In Scene 4, Angelo's opening soliloquy recalls that of King Claudius in Hamlet. His attempts to pray are frustrated by his fascination with Isabella. Struggling with his conscience, he finds that his moral gravity has grown tedious and he longs to surrender to his lust, which has been aroused by Isabella's purity. Some critics see Angelo as a thoroughly evil hypocrite who merely masquerades as the moral and staid servant of the state. His moral struggle, portrayed in the opening lines of this scene, seems to deny this interpretation. Another apparent reference to King James' dislike of crowds is found in lines 27-30, when Angelo compares the blood rushing to his heart with the "obsequious fondness" (28) of a crowd mobbing its monarch.
Announced by a servant, Isabella arrives to ask Angelo's decision with regard to her brother. Angelo at first states that he must die, then hints subtly that he may yet be saved. His hints become broad, but still Isabella fails to take his meaning. Finally, the deputy asks what Isabella would do if by surrendering her body she might save her brother. In her response, the reader sees again the fine tragic poetry that Shakespeare gave Isabella in the earlier scene between herself and the deputy: "As much for my poor brother as myself: / That is, were I under the terms of death, / The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies" (II. iv. 99-101).
Asked by Angelo why she earlier condoned her brother's offense and now speaks vehemently against Angelo's like intent, she points out that she would excuse the act of her brother because of her love for him. And again she touches on the theme of the universality of the crime. He is not, she points out, without fellows in his lapse. Claudio suggests that women too are liable to succumb to their desires and plainly offers Isabella her brother's life in exchange for her body. He demands her answer upon the following day and exits.
