We picked at least 17 essays on The Duchess of Malfi. We have short papers together with grounded analysises equal to 4557 words (10 pages long). Take them like samples when you create your college assignment. We took the most meaningful topics and you can quickly find a concept of your essay title, outline, introduction or perfect conclusion.
In British literature of the 16th and 17th centuries, plots often center on romance, royalty, and the battle for power. With this emphasis come stories that feature the stereotypes of the damsel in distress, the powerless princess, and the haughty heiress. Although women of this...
Webster’s decision to cast strong female characters as the protagonists in his two most popular plays could have been considered highly controversial and unexpected by the audiences of his time. This unintended effect immediately seems to prompt a critical questioning of his rationale. The initial...
In Chapter Three of Leech’s The Critical Idiom: Tragedy (henceforth shortened as Tragedy), the traditional Aristotelian view of a tragic hero is defined as an exalted person, usually of high rank, who is held because of said rank “in a position of recognizable eminence” (34)....
In John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, the audience’s opinion on the anti-hero Bosola and his moral integrity changes throughout the play due to his sudden catharsis and change in behavior after he realizes the consequences of his working for the Cardinal and Ferdinand. Bosola’s...
In ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ the characterisation of the protagonists allows the concept of death to be explored deeply. Webster’s portrayal of the Duchess marks her embracement of death as she appears to be prepared for her fate, whereas the Cardinal is shown to be...
Power is the underlying current that runs through both Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, a 17th century revenge tragedy, and Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, a 20th Century modern domestic tragedy. Both plays offer stark representations of power’s tendency to corrupt, a corruption that often...
Despite the varying contexts with which they wrote their work, as well as the vastly different tone and content, both Chaucer in ‘The Merchants Tale’ and Webster through ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ explore the theme of forbidden love- or forbidden lust- and its attractions and...
In John Webster’s tragic play The Duchess of Malfi, the titular character is undoubtedly subjected to great degrees of suffering, both physical and mental. However, it is less clear whether or not she can be viewed simply as an innocent victim. While it can indeed...
John Webster explores the attraction of that which is forbidden in a plethora of ways. The nature of the attraction, and the powers that determine that which is forbidden vary throughout. However, the theme remains manifest in all the instances discussed in this essay. It...
Introduction Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online Get my essay “Her days are practis’d in such noble virtue, That, sure her nights, nay more, her very sleeps, Are more in...
The main themes of “The Duchess of Malfi” are expertly demonstrated by Webster throughout many of the play’s intriguing scenes and dialogues. One particular instance occurs in the famous echo scene (5.3.1-55) between Antonio and Delio. As they are discussing the nature of fate in...
The Renaissance Era was a period when theatre, among other forms of art, bloomed in its adolescence, as it outgrew old, traditional characteristics of the Middle Ages, and gradually evolved into what would later become known as modern history. Unlike tragedies of previous eras –...
Much of John Webster’s “The Duchess of Malfi” centers around the subversions and perversions of Ferdinand, the Duchess’ brother. Ferdinand is an immensely disturbed man who has been driven to insanity by his inability to control his sister, and his resultant inability to control his...
In Webster’s Jacobean revenge tragedy The Duchess of Malfi, and Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, written in 1947, both men consider the themes of chastity and the effect chastity has on the main female characters’ reputation within society. Both are widows, but Blanche is desperate...
The writers of the early modern period often presented in their texts characters who struggled with a crisis of identity. Furthermore, these characters were unable to reconcile their identity with the role that they played within the fictional world they inhabited. In John Milton’s Paradise...
Webster’s Machiavellian antagonist Ferdinand demonstrates a decline into insanity in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ through displaying signs of uncontrollable emotions, fixations on his sister and incestuous desires, and the development of lycanthropy. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to...
Both Webster in ‘The Duchess of Malfi,’ a Jacobean revenge tragedy, and Williams in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ a 20th century modern-domestic tragedy, use entrapment as a pivotal focus for chief dramatic moments. The playwrights especially focus on the physical and psychological entrapment of females...
The Duchess of Malfi tells the story of the spirited duchess and her love for her trustworthy steward Antonio. They marry secretly, despite the opposition of her two brothers, Ferdinand (the Duke of Calabria) and the Cardinal. Eventually betrayed by Bosola, a spy, the duchess and her family flee but are intercepted; Antonio and the oldest child, a boy, escape. Ferdinand orders Bosola to strangle the duchess, her two younger children, and her maid and then goes mad with guilt. The final act is one of carnage. All are killed except for the eldest son of the duchess and Antonio, who is named ruler of Malfi.
Theme
Corruption, abuse of power, satus of women, class, cruelty, objectification.
Characters
The Duchess, Antonio Bologna, Delio, Daniel de Bosola, The Cardinal, Ferdinand, Castruchio (Castruccio), Roderigo, Grisolan, Silvio, Pescara, Cariola, Julia, Malateste, Doctor.
Based on
The play is loosely based on events that occurred between 1508 and 1513 surrounding Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi (d. 1511), whose father, Enrico d'Aragona, Marquis of Gerace, was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples. As in the play, she secretly married Antonio Beccadelli di Bologna after the death of her first husband Alfonso I Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi.
Popularity
The complexity of some of the play's characters, particularly Bosola and the Duchess, and Webster's poetic language, have led many critics to consider The Duchess of Malfi among the greatest tragedies of English renaissance drama.
Quotes
“Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust”
“Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness.”
“The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes with the sword of justice.”
