The Duchess of Malfi Flashcards
“he is a Hamlet who cannot unpack his heart with words” and “yet with all his many roles, Bosola is never permitted the luxury of being a self. He is the masquer..”
Muriel Bradbrook on Bosola
“a ploy designed to unlock the Duchess’ tongue..his own sincere response managed in pursuit of his employer’s (Ferdinand’s) goal.”
Frank Whigham on Ferdinand’s Speech in 3.2
“The references to milk and blood show Ferdinand’s obsession with his sister’s body.”
“It is clear his description of the affair expresses only satisfaction at his sexual prowess..”
Kathleen Mcluskie on Cardinal
“I think Delio is very interesting because he’s so slippery….he always has very grey areas…”
Philip Franks on Delio
“his effortless use of Ferdinand as his pawn…”
Muriel Bradbrook on Cardinal
“one, (mood) of morbid anticipation”
Micheal Neill on Language of Duchess’ wooing in 1.1
“What strikes us throughout the horrifying events..is the dignity of the Duchess…She is ‘Duchess of Malfi’ still.”
R S White on Duchess’ death
she “dies thinking of her children..”
Mary Beth Rose on Duchess
“Webster was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin”
T.S Eliot on Death
The horrors of the play had “no conceivable purpose except to make our flesh creep.”
William Archer (1893) on Horror of play
“The messy deaths are part of the moral teaching of the play”
and contrast with “the ceremonial formality of the Duchess’s death.”
Micheal Neill on The Ending
