“Such a mistake as I have often seen / In a play”: The Duchess of Malfi, a Tragedy of Errors

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2018

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Cairn.info

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Christine Sukic, « “Such a mistake as I have often seen / In a play”: The Duchess of Malfi, a Tragedy of Errors », Études anglaises, ID : 10670/1.04eb6d...


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Many critics have pointed out John Webster’s ambiguities in The Duchess of Malfi: while the Duchess’s brothers condemn her for having married Antonio, she also appears as a model of Stoic virtue in the sufferings that are imposed on her; as for Bosola, he appears from the first as a humoral anomaly, and is both murderer and avenger, turning out to be a complete failure in this last task, and admitting to having killed Antonio “unwittingly.” Errors, in the play, are envisaged from a moral perspective and inform Webster’s depiction of a corrupt society, but more importantly, they are part of the play’s aesthetics, where “fault and beauty” are “blended together” (3.3).

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