Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Duchess of Malfi Act 1 scene 1 l.395 -
494
- Honesty and transparency (and its opposite flattery and sycophancy)
- a complete man (I speak it
without flattery)
- 'a tyrant doubles with his words,
And fearfully equivocates,'
- Role-reversal/challenging gender roles
- Is it fit? [She puts the ring upon his finger]:
- Her putting the ring on his finger signifies her
dominance; her taking the initiative
- 'These words should be mine, And all the
parts you have spoke'
- 'You do tremble'
- here upon your lips I sign
your Quietus est. (she
kisses him)
- She takes the lead sexually, she is also the
one that talks about going to bed.
- Status and hierarchy
- The misery of us that are born great!
We are forced to woo , because none
dare woo us;
- Ambition (and its opposite – humility)
- 'Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness'
- You were ill to sell yourself: This dark'ning of
your worth
- 'my unworthiness!'
- Motifs
- Blood
- 'One of your eyes is blood-shot'
- Madness
- 'With the wild noise of prattling visitants, Which
makes it lunatic beyond all cure.'
- '...it shows/A fearful madness. I owe her much
of pity'
- Death
- 'In a winding-sheet?'
- 'I am making my will'
- 'Tis not the figure cut in alabaster.
Kneels at my husband's tomb'
- 'Make not your
heart so dead a
piece of flesh'
- Meta theatre
- These words should be mine, And all
the parts you have spoke,
- Imprisonment
- ''kept in chains and close-pent
rooms'
- Challenging the Church’s power
- ''tis the church That must but
echo this '