M AO5 Critic Quotes

‘the Duchess is unconcerned with her court’s political health, seeking private happiness at the expense of public stability’

- Bliss

‘Antonio is a man who loves virtue’

- Belton

‘Bosola is a blunt moralist, ruthlessly exposing the vices and follies of mankind’

- Gunby

‘Bosola participates in the viciousness and self-seeking of the world he rails against’

- Gunby

‘a world where the patriarchal mindset predisposed to see women in terms of the binary oppositions of angel and whore dominates

and ensnares Webster’s female characters’

‘the heartless, patriarchal, authoritarian regime in Malfi destroys the Duchess’

- Morrison

‘Antonio’s awareness of the putrid corruption of the court

offers hope of cleansing’

‘Bosoloa’s lack of financial compensation by Ferdinand is the true cause of his realisation of the brothers’ villainy and his ultimate motive for revenge’

- Lucy Webster

Bosola is presented as ‘a complex, unstable figure undergoing real, violent inner change’

- Gibbons

‘he [Bosola] is unable to reform or destroy the system which devours those who serve it’

- Gibbons

‘Bosola seems a mere assassin at the beginning’

- Gibbons

‘he [Bosola] still acts as a tool of villainy and persecution’

- Gibbons

‘Webster presents the Duchess as not an oversexed pleasure seeker, but real and fully human’

- Callaghan (Feminist)

‘the play insists on the moral triumph of the Duchess’s stoicism in the face of death’

- Callaghan (Feminist)

‘this is a woman who remains powerful to the last’

- Callaghan (Feminist)

‘all is chaos, cowardice and hopelessness.

only for the Duchess is dignified death possible’

‘evil and self-interest is the status quo, and so even

what starts pure has the potential to grow corrupt’

‘the play offers a vision of a meaningless universe, a context for humanity irretrievably prone to corruption and error’

- Berry

‘the radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed’

- Murray

‘he [Bosola] is amoral, a ruthless hitman’

- Lennard

‘he [Bosola] is slowly sickened by what he does’

- Lennard