Duchess of Malfi Mindmap

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  • Duchess of Malfi
    • The Duchess
      • Quotes
        • 'I am Duchess of Malfi still'
          • Oakes - 'At the end she is, she says, the Duchess of Malfi still, and with that title she negates her relationship with Antonio: she becomes the woman carved in stone that Ferdinand wanted her to be'
        • 'the marriage night is the entrance into some prison'
          • Foreshadows Duchess' fate, also relates to the emerging criticism of James I's monarchy and its corruption started by Shakespeare through his tragedies e.g. Hamlet
        • 'how greedily she eats'
        • 'diamonds are of most value that have passed through most jewelers’ hands'
        • 'the misery of us that are born great! We are forced to woo, because none dare woo us'
        • 'whether I am doomed to live or die, I can do both like a prince'
        • 'mercy'
        • 'lusty widow'
        • 'she stains the time past and lights the time to come'
      • Critics
        • Ribner - 'The Duchess, not her brothers, stands for ordinary humanity, love and the continuity of life through children'
        • Murray - 'The radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed'
        • Daileader - 'A female Christ'
        • White - 'The tragedy of a virtuous woman achieves heroism through her death'
        • Mirren -'essentially a feminist play about a woman who is fighting for her autonomy'
        • Brodwin - 'Her tragic error lies not in choosing to love but in overestimating the ability of a hostile world to accept her vision of moral health'
      • Context
        • Terra incognita - a fear of female sexual pleasure
          • Both of Webster’s plays prioritise the position of women – representations of sex and desire in a patriarchal society
          • 'a sister damned'
        • The Palace of Pleasure by William Painter - source text for Webster, places more blame on the Duchess
        • Giovanna d'Aragona & Lady Arbella Stuart - real Duchess of Malfi and English noblewoman who were both punished by male figures for pursuing men of a lower class in secret
        • Les Querelles des Femmes - proto-feminist renaissance debate that argued that men had oppressed women not because of natural differences but for social reasons, separating sex from gender, naming it a social construct.
        • Body Politic (needs of the state) vs body natural (own desires)
          • Jankowski - 'The Duchess abandons her duties of ‘body politic’ for those of her ‘body natural’ and for this she has to die'
    • Bosola
      • Quotes
        • 'O, the secret of my prince, which I will wear on th’inside of my heart'
        • 'hang on their ears lime a horse-leech till I were full, and then drop off'
        • 'I am your creature'
        • 'thy sickness is insensible'
      • Critics
        • Hart - 'Bosola is a twisted misanthrope and cut-throat'
        • Bradbrook -'the chief instrument in the Duchess' betrayal and subjection, also bears the strongest witness to her virtues.'
        • Smith - 'The Duchess' only flaw is trusting Bosola'
      • Context
        • Bosola as a malcontent - dissatisfaction with place in society
          • 2024 Sam Wanamaker Playhouse - Bosola played by and actor with radial dysplasia Ferdinand makes an ableist joke about him – creates sympathy and gives him motivations as a malcontent in a contemporary setting
          • Evolution of malcontent from melancholic (stock characters)
            • ‘his melancholy will poison all his goodness’
    • Aragonian Brothers
      • Quotes
        • 'shall the royal blood of Aragon and Castille be thus attainted'
        • 'the witchcraft lies in her rank blood'
        • 'Doth she make religion her riding hood?'
          • Cardinal's hypocrisy - criticism of religion
        • 'artificial figures'
        • 'A most perverse and turbulent nature'
        • 'not her whores milk that will quench my wildfire but her whore's blood!'
        • 'to purge infected blood, such blood as hers'
        • 'happily with some strong thighed bargeman'
          • alludes to James I's rumoured homosexuality
      • Critics
        • Ribner - ' The final act is designed to show that the way the Aragonian brothers is that of madness and damnation, the complete descent of man into beast symbolised by the lycanthropia of Ferdinand
        • Bradbrook - 'The sight of [the Duchess'] face awakens Ferdinand to what he has done'
          • Whigham - 'When Ferdinand looks down into his sister's 'dazzling' eyes, he sees himself, faces his own death too
            • 'Mine eyes dazzle she died young'
        • Jankowski - 'The brothers appear to forbid her remarriage because she is their sister, not because of her political position as the Duchess
        • Hart - 'The two brothers are not driven by any sense of possessive outrage, however warped, but by a delight in malice itself, a 'motiveless malignity' even against their own flesh and blood'

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