DoM More Critics Flashcards
Ellen Caldwell
‘although she is not literally dissected, the pregnancy of the Duchess marks her […] as an object of both reverent fascination and disgust.’
LUCKYJ on why the duchess remains unconventional
‘The Duchess remains unconventional: partly because her marriage remains secret, she retains her ‘masculine’ authority as widow and ruler and continues both to issue commands and to generate the action’
LUCKYJ on the ekphrasis
“It is Ferdinand who uses horror-mongering forms such as the ‘spectacle’ of the wax corpses and the severed hand; the Duchess, by contrast, often reaches for analogies from the natural world, likening herself to ‘robin redbreast and the nightingale’
Callaghan
‘Webster gives two ‘twin’ shows of madness, the Duchess’s and Ferdinand’s, and directs two opposing responses, one charitable, one mocking’
Brennan
‘Malfi (…) constantly suggests a series of contrasts and parallels: between light and darkness; health and sickness; sanity and insanity; life and death.’
Ekeblad
‘the dance of the madmen chart[s] the Duchess’s fate by turning the marriage masque into a masque of death.