Suffering

“She's exposed / Unto the worst of torture, pain and fear.”

• reference to childbirth, could reinforce idea of women's inferiority.

• Irony; her childbirth does cause this because of her punishment at the hands of her brothers

• Could also portray Antonio’s love for the Duchess

“My laurel is all withered.”

Duchess after Antonio leaves, shows that she has lost everything- position, husband, family; ominous, sad- suggests death and decay. Links to adam and eve as when they part corrpution ensues

“The robin redbreast and the nightingale/Never live long in cages.”

• repeated motif of birds

• suggests the Duchess’s feelings of entrapment and suppression of freedom

• foreshadows her death

“I stand/As if a mine beneath my feet were ready/To be blown up.”

• The use of 'stand' indicates her dignified manner in this situation but she is precarious and aware that she is undone,

• metaphor - mine is symbolic of the destabilisation of her world

• shows her move towards anagnorisis

“Why should I of all the other princes of the world be cased up like a holy relic?”- Duchess (3,2)

• A saintly air to the Duchess' character, yet portrays the familiar theme of entrapment

• “holy relic” is suggestive of something precious, yet untouchable - perhaps the duchess is suffering under her high status

• “cased up” hints at her desire for freedom
  

"bring her to despair,"

The motive/ design of Ferdinand's torture. The extreme cruelty, limitless brutality of male protagonists is highlighted. His cruelty ventrues beyond desire to a point of inhumane, almost sadistic action.

"I am chained to endure all your tyranny"

• repetitive motif of entrapment

• “endure” - suggests the Duchess’s resilience in the face of suffering