The
Duchess of Malfi
1.
Discuss malo dramatic elements
Answer:
“The Duchess of Malfi” by John Webster is a kind of
Revenge Tragedy modeled on Seneca, the Latin playwright of 1st century A.D.
We have seen that there was a love affair between the
Duchess and Antonio and at last they marry and they produce three children. On
hearing the news of their secret marriage and their children, the cardinal and
The Duke Fardinand react angrily. And from the beginning to the end of Act two,
scene five, we seed the reaction of the two brothers for the action of their
sister. They think that the Duchess has destroyed the reputation and status of
their family. The Duchess has been separated from her husband and
oldest child, stripped of her wealth and power, and imprisoned.
This drama contains so many
elements of horrors or which it can be classified as a melodrama. From the
beginning to the end of this drama, there are a lot of elements of horrors. The
last two acts of the play have an abundance of them. However melodramatic
episodes are seen earlier too. The Duke in order to horrify the Duchess gives a
dead man’s hand to her and she kisses it taking it to be the Duke's hand. The
spectacle of waxen images of the dead bodies of Antonio and children presented
before the Duchess is another horrid scene. The unruly dance of the mad men
before the Duchess, the appearance of Bosola as a tomb makes and a bell man and
the appearance of the executioners with bell and core in procession, too are
intended to create horror. The next horror is mentioned in the series of
murders committed by Bosola. The last horror comes when Julia is poisoned in a
most cold-blooded manner. Antonio is killed and Ferdinand, Cardinal and Bosola
all meet their death at the end. So, there are the ten murders.
2.
Bosola Character or role?***
Answer:
Bosola is complicated and fascinating character. He acts the role of both
villain and avenger, working first against and then for the duchess.
First,
Bosola agrees to work as aspy and also murder the Duchess for Ferdinand and the
Cardinal, even though he knows they are evil and their court corrupt. He
realizes he has entered into a wicked bargain. Ferdinand offers him a
respectable job, something he covets very highly, as an ex-convict who spent
seven years as a galley slave because of the murder he committed earlier.
Lated,
However, the cynical Bosola grows to admire the Duchess for her genuine
goodness. He sees the kind works of her " white hand."
He
wishes he worked for her, but he has made his bargain. He kills her, as is
expected. However, when ferdinand reneges on paying Bosola, Bosola gets angry.
killing the Duchess, Bosola says, was " much against mine own good
nature." He decides to avenge the Duchess by killing her brothers, though
he is killed in return.
3.
Role of Servant( Coriola, Antonio).
Answer:
Coriola Character:
Poor Cariola. She's really between a
rock and a hard place.
Cariola is the Duchess's maid and one of the only two
people (the other being Delio) who originally knows about the Duchess's
marriage to Antonio. The Duchess trusts Cariola completely, but also doesn't
take her completely seriously. Why? Well, Cariola may be the Duchess's
confidante, but she's also her servant, and the Duchess frequently dismisses
her concerns and suggestions.
While Cariola is unwaveringly loyal to the Duchess and
does like Antonio, the whole secret-marriage-secret-family thing freaks her
out.
Cariola sticks by the Duchess even when the rest of
the courtly entourage has left for greener, less evil-brother-infested
pastures, and is finally captured along with the Duchess by Ferdinand.
Cariola's death comes moments after the Duchess's, and
there's a sharp contrast between the two: while the Duchess dies in a
dramatically momentous scene, full of dignity and resignation, Cariola
scrabbles and begs until the bitter end, doing everything she can to convince
Bosola to spare her life. Poor girl.
Antonio
Character:
Antonio returned from France, full of scorn for the
Italian courtiers whom he sees as more corrupt than the French.
Antonio is the Duchess’s steward. He is very capably runs the Duchess’s estate.
However he is neither wealthy nor high-born but the duchess fall in love on
Antonio and propose Antonio for marry. Antonio
accepts the Duchess' proposal of marriage because of her disposition rather
than her beauty. Duchess considers him to be a “complete” man,
and the two of them secretly marry. Duchess think that Antonio is
marrying for love, not just money. He is also knowledgeable about people: even
early in the play he knows that Ferdinand and the Cardinal are duplicitous and
murderous. Despite his knowledge of their characters, though, he proves
entirely incapable of protecting his family from Ferdinand or the Cardinal.
During this effort, he is accidentally killed by
Bosola, who mistakes Antonio for someone else. His honesty and
good judgment of character are traits well known to the other characters.
4.
Which Machiavellian Villain hero of the duchess of malfi?
Answer:
As we may know, Machiavelli was an Italian
who wrote the political treatise The Prince about a century before The Duchess
of Malfi. His basic game plan for the achievement of power? Play dirty.
We see the rise of the stock character "The
Machiavellian Villain," the guy we can depend upon to ruthlessly plot,
cheat and manipulate his way to victory. we get a version of him in The Duchess
of Malfi in the form of the totally immoral Cardinal, the smooth, planning, and
plotting half of the Evil Brothers Duo. In case we were wondering, and
disqualifying Bosola as a true Machiavellian villain because he (a) does have a
sense of morality and (b) doesn't actually achieve power through his trickery—he's
the puppet, not the puppet-master.
Beyond the specific Machiavellian character, though,
The Duchess of Malfi definitely fixates on corrupt government, and it's
important to know that it's not doing so in a vacuum. For some more on The
Duchess of Malfi's personal spin on the corruption of power, head on over to
the "Power Theme."
5.
Duchess of Malfi as a Senecan Tragedies? Or Seneca and Webster's The Duchess of
Malfi?
Answer:
The
Duchess of Malfi is a macabre revenge tragedy written in 1613 or 1614 and
originally published in 1623 as The Tragedy of the Duchess of Malfi. It is
loosely based on real events that took place in the early sixteenth century in
Italy. Webster did not invent the story of this play, but it was drawn, as many
of Shakespeare's plays were, from William Painter's The Palace of Pleasure, a
common collection of stories published in 1567. The play is a kind of revenge
tragedy modeled on Seneca's model. It can be seen as a continuity of Seneca's
influence on English revenge tragedy for including violence, conspiracies, and
the theme of revenge in addition to the five-act structure. Although Webster
borrowed most of the dramatic elements of this genre, he adapted some of them
in order to be in agreement with his purposes. The complexity of some of its
characters, especially the Duchess and Bosola, as well as the grand language of
the writer placed this play among the greatest tragedies of the English
Renaissance drama. The Duchess of Malfi told us the tale of a young widow who faced
her tragic end, violent death, for resisting the traditions of her society. She
fell in love and married beneath her social class and that is what set off a
storm of vengeance. Her two powerful brothers imposed their revenge,
"destroying themselves in the process."
6.
Duchess of Malfi as a Tragedy?
Answer:
“The Duchess of Malfi” by John Webster is a kind of
Revenge Tragedy modeled on Seneca, the Latin playwright of 1st century A.D.This
play contains the depth of extreme violence, plotting and mostly revenge on the
best part which are the chief elements of revenge tragedy.
If we want to
consider The Duchess of Malfi as a Revenge Tragedy from the light of the
characterizations of Revenge Tragedy pointed out previously, we will find
almost all the elements of Revenge Tragedy in The Duchess of Malfi.
We have seen that there was a love affair between the
Duchess and Antonio and at last they marry and they produce three children. On
hearing the news of their secret marriage and their children, the cardinal and
The Duke Fardinand react angrily.
The Duchess of Malfi differs in a number of ways from
the traditional revenge play. It doesn't become clear why revenge is taken on
the Duchess. Her only fault is that she has married below her rank and status
and thus the two brothers think, she has disgraced the family. She has
certainly not committer any heinous crime for which she is subjected
unjustified.
In summing up we can say that "The Duchess of
Malfi" is a revenge tragedy. Although Webster wrote this drama following
the tradition of revenge tragedy, he has modified some of its aspects to make
it unique. So, in a word we can say that it is a perfect revenge tragedy.
