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Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil - Coggle Diagram
Isabella; or, the Pot of Basil
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main debates (AO5)
Justification of the brothers
- "To coax her by degrees/ To some high noble'
Socialisation: are the brothers justified as they've always been told that interclass marriages aren't allowed and therefore, see his actions as punishable
Patriarchy:
Lorenzo would not be able to provide for Is which brothers would see as integral for a good husband
Lorenzo as a hero, Isabella as a victim
- "Bowed a fair greeting to these servants", "whine"
- "Poor girl! Put on your trifling widows weed"
Hero: male character, somewhat valiant with his words and greatness of soul
Victim: typically, women would be the victim, loses her husband, language and flower imagery used to describe her despair, immense pity for her from the reader
Fatal flaw: he puts his trust in th brothers and is too kind, loving but also naive and credulous
key quotes (AO2)
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"Fair Isabel, poor simple Isabel!"
- we're set up to sympathise with Isabella from the very first line. This also solidifies Keat's positioning of the audience to criticise the brothers and their inheritance wealth
- Keats is establishing Isabella as a victim. It also foreshadows her fate. However, she's initially stereotyped as credulous, weak and passive
- AOT: blindness of her fate and the brothers capability, treatment of women as she is set up as the victim initially and tragic victim
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context (AO3)
The Importance of Social Class
- "fevered his high conceit of such a bride" : Lorenzi is just a servant and Isabella is of much higher status, thus their love was disallowed.
- "servants of their trade designs" : motive for the brothers as they don't believe that Lorenzo is worthy of their sister, purely due to his class.
- Keats: his father was of a lower class to his mother, parallels asm much of keats' poetry reflects his own life.
Based on Boceaccio's Decameron
- similar plot and explains keats' allusion to author - also used to release tension in the plot.
Links to Romanticism
- "torched mines and noisy factories" : captialism, links to protests over industrialisation in GB as workers were being exploited for profit.
- AO5: Amy Lowell believed keats had no interest in socio-political writing
- "she weeps alone for pleasures" : not written as tragedy, ultimately about all-encompassing love and the perils that come with it
Role of Women and Patriarchy
- "fell thin as a young mothers who doth seek/:... to cod her infants pain" : manipulation in control (suggests Isabella is the parental authority, still maternal but powerful whereas Lorenzo is the child.
- AO%: places her in the role of the mother, traditional stereotype, her duty to care for Lorenzo.