This document provides an overview and analysis of John Webster's play The Duchess of Malfi. It begins with background on Webster and an introduction to the play. It then discusses major characters, plot, themes of revenge tragedy, and excerpts of critical analysis. The play is described as a revenge tragedy centered around a Duchess who secretly marries below her class and is executed, leading others to seek revenge. The document provides historical context and analyzes characters and themes through quotes from the play.

2. By John Webster

3. Presented By:
MM Shariful Karim
Chairman & Associate Professor
Department of English
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Comilla University
Email: karimshariful@gmail.com
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4. Introduction:
The Duchess of Malfi by Webster is one of the most known English revenge tragedies
and is also widely taught in most universities of West Bengal in their undergraduate
and postgraduate courses. It is also considered as the most frequently revived Jacobean
plays other than those of Shakespeare. Indeed, estimations of The Duchess of Malfi,
along with Webster's other great tragedy, The White Devil, have led some critics to
rank Webster second only to Shakespeare as a writer of tragedy. The source of one of
the stage's great female characters, The Duchess of Malfi centers on the character of the
Duchess, in whom audiences observe a provocative mixing of sensuality, passion, rage,
piety, and virtue. The play as a whole features a complex interweaving of lechery,
incest, murder, and torture with nobility, tenderness, and forgiveness. The darkness
and horror of The Duchess of Malfi are dramatically compelling, but its unexpected
glimpses of light give it a complexity and richness that have maintained the interest of
scholars and audiences for centuries.

5. Biography John Webster
Born : In 1580, London, England
Nationality: English
Period : 1580-1634
Genre : Drama
Subject : Revenge, Love, Conspiracy
Title : English Jacobean dramatist
Died : 1634 London, England

6. Images of John Webster
John Webster (1580-1634)

7. His Major Works

8. Antonio and Duchess

9. Major Characters of the Play
 Antonio Bologna: The Duchess’s steward, and later her husband; just
returned from France. Lower social status than the Duchess, making the reason
for the secret marriage.
 Delio: A courtier who tries to woo Julia. A friend of Antonio.(Based on
historical character of the same name.)
 Daniel de Bosola: Former servant of the Cardinal, returned from the galleys.
Sent by Ferdinand to spy on the Duchess. Later orders her execution and then
seeks to avenge her. The malcontent of the play – cynical. (Based on the
historical Daniele de Bozolo)

10. Continued
 Cardinal: Brother of Duchess. Cool, rational, Machiavellian churchman
who apparently gained power through corruption or bribery. Having an
affair with Julia.
 Ferdinand: Other brother of the Duchess. The Duke of Calabria. Given to
fits of rage and violent outbursts. Has incestuous desire for his sister.
 Castruchio: An old lord. Elderly man with young, unfaithful wife – Julia.
 The Duchess: A young widow. Three children. The protagonist of the play.
The Duchess of Malfi.
 Cariola: The Duchess’s waiting-woman.
 Julia: Castruchio’s wife and the Cardinal’s mistress

11. A short overview of the Play
 The Duchess of Malfi is a deadly, tragic play written by the English dramatist
John Webster.
 The play begins as a love story, with a Duchess who marries beneath her class,
and ends as a dreadful tragedy as her two brothers harsh their revenge,
destroying themselves in the course of action.
 The play is sometimes scorned by modern critics for the excessive violence and
horror in its later scenes. Nevertheless, the complexity of some of its
characters, particularly Bosola and the Duchess, and Webster's poetic
language, give it a continuing interest, and it is still performed in the 21st
century.
 The Duchess of Malfi can not be reduced to a dramatic subgenre, but its
kinship to revenge tragedies written during the same politically turbulent years
of the early seventeenth century is immediately striking.

12. Historical Background
 The period in which the play is written is a vital to our understanding
of the play. It is important as topics of the time that were important to
the Jacobean audience, were highlighted in the dramas of the time.
 Thus, in the Duchess of Malfi, Webster writes about un-orthodox
marriage. To marry ‘out of class’ was a social wrong for the Elizabethans
and Jacobeans.
 Inheritance issues were also a matter of national concern for audiences
at this time. The Duchess’ remarriage to Antonio opened for the
Aragon brothers a dilemma of inheritance. They would not have any
valid entitlement to the wealth and estates that came with the
dukedom of Malfi.

13. Plot Summary
 The play is set in the Italian city of Malfi that tells the story of the Duchess, a
young widow who falls in love with the lower-class Antonio. The Duchess' evil
brothers, Duke Ferdinand and the Cardinal, don't really approve of the
Duchess marrying Antonio. However, the Duchess and Antonio marry in secret
and have three children before being found out.
 The Duchess and Antonio attempt to run away and Antonio and their eldest
child manage to escape. However, the Duchess is betrayed by her servant
Bosola, who was secretly working for Ferdinand, and the Duchess and her two
younger children are executed. The injustice of this turns Bosola against the
Cardinal and Ferdinand and he swears to exact revenge for the Duchess.
 The play ends in an escalating chain of violence, as first the Cardinal confesses
his role in the murders to his mistress and then murders her. Bosola then
mistakenly kills a returning Antonio, thinking him to be the Cardinal. Bosola
eventually succeeds in killing the Cardinal and then he and Ferdinand kill each
other in a brawl. The play ends with Antonio and the Duchess' eldest son
taking his place as heir to Malfi.

14. Critical analysis of the Play

15. Act one: Scene one
“Miserable age, where only the reward of doing well is
the doing of it.”
(Spoken by Bosola to Cardinal)
Here the Machiavellian Villain Bosola complains to the cardinal for being neglected to
get his reward. Bosola seeks his reward of his service from Cardinal . But Cardinal refuse
to give his reward.

16. Act one: Scene one
“He and his brother are like plum tree that grow crooked over standing
pools; they are rich and o’erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies
and caterpillars feed on them.”
(Spoken by Bosola to Antonio)

17. Act one: Scene one
You live in a rank pasture, here the court;
There is a kind of honeydew that’s deadly;
It will poison your fame; look to it: be not cunning;
For they whose faces do belic their hearts
Are withes are they arrive at twenty years,
Ay, and give the devil suck.
(Spoken by Duke Ferdinand to the Duchess)

18. Act Four: Scene Two
“Cover her face; mine eyes dazzle; she died young.”
(Ferdinand to Bosola)

19. Act Five: Scene Five
Whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.
(Ferdinand to his sister the Duchess)

20. Revenge tragedy:
 According to, The book of literary terms (Lewis Turco: 103), revenge tragedy is an
Elizabethan tragedy that contained elements similar to those of the chronicle play and
usually concerned itself with the protagonist’s pursuit of vengeance for the loss of loved
one.
 Revenge tragedy, a kind of tragedy popular in England from the 1590s to the 1630s,
following the success of Thomas Kyd’s sensational plays The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1589).
Its action is typically centered upon a leading character's attempt to avenge the murder of
a loved one, sometimes at the prompting of the victim's ghost; it involves complex
intrigues and disguises, and usually some exploration of the morality of revenge.
 Drawing partly on precedents in Senecan tragedy, the English revenge tragedy is far more
bloodthirsty in its explicit presentation of premeditated violence, and so the more
gruesome examples such as Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus are sometimes called
‘tragedies of blood’.
 Notable examples of plays that are fully or partly within the revenge tradition are
Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, Cyril Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, John
Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, and John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. A more famous
play drawing on the revenge conventions is Shakespeare's Hamlet.

21. Characteristics of revenge tragedy:
 A secret murder
 A ghostly visitation of the murder
 Conflicts
 Madness
 An eruption
 A catastrophe
 Horrible incidents
 Bloodsheding
 Adultery
 Rape and Suicide

22. The Duchess of Malfi as revenge tragedy:
The Duchess of Malfi is obviously amusing. Deceptions
can be found interspersed throughout the whole play and if
scrutiny is conducted thoroughly, one will be able to spot
various multitudinous facetious comments made by different
characters such as Bosola, Cardinal and Ferdinand. This
brings out the theme of appearance and reality, which makes
the play laughable, yet morbid at the same time. This can be
illustrated at how Ferdinand tries to lure Antonio to return to
his castle by offering him forgiveness through the letter sent
by Bosola to the Duchess and Antonio.

23. Conclusion:

24. Thank You