"The Duchess, not her brothers, stands for ordinary humanity, love and the continuity of life through children."
1 of 19
Irving Ribner [Brothers]
"The final act is designed to show that the way the Aragonian brothers is that of madness and damnation, the complete descent of man into beast symbolised by the lycanthropy of Ferdinand."
2 of 19
P.B. Murray [The Duchess]
"The radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed."
3 of 19
Elizabeth Oakes [The Duchess]
"At the end she is, she says, the Duchess of Malfi still, and with that title she negates her relationship with Antonio: she becomes the woman carved in stone that Ferdinand wanted her to be."
4 of 19
R.S. White [The Death of the Duchess]
"The tragedy of a virtuous woman achieves heroism through her death."
5 of 19
Frank Whigham [Ferdinand]
"When Ferdinand looks down into his sister's 'dazzling' eyes, he sees himself, faces his own death too."
6 of 19
Theodora A. Jankowski [Siblings]
"The brothers appear to forbid her remarriage because she is their sister, not because of her political position as the Duchess."
7 of 19
Christopher Hart [Brothers]
"The two brothers are not driven by any sense of possessive outrage, however warped, but by a delight in malice itself, a 'motiveless malignity' even against their own flesh and blood."
8 of 19
Leonora Leet Brodwin [The Duchess]
"Her [the Duchess] tragic error lies not in choosing to love but in overestimating the ability of a hostile world to accept her vision of moral health."
9 of 19
Christopher Hart [Bosola]
"Bosola is a twisted misanthrope and cut-throat."
10 of 19
Muriel Bradbrook [Ferdinand]
"The sight of [the Duchess'] face awakens Ferdinand to what he has done."
11 of 19
Muriel Bradbrook [Bosola]
"Bosola, the chief instrument in the Duchess' betrayal and subjection, also bears the strongest witness to her virtues."
12 of 19
Travis Bogard [Evil]
"The ultimate tragedy of Webster's world is not the death of any individual but the presence of evil and decay which drags all mankind to death."
13 of 19
Coddon [Melancholy]
"In the tragedy, melancholy is chiefly emblematic and instrumental bound to visible strategies of corrupt political practices."
14 of 19
Lisa Jardine [The Duchess]
"The Duchess' strength lies in her fortitude in the face of doom she has brought upon herself."
15 of 19
Tennenhouse [The Duchess]
“Womanhood and sovereignty are logically incompatible” to “shed light on the fate of Webster’s Duchess”.
16 of 19
Brooke [Characters]
Webster’s characters have “foul and indestructible vitality”.
17 of 19
Theodora A. Jankowski [The Duchess]
“The Duchess is presented as using her body natural and her body politic” and she “challenges Jacobean society’s views”.
18 of 19
Frank Whigham [Ferdinand]
“His embattled sense of excellence insists on ontological separation from those below” but “his frenetic iteration of this motif suggests its ongoing failure”.
19 of 19
Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
"The final act is designed to show that the way the Aragonian brothers is that of madness and damnation, the complete descent of man into beast symbolised by the lycanthropy of Ferdinand."
Back
Irving Ribner [Brothers]
Card 3
Front
"The radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed."
Back
Card 4
Front
"At the end she is, she says, the Duchess of Malfi still, and with that title she negates her relationship with Antonio: she becomes the woman carved in stone that Ferdinand wanted her to be."
Back
Card 5
Front
"The tragedy of a virtuous woman achieves heroism through her death."
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