DOM crit Flashcards
(21 cards)
Bradford - inevitability
Her tragic ending is inescapable
Murray - Duchess’ heroism
The Duchess asserts her heroism through death
Luckyj - social progression
The Duchess is ‘a catalyst for social transformation and tragic recognition’
Lord Cecil - corruption
The world as seen [by Webster] is of its nature incurably corrupt
Panek - comedy
Widows in Jacobean comedy are, in general portrayed as welcoming rape
Densers - class
duchess tries to use ‘social difference to offset gender difference’
Orlim - privacy
Privacy seemed a menace to public well-being
Kerrigan - faith
What’s most remarkable about the duchess is her faith
Bosola - feudal
‘Bosola’s situation foregrounds contemporary anxieties surrounding the shift from a feudal to cash economy’
Marcus - how their marriage would have been viewed
‘an unbridled act of lust’
Callaghan - patriarchy
‘The Duchess is a young widow who decides she will remarry. This is profoundly troubling to the patriarchal order in which she lives’
Callaghan - female conduct
‘The Duchess thus transgresses her society’s notion of proper female conduct.’
Murray - spirit
“The radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed.”
Ribner - Ferdinand’s descent
Ferdinand demonstrates a “complete descent of man into beast”.
O’Neil - play’s obsession
“a play obsessed with secrets.”
Mirren - feminism
“It is essentially a feminist play about a woman who is fighting for her autonomy.”
Gunby - fire
“The images of fire which characterise the Duke’s speech thus aptly mirror his fierce energy and ungovernable temper.”
Hart - Bosola
Bosola is “a twisted misanthrope and cut-throat.”
Some critcs argue
Bosola’s own ombition overrides his words
Callaghan - Ferdinand and the cardinal are
primary mouthpiece for the misogynistic discourse of the era
