The Duchess of Malfi: Characters (OCR A Level English Literature)

Revision Note

Sam Evans

Written by: Sam Evans

Reviewed by: Kate Lee

The Duchess of Malfi: Characters

Webster uses his characters to symbolise various ideas prevalent in his society. He portrays how differences between characters reflect contemporary debates. Therefore it is very useful not only to learn about each character individually, but how they compare and contrast to other characters in the play.

Characters can be symbolic, representing certain ideas or ideals, so it is essential that you consider:

  • societal groups or themes represented by characters 

  • how characters are established

  • how characters are presented via:

    • actions and motives

    • what they say and think

    • how they interact with others

    • what others say and think about them

    • their physical appearance or description

  • how far the characters conform to or subvert stereotypes

  • the relationships between characters

Below you will find detailed character profiles of:

Main characters

Other characters

The Duchess

  • The play’s protagonist, the eponymous yet nameless Duchess, is a character based on a real duchess, Giovanna d’Aragona, who was murdered by her brothers for conducting a secret affair

  • The Duchess is a young, beautiful, virtuous widow:

    • She has a powerful position but shows humility and chooses a steward as her husband

    • She surprises Bosola as she is idealistic and does not seek material wealth 

  • Webster’s protagonist is the victim of her cruel and powerful brothers (a cardinal and a duke) who control her and limit her sexual identity

  • In this way, she represents a victim of a patriarchal and corrupted religious system

  • The Duchess represents a woman who is determined to live autonomously:

    • She defies her brothers’ demands that she remains a widow

    • She chooses her own husband

  • The Duchess is presented as defiant against her oppressors:

    • She refuses to obey her brothers or deny her own desires 

    • She is brave, resourceful and proactive in her attempts to keep her family safe

  • However, Webster chooses to present her attempts as futile in order to criticise the status quo

  • As well as this, Webster portrays the violent consequences of the Duchess's choice to become a mother in defiance of her brothers’ wishes

  • Her desire for autonomy and personal agency within her society are presented as doomed:

    • Although she chooses to live on her own terms, ultimately, she and her husband are murdered by her brothers, a cardinal and a duke

  • The Duchess, a likeable heroine, is an effective tragic hero to present Webster’s criticism of corruption:

    • She is witty and humorous

    • She is humble and self-effacing 

  • However, at times she is self-absorbed and vain:

    • She is rude to her maid

    • She believes Antonio’s marriage to her is a reward for his virtuous life

  • Her naive nature is her tragic flaw as she trusts too easily:

    • She tells Antonio time will temper her brothers’ reactions

    • She dismisses Antonio’s protests about their class difference 

    • She believes Ferdinand has forgiven her for marrying again

    • She tells Bosola her secret, which leads to their capture

  • She provides an antithesis to her brothers’ conniving and sinful natures:

    • Webster presents her acting with integrity and dignity

    • When she is imprisoned and Ferdinand tries to drive her to insanity she is resolute, whereas Ferdinand goes mad

    • She accepts her death bravely and philosophically, whereas Ferdinand’s guilt leads to his death

  • The Duchess is portrayed as a sacrificial character:

    • She is the catalyst for Bosola’s repentance and potential salvation as his cynical attitude is softened by her actions

    • She sacrifices herself for love

Duke Ferdinand

  • Ferdinand is Duke of Calabria, brother of the Cardinal and the twin brother of the Duchess

  • He represents Webster’s ideas about corrupt leadership and oppressive control:

    • His desire for wealth and power supersede his love for his sister

    • He refuses to pay Bosola his wages and offers, instead, forgiveness for the murder committed on his orders

  • His jealousy towards his sister’s sexuality and marriage is depicted through a series of treacherous acts towards her and her family:

    • His enjoyment of her torture presents him as narcissistic and evil

    • His lack of compassion, despite Bosola’s pleas, shows his sadism

  • He is an emotional, impulsive and violent character:

    • Even the Cardinal is shocked by the list of brutal punishments he wishes to carry out on his sister and her family

  • He is psychologically unbalanced and unpredictable:

    • His bizarre and cruel schemes to punish his sister juxtapose intimate scenes and scenes of passionate outrage

  • He is a master of deception:

    • He lies to his sister repeatedly

    • He employs Bosola to spy on the Duchess

  • His character is dubious as he illustrates incestuous feelings for his sister:

    • Yet even this is shown as superficial as his priority remains to claim her inheritance

  • His attitude to family honour is presented as warped and corrupted:

    • He chooses to murder his sister and her husband 

    • He suggests her children taint the family bloodline

  • His vengeful nature is punished as Webster conveys themes of guilt via Ferdinand’s illness:

    • The doctor suggests he has a disease called lycanthropy, which has him believing he is a wolf

    • His mad ranting about his guilty conscience ultimately leads Bosola to murder him

The Cardinal

  • The Cardinal is portrayed as a calculating and duplicitous religious figure:

    • He is thought to have bribed his way to his position

  • Webster tells audiences in the exposition, ironically via city gossip, that he is known to be distrustful and paranoid:

    • He relies on gossip and spies to manage the city

  • He is immediately presented as corrupt and treacherous:

    • Audiences are told that Bosola’s imprisonment in the “galleys” was a result of a murder committed on the Cardinal’s orders

    • This is confirmed later when the Cardinal refuses to compensate Bosola for his services

  • His character represents an individual who employs face-saving tactics to maintain a façade of virtue:

    • He pretends he does not know the Duchess has been murdered

    • He refuses to interact with any character who may expose his true nature

    • He is careful not to speak too wildly, unlike his brother Ferdinand

  • The Cardinal strongly opposes the Duchess remarrying, insisting she remain a widow:

    • His motive appears to be to ensure that her purity will guarantee the good reputation of the family

    • His snobbery and focus on appearances is manifested by his comment on "the royal blood” in Act II, Scene V

  • His ideals are presented as hypocritical when he engages in an affair with Julia, the wife of Lord Castruccio:

    • His treatment of Julia, the mistress, is exploitative and selfish

  • Webster explicitly illustrates his sinful and blasphemous nature when he uses the Bible to murder Julia:

    • Though he is a high-ranking "prince” of the Church, he poisons the Bible

    • He forces Julia to swear on it by kissing it, which kills her

  • His motive for all evil misdeeds is to suppress previous crimes and ensure his reputation remains intact

  • Webster punishes the Cardinal for his sins with a double betrayal:

    • Both Bosola and Ferdinand murder him

  • His brief display of having a conscience is portrayed as too little and too late:

    • He shows little compassion for the murder of his sister and her family

    • His repentance comes just as Bosola and Ferdinand fatally stab him

Antonio Bologna

  • Antonio is presented as a victim of hypocritical attitudes to class and power:

    • His position as the Duchess's steward places him in a lower class

    • His marriage to her, a high-ranking Duchess, is the catalyst for the play’s conflict and his own death 

  • Webster portrays him as a virtuous and steadfast individual:

    • The Duchess considers him to be a “complete” man and chooses him as her husband

  • His love for the Duchess is presented as genuine:

    • In the initial scene he expresses his respect and admiration of her to Delio

    • He does not view his marriage as a vehicle for social mobility

  • However, his naivety leads to his death:

    • He is aware that his status will cause problems, yet he chooses to marry the Duchess regardless of the danger

    • He is unable to see through Bosola

    • He decides to confront the Cardinal despite warnings

  • Webster presents a cynical view on love and marriage through his characterisation:

    • Despite the genuine love between he and the Duchess he is unable to withstand external pressures

  • His character conveys Webster’s ideas regarding the rewards of virtue in a corrupted society:

    • The Duchess tells Antonio that marriage to her is a reward for his virtue

    • This is ironic as it ultimately leads to his death

  • His accidental death in the final act suggests he is the victim of his own fate, an idea he illustrates himself when his son is born under a “bad sign”

  • His superstitious beliefs are portrayed as a weakness:

    • His response to his nosebleed (believing it a bad omen) leads to his exposure as he leaves behind a note, which Bosola finds

    • The note itself is an astrological detailing of his son’s birth date and destiny

Daniel de Bosola

  • Daniel de Bosola is a complex character who conveys much of the play’s humour as well as darker, psychological themes

  • In some ways he is similar to a jester or a fool as he delivers witty asides and speaks eloquently and cynically:

    • He is known as a malcontent, a character whose pessimistic attitude represents his own oppression, often used in revenge tragedy 

  • However, his active participation as a central character in the play presents him as a villainous and dynamic manipulator:

    • Planted by Duke Ferdinand as the stable master for the Duchess, he is easily persuaded by money to spy on her and report back on her actions

  • In the exposition, Antonio tells audiences he is a melancholy and cynical character:

    • His dialogue portrays him as bitter towards corrupted power

    • His bad attitude, though, will “poison any goodness”, according to Antonio, who foreshadows his decline in the first scene

  • His desire for social power is presented as his weakness:

    • The Cardinal’s betrayal and imprisonment in the “galleys” for murdering a man on his command does not hinder him from engaging with him again

    • His acceptance of money for his services present him as mercenary

  • His inability to resolve his own sense of powerlessness is presented as the catalyst for his complicity in all of Ferdinand’s evil schemes:

    • He carries out torture on Ferdinand’s behalf

    • He brutally murders the Duchess, her children and a servant, before stabbing Ferdinand and the Cardinal

  • Although he shows compassion at times, his cunning manipulations of the Duchess are cruel:

    • He gives her apricots to induce labour

    • The audience is shocked when he betrays the Duchess:

      • He tells her brothers whom she has married after praising Antonio as a virtuous man 

      • This is especially treacherous as earlier he praises the Duchess for her humility and for marrying beneath her class

  • He is presented as a malcontent:

    • His speeches and asides suggest he understands the difference between virtue and sin

    • His positive appraisal of the Duchess and Antonio, as well as his knowledge of the corruption within the court, makes him particularly nihilistic in nature

  • His misogynistic characterisation is explicitly illustrated in order to portray his bitter nature:

    • He insults an old woman in two scenes 

    • He degrades her with comments about witchcraft, loose morals and her appearance

  • After the Duchess is murdered, Bosola becomes a vehicle for revenge against Ferdinand and the Cardinal:

    • However, his impulsive desire for revenge leads him to kill Antonio by accident

    • His own death is dealt as punishment, perhaps, for failing in his final attempt at redemption

Other characters

Delio

  • Delio is Antonio’s friend and confidant, whose characterisation serves to aid an audience’s understanding of Antonio:

    • He speaks with Antonio about his secret marriage, his dilemma, and offers him advice

  • He is a loyal friend to Antonio and actively tries to help him throughout the play:

    • He accompanies him to the Cardinal’s court:

      • However, he is unable to save his friend, suggesting his passivity

    • He is asked to take care of Antonio and the Duchess's son in the final scene

  • He delivers the final lines, which varies from convention in that a minority character closes the play and concludes its themes:

    • He suggests that honesty and integrity can immortalise man in a way that dishonesty does not

Cariola, the maid

  • Cariola is the Duchess's maid and loyal confidant:

    • She is witness to the Duchess's marriage to Antonio

    • She keeps the Duchess's secrets throughout the play

  • Cariola’s loyalty, however, is not rewarded as she becomes a victim of circumstance

  • The Duchess, it appears, is insulting and dismissive of her maid, yet Cariola fights to save her life and is murdered for her connection to the Duchess

Julia

  • Julia is Lord Castruccio’s wife and the Cardinal’s mistress

  • She is presented as a fickle character who falls in love with the Cardinal and then Bosola

  • Her vulnerability as a result of her associations with evil men is presented as her downfall

  • She is exploited by both the Cardinal and Bosola:

    • Bosola uses her to get close to the Cardinal

    • The Cardinal betrays and murders her

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Sam Evans

Author: Sam Evans

Expertise: English Content Creator

Sam is a graduate in English Language and Literature, specialising in journalism and the history and varieties of English. Before teaching, Sam had a career in tourism in South Africa and Europe. After training to become a teacher, Sam taught English Language and Literature and Communication and Culture in three outstanding secondary schools across England. Her teaching experience began in nursery schools, where she achieved a qualification in Early Years Foundation education. Sam went on to train in the SEN department of a secondary school, working closely with visually impaired students. From there, she went on to manage KS3 and GCSE English language and literature, as well as leading the Sixth Form curriculum. During this time, Sam trained as an examiner in AQA and iGCSE and has marked GCSE English examinations across a range of specifications. She went on to tutor Business English, English as a Second Language and international GCSE English to students around the world, as well as tutoring A level, GCSE and KS3 students for educational provisions in England. Sam freelances as a ghostwriter on novels, business articles and reports, academic resources and non-fiction books.

Kate Lee

Author: Kate Lee

Expertise: English and Languages Lead

Kate has over 12 years of teaching experience as a Head of English and as a private tutor. Having also worked at the exam board AQA and in educational publishing, she's been writing educational resources to support learners in their exams throughout her career. She's passionate about helping students achieve their potential by developing their literacy and exam skills.