duchess of malfi AO5 modern critical quotes

Question 1

Eliot

Answer 1

1919
‘saw the skull beneath the skin’

Question 2

Ribner on the Duchess

Answer 2

1961
‘The Duchess, not her brothers, stands for the ordinary humanity’

Question 3

Calderwood on Ferdinand

Answer 3

1962
‘it is Ferdinand who is unsure of himself’

Question 4

Brennan on the brothers

Answer 4

1963
[the Cardinal and Ferdinand] ‘the brother’s picture of the Duchess is a projection of the evil in their own minds’

Question 5

Rabkin on the Duchess marriage choices

Answer 5

1968
[the Duchess’s marriage to Antonio is] ‘wilful and irresponsible’

Question 6

Giannetti about Bosola

Answer 6

1969
‘the only character in the play who is not ”fixed” at either extreme is Bosola’

Question 7

Whitman about the Duchess (could link other female characters too)

Answer 7

1975
‘making a religion a “cloak” to hide her worldly self - indulgence’

Question 8

Bliss about the brothers contrast

Answer 8

1983
‘the Cardinals cool, unemotional detachment is more terrifying than Ferdinand’s impassioned raving’

Question 9

Mullini about Italy

Answer 9

1993
‘reproduce a stereotyped idea of Italy as the land of corrupt power and lost glory’

Question 10

Webster in Norman and Stoppard in Shakespeare in Love

Answer 10

1998
‘i like it when they cut their heads off. And the daughter mutilated with knives…plenty of blood’

Question 11

Aughterton about the brothers and the Duchess power

Answer 11

2013
‘her brothers assume patriarchal control over her body and sexuality

Question 12

Andrew’s on the 2018 RSC Production of the Duchess of Malfi

Answer 12

2018
‘highlighted the ways in which powerful white men try to control the sexualities of non-white women’