Duchess of Malfi critical quotes

Question 1

F.L Lucas on Ferdinand’s incestuous desires

Answer 1

Ferdinand is potentially in love with his sister

Question 2

Lord David Cecil on corruption

Answer 2

the world as seen (by Webster) is of it’s nature incurably corrupt

Question 3

Frank Whigham on Ferdinand

Answer 3

a threatened aristocrat, frightened by the contamination of his ascriptive social rank

Question 4

Frank Whigham on the purpose of Ferdinand being incestuous

Answer 4

His incestuous inclination towards his sister is a desperate expression of the desire to evade degrading association with inferiors

Question 5

Lena Orlin on secrecy in contemporary Jacobean society

Answer 5

Privacy seemed a menace to the public well-being. It threatened to deprive people of knowledge which they thought they were entitled

Question 6

Dympna Callaghan on the Duchess

Answer 6

Repeating the historic transgression of Eve

Question 7

Shoveller on incest

Answer 7

Ferdinand’s words are ‘heavily laced with incestuous erotic tension’

Question 7

Hirsch on Ferdinand and the physician

Answer 7

The doctor’s inability to cure Ferdinand is a poignant example of Webster’s condemnation of corrupt physicians

Question 8

Koh

Answer 8

The Duchess of Malfi is entrapped as men catch birds

Question 9

1972 James MacTaggart film

Answer 9

When the Cardinal and Julia are in a bed together, the Cardinal is fully clothed and Julia is naked, showing his power over her

Question 10

Bliss on the Cardinal

Answer 10

The Cardinal’s cool and unemotional detatchment is more terrifying than Ferdinand’s impassioned raving