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The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster.
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The Duchess of Malfi
by John Webster
John Webster was born in London around 1578, the son of a cart-maker. Probably he was educated at the Merchant Taylors School, and certainly he received legal t...
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Biography EssayDespite his seminal importance in Jacobean drama (most critics rank him as second only to William Shakespeare as a tragedian), very little was known about John Webster's life until rece...
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The reputation of the English dramatist John Webster (ca. 1580-ca. 1634) rests on two blank-verse tragedies, The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi. He was a painstaking literary craftsman, much con...
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Despite his seminal importance in Jacobean drama (most critics rank him as second only to Shakespeare as a tragedian), very little was known about John Webster's life until recently. However, the rese...
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In the following essay, Bradbrook focuses on the contemporary context of The Duchess of Malfi to interpret the drama, including the original Jacobean production and the source story for the play. She ...
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In the essay below, Brown discusses two modern stagings of Webster's play, stressing the role of actors' and directors' interpretations in making the difficult scenes of the play ...
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In this essay, Oakes interprets the Duchess's struggles with identity as a function of the role of the hero, who must not have a private life. Oakes places the Duchess's behavior as a wi...
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In this essay, part of a larger study of the repeated image of the dead hand in literature, Rowe discusses the image of the hand as it represents both marriage and the occult in The Duchess of Malfi. ...
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In the essay below, Pearson maintains that while the first four acts of The Duchess of Malfi are clearly a tragedy, the structure of the play fragments in the final act, with notes of satire and tragi...
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In this excerpt, Forker takes a psychological approach to character studies of Ferdinand, the Cardinal, and the Duchess. Forker maintains that the ambiguity of Webster's characters is a mark of...
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In the essay below, Goldberg discusses the political and intellectual context of The Duchess of Malfi, noting contemporary discussions of absolutism, the rule of James I, and individualism. Goldberg s...
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In this excerpt, Luckyj applies her model of Webster's use of repetition and juxtaposition to the structure of The Duchess of Malfi. Luckyj's analysis attempts to incorporate the fifth a...
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In the following essay, Callaghan argues that female sexual desire, and perhaps even femininity, is always depicted as monstrous in Renaissance tragedy. In addition to the Duchess, Callaghan discusses...
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In this essay, Behling examines how the transgression of gender boundaries is conflated with transgressive sexuality in Webster's plays. The masculinity of his heroines in their political actio...
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In the following essay, Bartels suggests that Shakespeare and Webster give their female characters real voices by making their speech acceptable through a cover of submissiveness or compliance. Contra...
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In this essay, Kerwin places the medical theme of The Duchess of Malfi in its historical context to illuminate Webster's critique of authority in general, and monarchical authority in particula...
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Critical Essay by Rowland Wymer
SOURCE "The Duchess of Malfi," in Webster and Ford, Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1995, pp. 52-71.
In the following excerpt, Wymer, in the light of modern adapta...
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In the following excerpt, Leech examines how the behavioral inconsistencies and motivational inadequacies of Webster's characters appear to adversely affect "the scene-unit and …m...
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Thomas Middleton's prefatory poem to Webster's The Duchess of Malfi
In this thou imitat'st one rich, and wise, That sees his good deeds done before he dies; As he by works, thou b...
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In the following excerpt, Brown discusses The Duchess of Malfi's structure, language, dramatic characterization, and moral perspective.
"I hold it, in these kind of Poems with that of H...
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John Russell Brown on The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi, like Webster's other works, is studded with phrases culled from other authors; here are the words of William Alexander, Chapman,...
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Below, Luckyj explores how Webster's repetition of large dramatic action sequences in The White Devil and in The Duchess of Malfi "allows [each play's simple linear progression to...
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Both of the above quotations have elements of truth to them, but I think that to look at the character of Bosola, an audience would concentrate more on his actions and how they change his interpretati...
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"The Duchess of Malfi" is an example of a Jacobean revenge tragedy. The Jacobean age was one of questioning and uncertainty about many issues, such as religion, politics and law. Webster uses the form...
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"The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster follows the story of an upper class, dysfunctional family who resort to torture, deception and murder in order to gain what they desire, whether it be love or so...
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Bosola can be described as a convincing character as unlike some of the characters in the play, his opinions and principles change throughout, therefore constantly altering the audience's feelings abo...
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Teaching The Duchess of Malfi
All teaching products sold separately.
The Duchess of Malfi Lesson Plans contain 148 pages of teaching material, including:
What Is Learned About the Characters of Ferdinand and the Cardinal in Act II Sc. V of the Duchess of
The Duchess of Malfi
John Webster
John Webster
Critical Essay by M. C. Bradbrook
