the view that Isabella-Mariana is <strong>in</strong> some fash-<br />
ion a whore who has given birth to her brother as a son is the view that<br />
Isabella as novice "nun" (an Elizabethan euphemism for "whore") has<br />
given virg<strong>in</strong> birth. In his essay "Virg<strong>in</strong> Birth," the anthropologist Ed-<br />
mund Leach asks, "Can we offer any general explanation as to why<br />
people should ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> a dogma which seems to reject the facts of<br />
physiological paternity?"' In discuss<strong>in</strong>g Measure for Measure, we can<br />
say that Isabella might reject these facts because she fears the ten-<br />
dency toward universal <strong>in</strong>cest that she observes throughout her world<br />
<strong>and</strong> that her church regards as the antonomasia of all sexual relations.<br />
She would choose Universal Sibl<strong>in</strong>ghood over a particular sibl<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>-<br />
cest. Her church's dogma, which seems to reject the facts of physio-<br />
logical paternity <strong>in</strong> its thesis of the Son Who Fathered Himself on a