context

Question 1

John Webster

Answer 1

1580-1630

Question 2

new monarch

Answer 2

King James I of England

he loved arts and theatre

Question 3

DOM first performance

Answer 3

Blackfriar’s theatre in 1614

Question 4

Civil War impact

Answer 4

1642-1651

long parliament led by Puritans who viewed theatre as immoral behaviour

Question 5

1642

Answer 5

Puritan ascendancy put an end to public performance of plays until restoration in 1660

Question 6

the tragic heroine

Answer 6

Duchess power wealth sensuality– male theatre goers and readers might have found unnerving threatening

Question 7

woman roles in theatres

Answer 7

played by men – contradicts the Power of the character Duchess

Question 8

Theatrical parallel

Answer 8

Shakespeare’s Cleopatra who shared same traits as Duchess

Question 9

Italian setting

Answer 9

for audience Italian court represented corruption and deception
reputation from distrust of Catholic Church

Question 10

Characters symbolism of court

Answer 10

Delio and Duchess honourable to court

Ferdinand, Cardinal, Bosola deeply involved in corruption

Question 11

Websters use of horror

Answer 11

confronts audience directly with physical violence and psychological torture

Question 12

what are scholars left wondering

Answer 12

whether Webster was a exploiter of audience shock or a nihilistic denier of human value

Question 13

The white devil

Answer 13

Webster employs a anti catholic sentiment in the stereotypes in the white devil

Question 14

Jacobean view of widows

Answer 14

seen as lustful, remarriage frowned upon as expected to stay faithful to husband
“lusty widow”
“like a tame elephant”

Question 15

Machiavellian

Answer 15

any means cane used to maintain political power

Question 16

Aristotle

Answer 16

concept of tragic hero – should have a hermartia a person of eminence