Critics + Productions

Question 1

Greenlaw

Answer 1

Satan is mastered by unworthy ambition and lust for power

Question 2

Waldock

Answer 2

Eve

In her conduct there is a measure of stupidity

Question 3

Hart

Answer 3

Ferdinand and the cardinal

The brothers are driven by a delight in malice

Question 4

Aughterson

Answer 4

Webster ends his plays (DoM and TWD) with young boys
= symbolic of hope and rebirth

Question 5

Court production

Answer 5

1971

Madmen kill the duchess - denied a noble death

Question 6

Fish

Answer 6

Satan’s actions serve to highlight Adam’s obedience and loyalty to god

Question 7

Cecil

Answer 7

The world as seen by Webster is of its nature incurable corrupt

Question 8

Jardine

Answer 8

The duchess acts as if her status gave her real power, in this she is proved pathetically wrong

Question 9

BBC production

Answer 9

1972

Bosola is shorter than the rest

Cardinal wearing red - historically expensive, high status in the catholic church

Question 10

McColley

Answer 10

The fall is an inevitable manifestation of weakness inherent in man

Question 11

Hodge

Answer 11

To Satan, eve seemed less than equal. To Adam, she seems evidently superior.

Question 12

Donnelly

Answer 12

Love is completely removed

Question 13

Oakes

Answer 13

It is the happiness of marriage that makes her death so tragic

Question 14

Revard

Answer 14

Eve was created to attract Adam’s love, not his subjection

Question 15

Bowers

Answer 15

Adam repudiates (rejects) his duty to protect eve and breaking the hierarchical chain of being

Question 16

Marcus

Answer 16

Satiric indictment of Catholicism

Question 17

McColley part 2

Answer 17

Milton has failed to justify the ways of God to men

Question 18

Gilbert

Answer 18

Eve is satanically inspired

Question 19

Cecil

Answer 19

Webster always talks about the act of sin and its consequences

Question 20

Murray

Answer 20

The nearer to the church one gets, the farther he is from God

Question 21

Hart part 2

Answer 21

Bosola is a twisted misanthrope and cut throat

Question 22

Brooke

Answer 22

The end is a maze of death and madness

Question 23

Lowenstein

Answer 23

Motivations and consequences of sin are disobedience, loss and restoration

Question 24

Landor

Answer 24

Adam suffers most, and on whom consequences have the most influence

Question 25

Empson

Answer 25

Milton thought men out to control women

Question 26

Gilbert part 2

Answer 26

Eve is a patriarchal ideal of womanhood, deprived of her autonomous identity

Question 27

London production

Answer 27

1995

Duchess slaps Ferdinand when he enters her chamber and threatens him with his own dagger

Question 28

Globe production

Answer 28

2024

Duchess is flirtatious and finds thrill in defying patriarchal order

Question 29

Tennenhouse

Answer 29

Womanhood and sovereignty are logically incompatible

Question 30

Callaghan

Answer 30

Female desire was seen as a disease and monstrous abnormality