A Mother's Revenge

"Make haste, Hieronimo, to hold excused
Thy negligence in pursuit of their deaths
Whose hateful wrath bereaved him of his breath.
Ah nay, thou doest delay their deaths,
Forgives the murderers of thy noble son,
And none but I bestir me - to no end." (4,ii, 29-34)

In this passage, Isabella is mourning the loss of her son. To her, it seems like nobody is doing anything about Horatio's death; it seems like nobody really cares. As far as Isabella is concerned, nobody, not even Hieronimo, is plotting revenge for the death of her son. In her frustration about this, seen most clearly when she says, "Thy negligence in pursuit of their deaths/Whose hateful wrath bereaved him of his breath". In the absence of concern for avenging her son's death, Isabella takes the duty upon herself. After cursing the garden and tree from which Horatio was hung, she kills herself in order to join her son.

"Aye, here he died, and here I him embrace"(4,ii,23).

In this line, Isabella is acknowledging that she is going to join her son shortly. She is preparing to kill herself in the same place Horatio was so brutally murdered. It is so overwhelming to her to see everybody around seemingly ignoring the fact that her son was murdered so recently. Nobody seems to be doing anything. One interesting question must be posed, though: if Isabella were aware of her husband's plot to murder Lorenzo and Balthazar, would she have still felt the need to kill herself?