Paper 1 Critics Flashcards
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Johnson Women
“Milton shows ‘contempt for females, as subordinate and inferior’ - Johnson
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Carey Evil
‘effort to encapsulate evil in Satan was not successful’ - Carey
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Litt Desire
“all men fall victim to self-deception when they are tempted sufficiently” - Dorothy Litt
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Weston Flattery
Eve’s “passions, as a result of flattery, are ruling her reason” - Weston
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Fowler Love
Adam “becomes corrupt because he refuses to divorce Eve” - Fowler
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Tanimoto Inferiority
“After the fall, Eve perceives her position as inferior to Adam’s”
“equal’ and ‘free’ are satanic terminology” - Tanimoto
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Tanimoto Balance
“Adam and Eve are created by the God to have different virtues so they can help each other, compensating for each other’s weaknesses with each others virtues” - Tanimoto
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Tanimoto Inferior
“if Eve is created to be inferior to Adam, how can she help him? - Tanimoto
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Tanimoto God
“In this sense, possession both masculinity and femininity, the God is androgynous” - Tanimoto
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Sanger Milton and feminism
“Milton does not show a hatred of women, but also does not show a willingness to elevate them.”
“This is merely sexism - nothing more, nothing less” - Sanger
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Gilbert Eve Satanic
“Milton’s Eve is Adam’s inferior and satanically inspired” - Gilbert (that Milton is a misogynist)
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Froula Milton Biblical
“The words put into Eve’s mouth by Milton are biblical, not misogynistic in and of themselves” - Froula
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Bennett Evil and Good
“Evil is the absence of pure good and the experience of evil are mutually exclusive” - Bennett
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McColley Eve hardworking
“Milton’s Eve is distinguished from all other Eves by the fact she takes her work seriously” - McColley
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Tillyard Fallen
“They are both virtually fallen before the official temptation has begun” - Tillyard
- Eve dreams of going to heaven and wants to comprehend Evil
- Adam is swayed by Eve’s beauty
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Painter Duchess
views the Duchess as a “Lusty Widow”
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Callaghan Victim/Protagonist
“the figure of the Duchess combines the roles of tragic protagonist and tragic victim”
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Callaghan Autonomy
“widowed women potentically achieved auronomy from men upon the death of their husband”
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Sloane Bosola
“(he) has both a propensity for good as well as evil”
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Scott societal bounds
“the Duchess does not transgress Jacobean societal boundaries on widowhood, but transgresses only her brothers opinions on how she should conduct her private life”
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Scott Ferdinand
“Ferdinand corrupt desire to control both the public and private life of the Duchess ultimately ends in death and madness”
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Hamilton Pity
“Her suffering excite our sympathetic pity”
popularity of tragedies, conventions of a jacobean one
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Jankowaski marriage
“Websters extraordinary picture of marriage contrasts sharply with the prevailing early modern notion that women are marginalised or objectified”
Duchess is a progressive character
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Lewes Nightmare
“The Duchess of Malfi is a nightmare not a tragedy”
critical of the play
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Murray love
“not only is their love utilised to contrast it with the discord of the brothers but it is also mutual”
true love vs infactuation
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Diane McColley Temptress
‘[Milton] broke the stereotypical scapegoating of Eve as essentially a temptress and uniquely gave her responsible motives for her independent movements on the morning of the Fall.’
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Shelley Satan
‘Nothing can exceed the energy and magnificence of the character of Satan as expressed in Paradise Lost.’
‘Believes Satan is ‘the hero of Paradise Lost’
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Shelley Devil
‘Milton’s Devil as a moral being is as far superior to his God’
(Milton’s Satan is better than God, because Satan suffers hardship and God is secure in his power, as well as inflicting more suffering onto Satan. This infliction isn’t to make Satan repent, but just to torture.)
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T.S Eliot
‘Milton writes English like a dead language.’
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Fish Hero
THIS IS A GOOD ONE
“the true hero of the poem is in fact the reader: seeing God as malevolent or Satan as attractive is simply an indication of a fallen state, and part of the poem’s purpose”
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McEvoy Jealousy
‘Jealousy then motivates the fallen Eve’s desire to make Adam fall too’
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Rogers Romance
‘One of the most convincing elements, I think, of Satan’s temptation of Eve is his attempt to turn her act of disobedience into an act of romance chivalry.’
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Beer heroism
Milton ‘demonstrates her [Eve’s] quiet heroism”’
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Empson God
‘The reason why the poem is so good is that it makes God so bad.’
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Wittreich equal
‘Adam has been given exactly what he asked for, his equal’
in contrast to ‘God set thee above her made of thee’
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Johnson Women
‘Milton thought women made only for obedience’
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Patrick Lee Religion
‘juxtaposed the classical idea of fickle gods and the necessity of revenge with a Christian understanding of salvation and God as the ultimate dispenser of justice.’
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F.L.Lucas incest
in 1924
‘Ferdinand potentially in love with his sister.’
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Baker Smith God
‘Webster’s God, unlike his devil, is a hidden one.’
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Whighams summary of Ferdinand
‘a threatened aristocrat, frightened by the contamination of his ascriptive social rank.’
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Callaghan Eve and Duchess
‘repeating the historic transgression of eve.’
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Whigham Tragedy
“The duchess is the first fully tragic figure in Renaissance drama”
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Barbara Todd Widow
ALSO V GOOD
“the remarriage of any widow confronted every man with the threatening prospect of his own death and the entry of another in his place”
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Bradbrook Bosola
“With all his many roles, Bosola is never permitted the luxury of being a self”
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Jankowski Female rule
“the presence of Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart on British thrones served to point out to political theorists especially that no language existed for describing the nature of female rule.”
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George Henry Lewis Grotesque
During c19th, the play was compared unfavourably by George Henry Lewis - “instead of holding the mirror up to nature, this drama holds the mirror up to Madame Tussauds” - criticism in a realist theatre and the popular wax figures of Madame Tussaud’s particularly known for their interests in murderers and other gory horrors, as morally unedifying and low-brow.
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Emma Smith Bosola
“Bosola becomes a figure of class anxiety in The Duchess of Malfi” and represents “the play’s ultimate ambivalence in the story it tells”. Webster engages in an “evasion of moral judgement” - “The Duchess of Malfi gives us a kind of social autopsy into familial, religious and emotional corruption”, “the play’s inhumanity is its most compelling feature”
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T.S. Elliot Skull
Webster “saw the skull beneath the skin”.
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What did the RSC team describe as their focus?
Designer Naomi Dawson - one of an almost entirely female creative team - says in the programme that the intended focus is on “masculinity and madness”.
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How did the 2018 RSC production display the Cardinal’s relationship to Julia?
He sexually assaults her.
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How is Bosola’s ultimate guilt displayed in the 2018 RSC production?
He places a hankerchief over the dead Duchess’ face.
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What was the set of the 2018 production?
Naomi Dawson’s stark set design is an indoor sports pitch, backed by scaffolding from which a testosterone-pumped ensemble of men leer, animal-like, from the darkness.
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Christina Luckyj Revenge
‘The Duchess of Malfi inverts the usual structure of revenge tragedy…Webster arouses sympathy for the objects of revenge rather than the revenger”.
