How would you evaluate the character of Queen Isabella in Edward II?

How would you evaluate the character of Queen Isabella in Edward II?

A general charge against Marlowe’s dramatic artistry is that his women are not dramatically living. In fact his earlier plays are rather deprived of substantial feminine characters. But in his play Edward II, he has presented a female character as an important link in the whole action. This is Isabella, the queen, who is much instrumental to the tragic fall of the weak king. In this respect alone, Edward II can be safely deemed as superior to his plays.

Isabella, as presented by Marlowe, has a change in her character with the advancement of the play. She changes, in the course of time, into a hypocritical, vengeful, ambitious and even cruel woman. Isabella, in the earlier scenes of the play, is rather an object of pity. She is the queen but neither has she had the queen-like personality nor does she enjoy the honour of a queen. Her husband is rather cold cruel to her. He slights her and exploits her only to serve his base passion for his favourite Gaveston. The king’s favourite proud Gaveston even insults her openly. She is, in fact, subjected to much torment and insult because of her unnatural husband. The queen, nevertheless, remains extremely submissive and loyal and is ready to do anything to get the favour of her husband. She prefers to bear her own sorrow silently to spare him from troubles and worries.

The queen is quite a different woman in the later scenes. Her husband’s follies and frivolities drive her to desperation. She grows into a strong, determined, shrewd and corrupt woman. She comes forward with the French army to avenge the wrong, done to her by her husband. She conspires with Mortimer and other lords against her own husband. She becomes a party to Mortimer’s cruel dealings with the king. She is in an adulterous relation with Mortimer, and does all that she can to foster her secret love for him. Gradually she turns into a power loving, unscrupulous and immoral woman from a timid, submissive woman of the earlier scenes...................................................................................

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