In Act I, Scene 4 of Measure for Measure, heroine Isabella learns that her brother Claudio has been sentenced to death. Lucio, his friend, urges a reluctant Isabella to plead with the stern Duke Angelo on her brother’s behalf: “Our doubts are traitors/ And make us lose the good we oft might win/ By fearing to attempt.”
A few posts ago, we talked about strategies for making more reserved children feel confident in taking to the stage; certainly Shakespeare’s words would be enormously persuasive. There is something about the personification of those doubts – characterising them as “traitors” rather than formless feelings – that can help children identify the danger they present.
Yet how applicable these lines are to any number of situations, for children and adults alike! Shakespeare explores these issues of selfhood across his works – take Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy as the most famous example. In Lucio’s expression above, Shakespeare highlights the treachery that we risk committing against ourselves. In acknowledging those traitors as such, even as they tell us to hesitate or not try at all, we come closer to keeping them silent.
As the play continues, Isabella overcomes those doubts and indeed intervenes on her brother’s behalf. Stay tuned for our next post, when we look more closely at Isabella and Angelo’s encounter!