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Duchess of Malfi - Critics - Coggle Diagram
Duchess of Malfi - Critics
Religion
'Webster's God, unlike his devil, is a hidden one.' - Dominic Baker Smith
English theatrical representation of Italian Catholicism: 'deride our religion as detestable and superstitious...move them to laughter and much mockery'. - Horatio Busino
The play itself
'the story of the tragedy was a syndrome for contemporary issues.' - John Russel Brown
'there is no trace of that development of human souls for good or evil which is Shakespeare's especial power.' - Charles Kingsley
'it lives too long, when it outlives the heroine.' - F.L Lucas
'not development but stubborn consistency to self is the distinguishing element of Webster's tragic action.' - Travis Bogard
'the world as seen [by Webster] is of its nature incurably corrupt.' - Lord David Cecil
'Christian dying provides the predominantly conventional hope for a future justice,' but 'in spite of Bosola's conversion to a minister of revenge, we are left doubting that the world can change' - Bettie-Anne Doebler
The Duchess
'acts on human impulses in the name of virtue only to discover that she cannot control the consequences of her choices.' - Christina Luckyj
'a catalyst for social transformation and tragic recognition.' - Christina Luckyj
The duchess tries to use 'social difference to offset gender difference.' - Marliss Desens
Bosola
'his previous conduct has been too wicked for us to lament his fall [death] as that of a morally good man.' - C.V Boyer
Antonio
Ferdinand
'a threatened aristocrat, frightened by the contamination of his ascriptive social rank.' - Frank Whigham
his 'incestuous inclination towards his sister' is 'a desperate expression of the desire to evade degrading association with inferiors.' - Frank Whigham
Violence
'the frustration resulting from the lack of an outlet for expressing guilt and the inability to confess.' - John C. Kerrigan