The Duchess Of Malfi

Question 0

What is unusual about the main character of The Duchess of Malfi?

Answer 0

She is a woman which was unusual in Renaissance tragedy.

Question 1

What is the focus in The Duchess of Malfi?

Answer 1

Class/rank.

Question 2

When was The Duchess of Malfi first performed?

Answer 2

1613 or 1614

Question 3

Act 1, Scene 1

The Duchess does not begin wooing Antonio until 365 lines into the play, why does Webster delay this crucial episode?

Answer 3

By the time the marriage unfolds onstage the audience has a great deal of information about the dramatic world where the action takes place.

Webster provides a dramatic context against which to respond to his representation of love & marriage.

Question 4

Act 1, Scene 1

The play opens with an exchange between Antonio & Delio. Antonio has been away in France & Delio asks him what he thought of the court of the French king.

How does Antonio respond to this question?

Answer 4

Antonio admires the French court for its lack of corruption, the ‘judicious’/wise king has banished all flatterers & people of bad character/reputation.

The king considers the cleansing of court to be divinely inspired - God’s work not his own.

The royal court has an enormous influence on the entire country. A healthy court has a benign influence while a corrupt one will infect ‘the whole land’.

Antonio believes the source of the ‘blessed government’ is the king’s wise & truthful counsellors who do not flatter the king but give him candid & truthful advice about the state of the nation.

Question 5

Act 1, Scene 1

When Antonio likens the court to ‘a common fountain’ what literary technique is he using?

Answer 5

A similie saying something is ‘like’/’as’ something else.

Question 6

What is an effect of employing a regular metre, such as blank verse?

Answer 6

Deviations stand out.

Question 7

Act 1, Scene 1

Antonio says ‘but if’t chance / Some cursed example poison’t near the head, / Death and diseases through the whole land spread.’ (1.1.13-15)

Line 15 deviates from the established metre, what does this lead to?

Answer 7

When it is read the stress would be placed on the word ‘death’.

This draws attention to the word.

Underlines the site consequences if a degenerate court.

Also highlighted by the sudden appearance of a rhyme between ‘head’ and ‘spread’ in lines 14 & 15 which makes them stand out even more.

Question 8

Act 1, Scene 1

Antonio adopts a religious register when describing ‘the work of heaven’ (l.10) & ‘blessed government’ (l.16).

What does this remind us about the context of the play?

Answer 8

In early modern England doctrines like the divine right of kings, claiming kings were God’s representatives on earth, invested the monarchy with a religious significance.

Question 9

Act 1, Scene 1

When Bosola & the Cardinal enter what does their conversation indicate?

Answer 9

What Antonio observed in France is conspicuously lacking in Italy.

Bosola reminds the Cardinal that he ‘fell into the galleys in your service’ (1.1.34).

The powerful in this drama do not surround themselves with wise & candid counsellors, instead they hire men to commit crimes on their behalf.

Question 10

Act 1, Scene 1

In performance, how would the Cardinal’s corruption be reinforced?

Answer 10

He would be wearing the religious costume showing that even the churchmen use their power for criminal ends.

Question 11

Act 1, Scene 1

Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria says ‘Why do you laugh? Methinks you that are courtiers should be my / touchwood, take fire when I give fire, that is, laugh when I laugh, / were the subject never so witty.’ (1.1.127-30).

What does this tell us about the Duke?

Answer 11

Instead of surrounding himself with honest advisors, Ferdinand surrounds himself with courtiers whose sole purpose is to flatter his ego with their obsequious behaviour.

Question 12

Webster’s play opens with a description of an ideal court & then shows a court which fails to meet this ideal.

What do critics assume when considering this play in context of the period?

Answer 12

Critics assume this is a hint at the standards of the court of King James I who had been on the throne around 10 years when the play was firs performed.

James would have supported the statements in Antonio’s opening speech but in reality his court was more like that demonstrated by Ferdinand, Bosola & the Cardinal.

Question 13

What dramatic genre is The Duchess of Malfi often thought to belong to?

Answer 13

Revenge tragedy.

Question 14

What are the common features of a revenge tragedy?

Answer 14

Consistently presenting audience with the spectacle of decadent courts & irresponsible, often criminal, rulers.

A particular character type is created by the deficiencies in the status quo, the malcontent - a character so consumes with disgust at the corruption & stupidity of courtly society & who vents his spleen by railing against it.

Question 15

Who takes the role of the malcontent in The Duchess of Malfi?

Answer 15

Bosola.

Question 16

Act 1, Scene 1

When Antonio refers to Bosola as the ‘only court-gall’ (1.1.23) what does his metaphor allude to?

Answer 16

Bosola’s fondness for railing at the court, harrassing & tormenting it with his verbal abuse.

‘Gall’ also means ‘bile’ giving the metaphor a secondary sense relating to the bitter secretion from the liver, this intensifies the metaphor.

Question 17

Act 1, Scene 1

When Bosola complains to Antonio & Delio about the Cardinal & his brother in lines 50-64, how does his language use help him to make his point about the brothers?

Answer 17

Bosola attacks the Cardinal & Ferdinand for presiding over a courtly environment where loyal service reaps no reward & only ‘flatt’ring panders’ prosper (1.1.54).

Uses colourful & energetic language with similies & metaphors.

Likens the brothers to ‘plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools’ (1.1.50-1) & explains that no matter how much fruit they bear, by standing over stagnant water only ‘crows, pies and caterpillars feed on them’ (1.1.52-3).

The ‘standing pool’ is in contrast to Antonio’s courtly fountain & the parasites are metaphors for the courtly flatterers.

By identifying the Cardinal & Ferdinand with scavengers & insects Bosola conveys their contemptibility & voracious appetite for rewards.

Speech is in prose, not verse, in performance would require ability to show linguistic energy & bitterness in lines.

Question 18

How does Bosola regard the class system?

Answer 18

His dislikes the patronage system that rewards toadying rather than merit.

Yet he is also bound to it as he longs for social advancement.

Question 19

Act 1, Scene 1

What are two reasons for the Cardinal & Ferdinand’s hostility towards the prospect of their sister’s remarriage?

Answer 19

They worry she will take a marriage that damages the family honour.

They worry that because she is a widow she will want to marry a second time.

Question 20

What do the brothers’ attitudes towards their sister remarrying suggest about attitudes towards women in this historical & cultural context?

Answer 20

Women in early modern England were thought to have a greater sexual appetite than men & so were viewed as untrustworthy.

Widows, as sexually experience women, were thought to be especially susceptible to this feminine vice.

Question 21

At the time of The Duchess of Malfi, how were the rights of widows different?

Answer 21

They were not under the control of their male relations.

If a widow inherited wealth from her dead husband she could become quite independent & so could choose her second husband herself.

Question 22

Act 1, Scene 1

When the Cardinal speaks of the Duchess’s ‘high blood’ with regard to her remarrying, what is he suggesting is behind his uneasiness?

Answer 22

He is afraid she will marry ‘beneath her’, someone of a lower class.

Question 23

Act 2, Scene 5

When the Cardinal says ‘Shall our blood, / The royal blood of Aragon and Castile, / Be thus attainted?’ (2.5.21-3), what is he worrying about?

Answer 23

He worries that a cross-class marriage will corrupt the family’s pure, noble blood.

Question 24

What role do Antonio & Delio perform in the opening of The Duchess of Malfi?

Answer 24

That of the Chorus, guiding the spectators’ responses like the Choruses of ancient Greek tragedies.

Question 25

Webster gives Antonio, the steward, a great deal of authority; he is respected & revealed to be the object of his employer’s affections.

Why does Webster do this?

Answer 25

Antonio is presented as a direct challenge to the elitism & caste pride represented by the Duchess’s brothers.

Question 26

Act 1, Scene 1

In lines 195-217, what is Antonio saying about his employer, the Duchess?

Answer 26

He describes her as a paragon of womanhood & completely different from her corrupt brothers.

He believes her speech is enchanting without being sinister & her countenance is so lovely she could cure paralysis.

He stresses her virtue, particularly chastity & says that she attracts men but there is a degree of divinity in her that ‘cuts off’ lustful thoughts.

Antonio views chastity as the quintessential feminine virtue & believes the Duchess is a model for other women to emulate.

His speech is hyperbolic, exaggerated to convey the power of her charms.

Question 27

Act 1, Scene 1

When Antonio is praising the Duchess’s virtues what kind of love poetry is Webster drawing on?

Answer 27

Petrarchan which usually took the form of a sonnet & had a strong tendency to idealise the loved object.

Question 28

Act 1, Scene 1

What does Delio mean when he says ‘Fie, Antonio, / You play the wire-drawer with her commendations’ in response to Antonio’s description of the Duchess?

Answer 28

He identifies Antonio with a man who stretches metal to make wire.

This metaphor suggests Antonio’s praise of the Duchess is long-winded & excessive.

Question 29

Act 1, Scene 1

What does Antonio’s couplet ‘All her particular worth grows to this sum, / She stains the time past, lights the time to come’ (1.1.216-7) mean?

Answer 29

The Duchess leaves an indelible mark on the past or makes it look dark in comparison with herself & casts a light upon the future.

Question 30

Act 1, Scene 1

How does the Duchess violate the norms of femininity?

Answer 30

She adopts the active role in the marriage, courting & effectively proposing to Antonio.

Question 31

How does the Duchess & Antonio’s relationship twist conventional gender roles?

Answer 31

The Duchess instigates the wooing, she places the ring on Antonio’s finger & when he knees she raises him up.

Question 32

Act 1, Scene 1

What does Antonio mean when he says ‘There is a saucy and ambitious devil / Is dancing in this circle, (1.1.416-7)?

Answer 32

A metaphor with the ring as a magic circle which a devil dances inside conveys Antonio’s desire for upward social mobility & his conviction that desire is a dangerous temptation.

His motives for marrying are mixed; he desires the joys of fatherhood but also wants to progress socially.

Question 33

Act 1, Scene 1

What purpose do Ferdinand’s lines ‘Such weddings may more properly be said / To be executed than celebrated’ (1.1.327-8) & the Cardinal’s lines ‘The marriage night / Is the entrance into some prison’ (1.1.328-9) serve?

Answer 33

They are prolepses gesturing toward the violent treatment awaiting the Duchess.

They set up strong verbal links between marriage for love on one hand & suffering & death on the other.

Question 34

Act 1, Scene 1

What mood is felt in the scene from lines 345 - 353?

Answer 34

Defiant as the Cardinal has threatened to punish a second marriage but the Duchess dismisses this threat: ‘If all my royal kindred / Lay in my way into this marriage / I’d make them my low foot-steps…’ (1.1.345-7).

She views her royal kindred as literal obstacles blocking the path to marriage but she turns them to her advantage to become steps.

Question 35

What pattern emerges in moments of danger between Antonio & the Ducheas?

Answer 35

The Duchess seeks to reassure her husband who consistently feels helpless & overwhelmed by the course of events.

Antonio recognises this gender confusion when he says ‘These words should be mine’ (1.1.476).

Question 36

Act 1, Scene 1

What are some of the reasons suggested for the Duchess hiding Cariola behind the screen prior to wooing Antonio?

Answer 36

Clifford Leech & Frank Whigham suggest there is something duplicitous & coercive in the Duchess’s treatment of her prospective husband: the steward is enticed by promises of wealth & trapped by the Duchess’s spy.

William Empson argues Cariola is hidden to allow Antonio to decline the proposal which he may not have been able to do if her waiting woman was present as it would be viewed as an insult.

Question 37

Act 1, Scene 1

What does the Duchess mean when she says to Cariola ‘Wish me good speed, / For I am going into a wilderness / Where I shall find not path, nor friendly clew / To be my guide’ (1.1.362-5).

Answer 37

She is moving into uncharted waters, beyond the bounds of socially accepted behaviour where there will be no clear path to guide her.

In the absence of models to imitate she identifies herself with the notion of masculine heroism integral to ER class.

Question 38

Act 2, Scene 5

Both Ferdinand & the Cardinal are furious at the news of Antonio & the Duchess’s son’s birth, how does the Cardinal respond to Ferdinand’s ravings?

Answer 38

He is shocked & his alarmed responses confirm that Ferdinand’s attitude towards the Duchess is obsessive & pathological.

Question 39

Act 2, Scene 5

To what extent has Ferdinand’s reaction to the baby’s birth been anticipated in previous scenes?

Answer 39

Act 1, before the brothers attempt to bully their sister into submission, Ferdinand tells Bosola that he ‘would not have her marry again’ (1.1.262). Blanket hostility goes beyond anything voiced by the Cardinal who is more concerned about the prospect of an inappropriate union.

Ferdinand then becomes angered at Bosola’s innocent response.

This deliberately arouses curiosity about Ferdinand’s motives & demonstrates his turbulent, unstable personality.

When the brothers confront the Duchess Ferdinand’s language is compulsively sexual (the joke about the lamprey eel) & he brandishes a dagger at her which is often interpreted as a phallic gesture.

Question 40

Act 2, Scene 5

What does Ferdinand mean when he says ‘Happily with some strong-thighes bargeman; / Or one o’th’woodyard that can quoit the sledge / Or toss the bar; or else some lovely squire / That carries coals up to her privy lodgings.’ (2.5.42-5)?

Answer 40

The lines register a fear of encroachment by men whose lower rank is compensated for by their superior masculinity.

Conveys Ferdinand’s loss of control, he cannot stop himself from visualising the Duchess ‘in the shameful act of sin’ (2.5.41) & asks his brother for help to distract him.

Question 41

What is the general opinion of most critics regarding Ferdinand’s relationship with his sister?

Answer 41

Ferdinand has an unconscious incestuous desire for his sister.

Question 42

Act 3, Scene 1

What is the function of this scene?

Answer 42

Informs audience of the passage of time.

Shows that Ferdinand has returned to the Duchess’s court.

Question 43

Act 3, Scene 2

How does Webster generate suspense?

Answer 43

By making the audience aware of the presence if a thread to which the characters onstage are oblivious.

Antonio & the Duchess are happy & are getting ready for bed but in the previous scene Ferdinand asked Bosola for the key to the Duchess’s bedchamber & intends to ‘force confession from her’ (3.1.79).

Antonio & the Duchess engage in erotic playfulness which is more affecting as the audience knows the domestic happiness is about to be shattered.

Question 44

Act 3, Scene 2

How is Ferdinand’s entrance into the Duchess’s bedchamber marked as a turning point in the play?

Answer 44

Dramatic change of tone is signalled visually by the stage business & also linguistically by a change in language.

Previous easy banter of the scene gives way to Ferdinand’s dominating speech, which demonstrates the depth if his anger & agitation.

Question 45

Act 3, Scene 2

What does ‘The howling of a wolf /Is music to thee, screech owl’ (3.2.88-9) demonstrate about Ferdinand’s character?

Answer 45

His habitual fondness for likening human beings to the most negative aspects if the animal kingdom.

Question 46

Act 3, Scene 2

What is the Duchess doing when Ferdinand enters her bedchamber?

Answer 46

At the start of the scene she requested a mirror & jewellery box & later says ‘My hair tangles’ (3.2.52) & ‘Doth not the colour of my hair ‘gin to change?’ (3.2.57).

Suggests she would be sitting at the mirror brushing her hair & talking to her now-absent husband when Ferdinand enters.

When she says ‘Have you lost your tongue?’ (3.2.67) signs be a cue to turn or look in the mirror & see her brother.

Question 47

Act 3. Scene 2

What does Ferdinand do when he appears in the bedchamber?

Answer 47

Stage direction says ‘gives her a poniard’ which is a dagger, maybe the same one he threatened her with in Act 1, Scene 1.

Question 48

Act 3, Scene 2

How does the Duchess react to her brother?

Answer 48

She says: ‘‘Tis welcome: / For know, whether I am doomed to live, or die, / I can do both like a prince.’ (3.2.68-70)

The short line requires a pause before the next to sustain the metre, on stage this may be used to indicate a shocked silence or her reaching out to take the dagger.

She recovers & adopts the idiom she used in Act 1.

Responses to brother’s threatening appearance with self-possession.

Question 49

Act 3, Scene 2

How might Bosola’s character be portrayed in this scene?

Answer 49

Stressing his ambiguity of character - a malcontent who despises courtly corruption but is hopelessly implicated in it. Wants social advancement but loathes servility to rise in the world.

Little reason to believe he admires Antonio as much as he implies to the Duchess.

Speeches are full of self-loathing, characteristic of the character, especially in relation to role as Fedinand’s ‘intelligencer’

Uses linguistic flamboyance & self-congratulates in his use of metaphor. Not self-flattering.

Question 50

When on stage, how would an actor portray a character?

Answer 50

Would use tone & pace of delivery; voice would convey mood changes with gestures & body movements.

Question 51

Act 3, Scene 4

Why is a dumb show used in this scene?

Answer 51

Removing speech & focusing on mined action creates symbolic pictorial style of representation.

Meaning is conveyed through spectacle rather than words, distanced from the action rather than encouraging audience to get caught up in the emotions of the characters.

Audience steps back and evaluates moral implications of what is happening onstage.

Question 52

Act 3, Scene 4

What is the effect created by the staging of the dumb show at a religious shrine?

Answer 52

Gives vivid confirmation of superficiality of the Cardinal’s religious vocation & ecclesiastical corruption he has consistently represented.

Question 53

Act 3, Scene 4

What is the function if the pilgrims whose speech frames the dumb show?

Answer 53

Act as a chorus in a Greek tragedy.

Anonymous so establishes a physical bond with the audience.

Objectify & comment on action.

Invites audience to grasp the moral & political significance of the Duchess’s banishment rather than her own experience of it - presents her & her family as victims of an institutional conspiracy.