AO5 Flashcards
Heather Sh___tte said what in 2014?
Shanette
the external world belonged to the husband and the internal to the wife
_____ Shanette said what in 2014?
Heather
her primary duty was to look after her husband and children, putting their needs ad welfare before her own
Christopher Hill said what?
Milton specifically compared the marriage contract to the political contract between king and people
What does Wrighton say in English Society 1580-1680 (1982)
women of the upper classes as ‘more ornamental and idle’
what does White say about the Duchess’ ability to remain stoic?
“She is “the Duchess of Malfi still”, revealing patience stoicism and accepting complete responsibility for her actions.”
What does Theodora Janokski (1990) say about the play?
- the play ‘is clearly concerned with questions of gender ideology’
what does Thoedora Janokski say about the irregularity of the play?
Irregularity:
- ‘the Duchess becomes an uneasy and threatening figure’ in the ‘double position of wife and ruler’
- ‘She challenges Jacobean society’s views regarding the representation of the female body and woman’s sexuality.’
- ‘The Duchess is further represented as manifesting her political authority by engaging in an ‘irregular’ marriage’
- ‘the Duchess can be viewed as a subversive character’
what does Janowski say about punishment?
Punishment:
- ‘Ultimately, the Duchess’ marriage and sexual politics are represented as so revolutionary that she must be punished for her actions.’
what does Theo- Jan say about family?
On Renaissance wives:
- ‘We read the family as a Renaissance dynastic unit.’
- ‘The nature of the Renaissance dynastic marriage served almost totally to objectify the woman.’
- ‘The Duchess is represented as being radically different from the traditional picture of the Renaissance wife.’
John Martin created what painting at what time
John Martin’s painting addressing his legions in 1825 shows Satan to be postioned on top of a cliff, all his subjects beneath him, grasping a staff with others protecting him behind. This shows the great influence he had over his subjects.
Agarval, a 21st critic
Satan’s outstanding verbal communication
Zimmerman: Eve ‘wants to…
‘redress’ or restructure their union because it impinges on her growing independence.
Fisher: The reader has ‘participated…
in something more than a literary experience, since this poem is concerned with his very salvation’.
Cecil: Webster depicts ‘evil in the…
most extreme form as far more powerful than good’.
Pullman: ‘Suppose the fall should be…
celebrated and not deplored?
Marr: TDOM is a ‘story of jealousy,…
deceit and murder’.
McEvoy: ‘a cautionary tale about…
widows, gluttony and lust’.
McEvoy: 17th century viewed ‘contented sexual…
relationship as a gift from God’.
Worrall: Eden is ‘no pious garden of self-abnegation…
and honest toil but a xanadu of luxuriance and exotic pleasure’.
Worrall: The Tree of Knowledge has…
‘hedonistic properties’.
Fyre: After the Fall, the heirachy implanted by God…
in the soul is not merely upset, but reversed’
Dollimore: Malcontents are ‘at once agent…
and victim of social corruption’.
Mead: ‘Adam and Eve’s stoic bravery comes…
only after they have been promised salvation’.
Russell: ‘stoics point that cruelty and injustice afford the…
sufferers the best opportunities for the exercise of virtue’.
Park: Describes God as a …
‘spiteful magician’
T S Eliot: Webster was ‘much…
possessed by death’.
Fyre: The Fall brings about ‘the drive…
towards death’.
Billington: ‘the play consistently argues that life is unstable,…
accidental perhaps ultimately meaningless’.
Gunby: ‘Bosola is divided…
against himself’.
Dollimore: Malcontents are ‘at once both…
agent and victim of social corruption’.
Gilbert: Satan ‘speaks with…
Machiavellian eloquence’.
Hart: Bosola is ‘a twisted…
misanthrope and cut-throat’.
Sezler: ‘Bosola’s discontentment…
issues from lack of reward’.
Gilbert: Milton makes it clear that ‘Eve is Adam’s…
intellectual inferior’.
Hopkins: Female rebellion is ‘as much a response to…
male policing methods as a cause of them’.
Gilbert: Milton tells a story of ‘how [women’s] otherness…
leads directly to her demonic anger, her sin, her fall’.
Hardy: ‘Antonio is modelled on the…
idea of Christian gentility’
Callaghan: ‘Unlike the Virgin Queen, the Duchess seeks…
marital intimacy rather than renouncing it’.
Ramussen: In the 17th century, marriage became about…
‘mutual inclination and love’.
C.S Lewis: Adam fell…
by uxoriousness’
Haber: Ferdinand ‘forcibly reappropiates the Duchess’s…
body/room/stage and defines it as his container’.
O’Neil: TDOM is …
‘obsessed with secrets’.
Bliiss: ‘The Duchess seeks private…
happiness at the expense of public stability’.
Gilbert: ‘Eve’s sin is a…
rebellion against secondariness’.
Wheale: At the heart of 17th century plays is ‘a battle…
for status, power and reputation’.
Gilbert: Eve ‘implicitly refuses to accept…
the hierarchy of Eden’.
Wollstonecraft in 1872’ A vindication of the Rights of Women’: Milton’s Eve suggest…
that ‘women are formed for softness and sweet attractive grace’.
C.S Lewis: ‘Eve fell…
by pride’.
Zimmerman: After eating the fruit, ‘Eve assumes…
the potential to feel the empty isolation characteristics of Satan’.
Shelley: ‘Nothing can exceed the energy…
and magnificence of the character of Satan’.
Blake: Milton was ‘of the Devil’s party…
without knowing it’.
C.S Lewis: Satan undergoes a ‘progressive…
degradation’ throughout the poem.
Gilbert: Describes Satan’s tempting Eve as a…
‘fatal seduction’.
Kuntz: ‘Satan is a…
courageous leader’.
Neville: ‘Satan becomes a hero for having…
the courage to stand up to an authority he questions the strength and legitmacy of’.
Worrall: Upon return to Pandemonium Satan…
‘longing to luxuriate in the praise of his followers’.
Percey Shelley in the preface to Prometheus: Satan is marked…
by ‘the taints of ambition, envy, revenge, and a desire for personal aggrandisment’.
C.S Lewis: Satan’s ‘revolt is entangled…
in contradictions’ as ‘he wants hierarchy and does not want hierarchy’
Callaghan: ‘The Duchess’ brothers are the primary…
mouthpiece for the misogynistic discourse of the era’.
Dusinberre: Ferdinand spins a …
‘dark web of lust’ around his sister.
Billington: Ferdinand is…
‘himself imprisoned by incest’. Ironic because he tries to imprison the Duchess.
Billington: Bosola is…
‘a wry philosopher’.
Gunsby: ‘In Webster’s plays,…
salvation and damnation are ever present realities’.
Pearson: ‘The heroine dies well before…
the end of the play so that the significance of her death can be explored’
Morrison: A society which ‘judges…
based on rank, rather than intrinsic moral value’.
Janowski: In her marriage and its…
ramifications the Duchess can be considered a subversive character’.
Crampton: ‘The Duchess and Antonio’s marriage…
is revolutionary’
Smith: ‘The Duchess is both…
culpable and innocent victim and agent’.
Helen Smith: Webster portrays the ‘acting…
out that goes with Catholic ritual’.- it is very ceremonial and dramatic
2014 Wanamaker excommunication dumb show
William Archerd: [describing Bosola] ‘human…
of villians’
How did the 2018 RSC version of TDOM open?
The Duchess dragging a heavy bull carcass onstage by herself- strength, bull-patriachy— its full of blood, Ferdinand slits it and blood on stage and throughout
Fish: When we read PL and view God as a villain or identify with Satan,
It is an indication of a fallen state.
