DofM CRITICS

Question 1

Theodora Jancowski

Answer 1

1. Duchess chooses low rank husband = freedom of choice
2. Duchess fuses politic body and natural body roles
3. Marriage objectifies women

Question 2

John Knox 1558

Answer 2

argued that the nature of female rule was ‘unnatural’

Question 3

Andrea Henderson

Answer 3

• DofM preoccupied with reality and illusion
• Theatricality is a metaphor for uncontrolled social mobility
• A’s impotence is a result of his unstable status: conflicted role between dominance and submission.

Question 4

David Gunby- malcontent

Answer 4

“Blunt moralist…participates in the viciousness of the world he rails against”

Question 5

Linda Woodbridge

Answer 5

Christianity - soul is worthier than the body

Question 6

Frances Dolan

Answer 6

Duchess sustains advantage of her rank in marriage whilst Antonio remains her steward still
- doesn’t surrender her power, keeps old husband’s name (still a Duchess)

Question 7

Linda Woodbridge - beast

Answer 7

• Webster concedes that man is part beast - but horrors in play result from mental warping that is a consequence of denying that animal nature => F turns into literal beast as his superiority complex compels him to deny any taints to his blood

Question 8

Frank Whigam - F’s lycanthropia

Answer 8

• Ferdinand’s lycanthropia brings him isolation at last
• finally a ‘peerless class of one’, ‘suigeneris’, an entropic apotheosis of the Renaissance hero
• BUT lycanthropia is a form of madness not superiority

Question 9

Linda Woodbridge - body and spirit

Answer 9

• Duchess and Antonio have fused body and spirit so die as wholesome beings
  => BUT They have integrated body and spirit by surpassing convention of marrying by class - they have to die as they no longer fit in society

Question 10

Frank Whigham - doubt created by D

Answer 10

- Duchess is destroyed because she is potent source of doubt, when killed, both F and D are reconstituted 
=> BUT if Duchess is picture of dubiety of how high class woman can deteriorate, then her son at end of play should also be destroyed, as son = picture of dubiety + tainted bloodline

Question 11

Frank Whigham - D’s imprisonment

Answer 11

• Ferdi imprisons Duchess to reisolate her and put her in place, restore her to status as untouchable in a private realm only he can enter into

Question 12

Frank Whigham - twins

Answer 12

• only when Duchess is killed, Ferdi reveals that they are twins, restoring lost unity between them
  => twins= Duchess is ‘damned’ part of Ferdinand so when she is killed he feels ‘whole’ again

Question 13

D. C. Gunby - good/evil

Answer 13

Webster fundamentally concerned with good vs. evil

- brothers are demonically compelled to destroy good in the person of the Duchess through Bosola

Question 14

D. C. Gunby - Bosola

Answer 14

• Bosola’s conflictions = a man can be an agent of God and of the Devil
  => Renaissance man = good and bad
  => Jacobeans believed God could always nullify the intrigues of the Devil

Question 15

D. C. Gunby - Consequences of B’s conflictions

Answer 15

• God taken advantage of Bosola’s divided nature - free will has come before God so must bear consequences
  => decisions of actions of man ultimately lie within himself - no tempting from God or Devil can fully direct = man must suffer consequences

Question 16

Theodora Jancowski - widows

Answer 16

“right noble duchess” -> “rank posture”

• move from contemplation of body politic to picture of widow’s body natural - modern notions of hyper sexuality of widows