Duchess scenes Flashcards
Paragraph one: Duchess
‘Will you hear me I will never marry’ (1.1) vs ‘hear me I am married’
‘made me stark blind’
‘I owe her much pity’
Lusty widow
Ref by Ferdinand 1.1 - a sexually liberated women who disposes of her body at will
Duchess first appearance
Appears 154 does not speak till 220
Elizabeth ‘video et traceo’ (I see and say nothing)
Significance of holy relic quote
‘Why should I be cased up like a holy relic’
fight of Catholicism and Protestantism - neither a catholic fetish monument/ protestant funeral monument
Paragraph 2: Duchess
’ I winked and chose a husband’ - masculine role
puts private life above political
F: ‘bastards’ - degradation in status - not legitimate
D: ‘I am Duchess still’
Paragraph 2: Duchess
’ I winked and chose a husband’ - masculine role
puts private life above political
F: ‘bastards’ - degradation in status - not legitimate
D: ‘I am Duchess still’
Cardinal
‘Must not know I had intelligence in the Duchess’s death’
‘kiss the book’
Significance of Cardinal
Represents corruption of the Catholic church not having a focus on God but on rules and government
(Cardinal-Soldier)
-4% Catholic
Significance of Cardinal marriage quote scene 1
‘The marriage night is the entrance into some prison’
-Foreshadowes Duchess’s fate
Ferdinand and guilt
‘I will throttle it’ (throws himself on shadow)
‘dig up graves’
Werewolf - foreshadowed and significance
Madmen - ‘let us howl’
Werewolves hidden threat
-Caused by an imbalance of the four humors of the body
- Gchainofbeing Milton - gone down so significantly less lines
F - ‘ill confess nothing’
Protestant religion - fellowship with God is not restored
-Clear image of Hell in Renaissance - the revival of the Classics (Dante)
Bosola
‘I am your creature’
‘Slain by hand unwittingly’ - on purpose 2.3 ‘false steward’ - jealous
Who was Bosola played by
1985 National Theatre Ian Mckellen
Descriptions in Duchess
‘She stains the time past and lights the time to come’
‘Plum trees that grow crooked’
‘engendering of toads’
B: ‘I am your creature’
James 1 - stark blind
James 1, who Schama states “was drunk on spending,” which maybe suggests the irrational nature of England’s king
Ferdinand and incest
Ferdinand’s imagination when he claims he can see her in “the shameful act of sin,” to which in his frustrated voyeur he debases himself by going into a debauched fantasy. The symbolic “sin” suggests his perception of the Duchess fraternising with the Devil. Yet the Cardinal juxtaposes this with the monosyllabism “are you stark mad,” and holds the same shock as a 17th Century audience. This is because it would have been improper for someone of Ferdinand’s status to exhibit such fury. Moreover, the symbolic “stark” only mentioned twice within the play, creates a parallel with the wooing scene, which emulates Ferdinand’s sexual desires
What does Foucault argue
Webster works madness through the faculty of sight
Ferdinand ‘Ill confess nothing’ context
the murder of Lord Overbury in the tower of London by the cunning wit of Lady Frances
‘She and I were twins’
Genuine shock or further narcissism
only acknowledges his twin’s death because he has murdered half of himself in a psychological suicide (Then link to lycanthropia)
Opening sentence
In both a Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar named Desire justice and virtue are glorified whilst wickedness is condemned
F when he sees D - guilt
Cover her face mine eyes dazzle”
-metaphor for his tears or accentuate to the audience the purity of the Duchess, which further dramatises Ferdinand’s antagonism
-remorse would have been important in the 1600s as the faith was abundantly Christian, thus most people would have expected the guilty to feel ashamed of their unjust actions as it went against Christian morals
Bosola and guilt
“direful to my soul” in which the hyperbole illustrates his intense regret. The metaphorical ‘soul’ also may foreshadow how he becomes connected with his rational self, and likewise, to Plato’s chariot analogy, Bosola can now control his soul’s appetites and desires, and no longer wants to gain status and power
