Act Five Flashcards
What’s interesting about the beginning of act 5 (3 points)
- Webster is extending the plot past the climax and death of the main character which goes against usual conventions of tragedy
- mirrors the structure of the beginning of the play with Antonio and Delio talking
- immense dramatic irony cause the Duchess is dead
What Pescara calls Julia when she enters, lacks her won agency and is defined by her relationship with the cardinal (similar to how the duchess id defined by her title) also shows that everyone knows abt the affair
“Cardinal’s mistress”
What Delio says to Antonio, which perhaps Webster could be saying that society can only function with relationships in the same rank - unlike the Duchess and Antonio
“My life keeps rank with yours”
What does Ferdinand get diagnosed with by the doctor
“Lycanthropia”
What Ferdinand dug up from the graveyard, shows he has gone mad and also a parallel image to the dead hand he gives duchess. Also why? Could be read as necrophilia (wants to find Duchess), could be a manifestation of he grief or could be sin as his soul has become tainted
“Churchyards” “dig dead bodies up” “with the leg of a man upon his shoulder”
What the doctor says abt Ferdinand, shows appearance VS reality and his inner darkness
“A wolf’s skin was hairy on the outside, his on the inside”
Ferdinand trying to kill his shadow, which is a symbol of his darkness and guilt, could also be getting close to ground- duchess and shows he is fully debased and has lost his composure
“I will throttle it” throws himself on the ground
What cardinal says abt Ferdinand on the ground. Shows his obsession with appearance and also symbolic of rank. Echoes “raise yourself”
“Force him up”
What goes down with Julia and Bosola
Bosola and Julia hook up, Bosola recruits her as a spy to try to get cardinal to confess to duchess murder, cardinal kills her
What cardinal gives Julia, very shocking to Jacobean audience, symbolic of his corruption and abuse of power, also an image of himself
“Holds up a bible”
Why are Blanche and Julia similar
Both use sexuality to conform to a patriarchal society, both need men for survival
Who is echo
- Allusion to story of echo and Narcissus from Ovid’s metamorphosis.
- Also characters are near duchess’s grave so echo could be her
- similar to echoes in scene 11 streetcar when the matron arrives, both echoes are before characters downfall. In streetcar the echo is smothering and consuming whereas in Duchess its a warning
Echo quote that could means its the duchess
“I, wife’s voice”
Echoes foreshadowing that if Antonio goes to the cardinal he will die
“Thou art a dead thing”
Cardinal has a lot of speech in these last scenes why?
He is normally contained and quiet (aware of the power of words), but he is now falling apart and loosing control
The weather, which is pathetic fallacy and shows the natural world is at chaos (like in Macbeth)
“‘Twas a foul Storm tonight”
Cardinal saying he can’t pray, he cannot maintain his facade due to his inner corruption
“I would pray now, but the devil takes away my heart for having an confidence in prayer”
What Ferdinand says shows he is tormented by the guilt of the Duchess’s death
“Strangling is a very quiet death”
Bosla tennis image says they have no agency and everything is down to fate
“We are merely the stars tennis balls, struck and banded which way please them”
Bosola saying he would have died for Antonio, shows noble
“The man i would have saved above mine own life”
Cardinal saying he’s gonna suffer a lot in hell (aware he is gonna die). On earth hierarchy is done by power and reputation, so if your at the top of that your prolly corrupt so you will be at the bottom of the after life hierarchy which is done my mortality so he’s gonna be at the bottom of hell.
“In hell there’s one material fire and yet it shall not burn all men alike”
What Bosola says Cardinal is done which aligns the brothers through their madness ad corruptness
“Howling“
Bosla confronts Cardinal with his superficiality cause he’s a coward
“They greatness was only outward”
Ferdinand very wise quote, saying people are responsible for their own downfall, also familiar image, also in pros
“Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, like diamonds we are cut by our own dust”
