AO1: Duchess Of Malfi Flashcards
(GENDER)
How is Ferdinand violent towards Duchess’ about her sexuality?
“Tis not your whore’s milk that shall quench my wild fire,/ But your whore’s blood”
(GENDER)
How does Antonio describe the Duchess’ fertility?
“She’s an excellent/ Feeder of pedigrees”
(DECEPTION)
What does Antonio say in ASIDE about Bosola?
“This mole does undermine me”
(REVENGE)
How does Ferdinand get revenge on Duchess?
[gives her a dead man’s hand]
(GENDER + CONTROL)
How does the Duchess command Antonio, shifting the dynamic of conventional gender roles + class boundaries?
“Raise yourself, / Or if you please, my hand to help you so”
(GENDER)
How does Ferdinand describe the Duchess’ sexuality as diseased?
“Their livers are more spotted/ Than Laban’s sheep”
(LOVE + PLEASURE - INCEST)
How is Ferdinand purposefully secretive about opposing Duchess’ remarriage?
“Do not you ask the reason, but be satisfied”
(PAIN + SUFFERING)
What is the First sign of Ferdinand’s madness?
“Methinks I see her [Duchess] laughing”
(LOVE + PLEASURE - INCEST)
Ferdinand imagines Duchess having sex
“Happily with some strong-thighed barge man”
(CONSEQUENCES)
How does Ferdinand believe his reputation is damaged by Duchess’ actions
“It is some sin in us”
(GENDER REBELLION)
How does the Duchess question why she should remain celibate?
“Why should I of all the princes in the world be cased up like a holy relic?”
(CONSEQUENCES)
How does Ferdinand show he’s distraught that Duchess is dead?
“Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle”
(CONSEQUENCES)
How does Ferdinand realise his twin is dead?
“She and I were twins”
(CONTROL/ HONOUR - PAIN + SUFFERING)
How does Duchess honour her suffering?
“Let me freeze to death”
(CONSEQUENCE)
How does Ferdinand critiseise Bosola for killing the Duchess
“Why do you do this?”
(LOVE)
How does the Duchess show her maternal love right until her death?
‘Give my little boy/ Some syrup for his cold”
(CONTROL)
How does the Duchess welcome death maintaining her honour?
“Come violent death”
(AMBITION)
How is Bosola spiteful about the court and its corruption?
“Poison’t near the head, death and disease through the whole land spread”
(DECIET)
How does Antonio view Bosolas 2 sided persona towards the Duchess?
“This foul melancholy/ Will poison all his goodness”
(AMBITION) How is Bosola despairing towards societal structure?
“I will thrive some way: blackbirds fatten best in hard weather, why not I, in these dog days?
(MANIPULATION)
How does Antonio describe the corrupt nature of the court and how F+C manipulated those in the court?
“He and his brothers are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing ponds: they are rich and o’erladden with fruit, but none but crows, and caterpillars feed on them”
(FOOLISH BEHAVIOUR)
How does Bosola describe his sycophantic nature towards the Aragonian brothers?
“I would hang on their ears like a horse leech till I were full, and then drop off”
(CONTROL)
How does Castruchio and Ferdinand control the sycophants in his court?
“Take fire, that is, laugh when I laugh”
(CONTROL)
How does Antonio describe the Cardinals control over the court + sycophants?
“ He strews in his way flatterers, pandered, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters”
