A Feminist Perspective on Measure for Measure and the Merchant of Venice Isabella's only power may be to say "no", her "no" to Angelo who would not leave the world stripped and soulless, "no" to Claudio who would sacrifice herself, "no" to the convent she would have wanted to enter or "no" to the Duke's marriage proposal. The capacity for self-determination of Isabella's role was very different from Portia's defense in The Merchant of Venice, as Isabella was the Duke's instrument, fulfilling his script. The nun's habit was supposed to ensure her a neutral role, and she intended that her piety and love for her brother should involve her in this world only to the point of advising him in honor. Despite her self-concept, two worldly men who had power over her saw her as a beautiful sexual object to be acquired. Against this, Isabella's strength lay in theological purity, going straight to the meaning of the Gospels. We cannot cast the first stone. We must have mercy on others, because “He who is the Highest of Judgment” has had mercy on us. Since the censors usually eliminated the word "God", the references were oblique, but there could be no real substitution of "Jupiter" or "the gods" here where the sense was so strictly New Testament. Isabella preached to a society that had gone far in condemnation and execution in the name of religion; it was a beacon of clear light. Portia actively sought mercy as the greatest answer and carefully gave Shylock every option to release the bond that held him when she handled the dramatic last-minute revelation, proving that he too could be lost. Significantly, both Portia and Isabella's support was the same: mercy must be applied to the law. Could a Duke's only epilogue be... middle of paper...d expanded, and the whole would thrive on the servitude and devotion of women. Petruchio did his part, as did the Duke of Isabella, so that protectionism was the right aim and custodian of the identity and role of women. However, in the next section Benedick will meet his match, and that role model, Portia, will tactfully remain within the rhetorical framework of male supremacy, customizing his most skillful efforts.... i Jill Bavin-Mizzi, Ravished (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 1995).ii Margaret Thornton, “Women as Marginal Inhabitants of the Jurisprudential Community,” in Sex, Power and Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 190.iii Charlotte Lennox (née Ramsay), 1729 -1804, actress and poet, Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900, An anthology of criticism, ed. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997), pp. 17-18.