Social critique

“court is like a common fountain whence should flow pure silver drops…poison’t near the head, death and diseases throughout the whole land spread” (1.1)

• Antonio

• Water imagery

• “silver drops” represent the pure & vulnerable of society, collectiveness of community & interdependence

• Juxtaposed by “poison” to show the vulnerability of the everyday to the corruption of the court

• AO3 - Sycophancy of James I Court & Malfi Court

• Corruption as a physical contagion which permeates all aspects of society - unstoppable like the flow of water, visual almost tactile quality, contagious

• Emphasises the juxtaposition of malfi court & french court’s “fixed order” and judicious king”

• Language of disease & death relevant for Jacobean society as Black Death still loomed (breakout in 1603)

• Ironic that water used as a symbol for growth & nourishment - here corruption & decay

• Places the play in a political framework

“he and his brothers are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools…rich with fruit, but none but crows, pies and caterpillars feed on them” (1.1)

• Bosola

• “crooked” - dishonesty, unlawfulness, flawed morality, crooked - corruption of Ferdinand & Cardinal

• AO3 sycophancy of James I Court

• Greed of the court - have an abundance of resources yet only reward its sycophancies

• Fruit is a symbol of growth & nourishment - here ironic as they only exist to attract, feed & exist the existence of vermin

• Standing pools - stagnant, immobile which contrasts Antonio’s fountain imagery - society as unchanging/not progressing due to such rulers

“places in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where this man’s head lies at that man’s foot” (1.1)

• Bosola

• Fickle & fleeting nature of the court, places temporary

• Contrasts the French court “fixed order”

• One person’s gain built on the downfall of another, man will always crush another man below him

• Brutality, toxic & competitive nature of the environment

• Death & disease contagious due to close proximities - represents the unstoppable & permeating nature of corruption in society which links to the fountain metaphor

• Political ambition dehumanises people & spreads moral corruption

“the law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider” (1.2)

• Delio about Ferdinand

• Spider - predatory, tacticle, calculated - law/justice system is intentionally demoralised

• Cobweb - entrapment of the weak whilst the spider progresses - uses the legal system to trap others & advantage himself

• Foul & black - colour imagery symbolises death, sin & secrecy - further emphasises Machiavellian nature

• AO5 Bosola as the “rightful revenger”

“dooms men to death by information, rewards by hearsay” (1.2)

• Antonio about Ferdinand

“let good men, for good deeds, covet good fame...riches oft are bribes of shame - sometimes the devil doth preach” (1.2)

• Bosola

“you live in a kind of rank pasture…there is a kind of honeydew that’s deadly”

• Ferdinand about court

• Honeydew - sweetness, temptation, pleasure - the false, enticing nature of the court which leads to destruction

• Could also represent the Duchess’ agency over her sexual desire & attempt to break the Divine Chain of Being AO3 which will lead to her tragic downfall

• AO5 “Webster’s Duchess exercises transgressive, independent sexual agency”

• Juxtaposed by “deadly” - reality vs illusion

• “pasture” - symbolises growth & nourishment yet oxymoronic as “rank” connotes rotten & moral decay

“ a politician is the devil’s quilted anvil” (3.3)

• Anvil - a tool used to shape metal, politicians are forged into corruption & repeatedly struck by immoral actions until they’re reshaped

• Devil - sin, hell, AO3 Jacobean society moral damnation

• Quilted - protection, padding, protected from the consequences of their actions due to corruption or become desensitised to their wrongdoings - loss of humanity that accompanies the pursuit of power

• Illusion vs reality - respectable titles hide immoral, corrupt behaviour

“the devil candies all sins over”

“the office of justice is perverted”

• Bosola

“we seem to sweat in ice and freeze in fire”

• Bosola

• Topsy-turvy, awry nature of society following the Duchess’ death

“churches and cities, which have diseases like to men”

• Antonio

• Religious corruption