Guilt, death, suffering

Question 1

“Why should I of all the other princes of the world be cased up like a holy relic?”- Duchess (3,2)

Answer 1

SUFFERING
questioning male authority and asking why she can’t be treated fairly like the rest of the princes/princesses.
Relic= Christian item of importance, BUT protestants banned relics. Protestants= oppression= link to Jacobean court?????

Question 2

“Birds that live i’th’field…live happier than we; for they may choose their mates…”- Duchess (3,5)

Answer 2

SUFFERING
avian imagery
D is unable to exercise independence and autonomy of emotion, and is suffering so much that she wishes she was a bird to be able to be free to love whoever she wanted.

Question 3

“My heart is turned to a heavy lump of lead” - Antonio (3,5)

Answer 3

SUFFERING
when Antonio and the duchess part ways.
He is showing how distraught and miserable he is, as he is being forced to leave his wife for the good of his family.

Question 4

“My laurel is all withered” - Duchess (3,5)

Answer 4

SUFFERING
Laurel= bush which is a symbol of triumph.
By saying that her laurel is withered she is saying that all of her luck has run out, and also that she knows she is no longer going to triumph against her brothers.

Question 5

When Ferdinand gives the Duchess a dead man’s hand. “Oh horrible!”- Duchess (4,1)

Answer 5

SUFFERING
gruesome act of psychological torture.
The hand is supposed to be Ferdinand’s hand and a symbol of reconciliation. Instead, it’s a dead man’s hand = D and F will never reconcile

Question 6

“I am full of daggers”- Duchess (4,1)

Answer 6

SUFFERING
Metallic metaphor.
She’s in agony, and her whole body feels heavy because of her pain.
Full of steel = symbol of strength, even though she is captive, and has lost practically everything, she will remain strong.

Question 7

“A deal of life in show but none in practice… reverend monument whose ruins are even pitied” - Cariola (4,2)

Answer 7

SUFFERING
D’s vivacity has been drained from her vampirically.
She’s been turned into ruins.
No longer looks like the vivacious woman she was, instead just looks like an image of her, but her true self has been lost.

Question 8

When the madmen enter and dance around the duchess and try to make her loose her mind.(4,2)

Answer 8

SUFFERING
Anti-masque sequence.
Masques = elaborate musical choreographies that were organised in the Jacobean court. These were extremely expensive and lavish.
The Ant-masque sequence shows how far the Duchess has been reduced, and how she’s lost all of her power.
The anti-masque sequence is also a criticism of the Jacobean court, and its excessive spending.

Question 9

“I am come to make thy tomb”… and the executioners bringing in the tomb, cords, and bell. (4,2)

Answer 9

DEATH (foreboding)
Bosola is saying he’s basically come to oversee her death.
When the executioners bring in the cords, tomb and the bell = symbols of impending death and elaborate displays of horror = psychological torture

Question 10

“Peace, it affrights me not”- Duchess (4,2)

Answer 10

DEATH
she isn’t afraid of death
Sense of resilient defiance.
She knows she’s going to die, and her dignified calmness is a reflection of her superiority.

Question 11

“To whom? To our next neighbours? They are all madmen”- Duchess (4,2)

Answer 11

DEATH

Duchess knows that there is no escaping death, and she doesn’t even try to = epitome of grace and dignity

Question 12

“I am not prepared for’t! I will not die!… I am quick with child” - Cariola (4,2)

Answer 12

DEATH
- Cariola’s reaction to death is seen as the norm, she isn’t ready for death and does everything she can to escape it = elevating Duchess and making her look so superior to everyone else because she is so dignified.

Question 13

“Why didst not thou pity her?” “I hate thee for’t” - Ferdinand (4,2)

Answer 13

GUILT
F feels such intense regret and guilt for killing his sister that he begins to project his own guilt onto Bosola.
F is losing his mind
Link this to “revenge is a wild kind of justice”- Sir Francis Bacon = something uncontrollable about revenge which can make you go mad = Webster warning us about revenge.

Question 14

“The wolf shall find her grave and scrape it up not to devour the corpse but to discover the horrid murder”- Ferdinand (4,2)

Answer 14

GUILT/SUFFERING
Link to “revenge is a wild kind of justice”
Lupine lang shows F’s descent into madness and his incipient lycanthropy.

Question 15

“I am angry with myself now that I awake”- Bosola (4,2)

Answer 15

GUILT
Bosola realises that his loyalty to F was misguided, useless and for all the wrong reasons.
Here B has an epiphany and realises what he’s doing and feels guilty for doing so.

Question 16

“ These tears”- Bosola (4,2)

Answer 16

GUILT/SUFFERING
Malcontent crying = shift in his values.
D has inspired B’s metamorphosis and has catalysed his transformation
B’s transformed because of the guilt he felt being complicit in such a spectacular woman’s death.