History Theatre / TheDuchessOfMalfi

'''Because the play is over four hundred years old and is available at various public domain sites, all spoilers will be unmarked. You have been warned.'''

!!Tropes appearing in this play:

''The Duchess of Malfi'' is a macabre [[{{Tragedy}} tragic play]] written in 1612-13 by Jacobean dramatist and Creator/{{Shakespeare}}-contemporary Creator/JohnWebster. A court piece, first performed before King James I, it deals with corruption and the power of women at the Italian court, and criticizes Catholicism in the process.

* CainAndAbel: Bosola's killing of the Cardinal and Ferdinand is helped by the fact that the Cardinal was intending to murder his crazy brother himself.

* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Ferdinand loses his mind from guilt shortly after having his sister murdered, first believing himself to have become a wolf and later trying to attack his own shadow. His brother the Cardinal arranges to have him killed to prevent him confessing.

* NoMatterHowMuchIBeg: Planning to kill Ferdinand, the Cardinal tells his courtiers not to come into his rooms no matter what they hear, as Ferdinand needs to learn that causing a disturbance won't get him anywhere. This comes back to bite him when Bosola turns up and kills both of them.

The play is set in the court of Malfi (Amalfi), in UsefulNotes/{{Italy}}, 1504 to 1510, but filled with [[AnachronismStew references to then-current events]]. The recently widowed Duchess falls in love with Antonio, a lowly steward, but her brothers, not wishing her to share their inheritance, forbid her from remarrying. She marries Antonio in secret and bears him several children.

The Duchess' lunatic and incestuously obsessed brother Ferdinand threatens and disowns her, instructing Bosola to spy on her. Antonio escapes with their eldest son, but the Duchess, her maid, and her two younger children are arrested and die at the hands of Bosola's executioners. However, his guilt turns Bosola against the Cardinal and his brother. The final scene involves an elaborate fight that leaves most main characters dead.

!!Tropes associated with this play:

* BrotherSisterIncest: Ferdinand subconsciously lusts after his sister, the Duchess. He makes increasingly agressive innuendo in the play, leading to his descent into melancholy and insanity after [[spoiler: her murder]].

* DeadpanSnarker: Bosola. Oh so very much.
** The Duchess also has her moments.
* DramaticDeadpan: several places, especially death scenes, notably those of the Duchess and the Cardinal.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Cardinal, the Duchess.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: The Duchess and Bosola are both choleric, the madmen are sanguine. Ferdinand becomes melancholic after [[spoiler: he murders the Duchess]].
* GoAmongMadPeople: The Duchess's brothers attempt to drive her insane with the help of half-a-dozen genuine madmen. Done right, it's a seriously disturbing scene. But then, what do you expect from John Webster?
* HeelFaceTurn: Bosola experiences one after [[spoiler: murdering the Duchess]]. Ferdinand seems to follow suit, but goes mad instead.

* MustMakeAmends: Bosola [[spoiler: strangles the duchess, but almost immediately attempts to revive her once he learns that her brother, who hired him to commit the murder, is refusing to pay him]]. It doesn't work.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The Cardinal subverts this: his motives initially seem to be this, but ultimately he doesn't seem to have any beyond ForTheEvulz.
** Daniel Bosola is a straight example; so much so that he does a HeelFaceTurn once Ferdinand stiffs him on payment for a job.

* SinisterMinister: The Cardinal, the Duchess' brother (Webster was more into plots than names, it seems). He conspires to have his sister killed and her kids murdered, partly in order to preserve the family honor and partly to get his hands on her wealth. He also pulls strings to have ill-gotten lands deeded to his mistress.

* TallDarkAndSnarky: Bosola. Comes across as a proto Severus Snape.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: There was a real Duchess of Amalfi, Giovanna d'Aragona, who secretly married a commoner, Antonio di Bologna, after being widowed, as a result of which she, Antonio and their children were murdered on the orders of her brother, Cardinal Lodovico. The second brother, Ferdinand, and the avenging of the murders, are fictional. (Left out of the story were Giovanna's two children by her first husband.)

* GalleySlave: Bosola spent some years in the galleys, the last punishment for serious crimes before execution, for murder. This may explain his initial attitude.

* DecompositeCharacter: The real Duchess of Amalfi had only one brother, who was a Cardinal.

* NoMatterHowMuchIBeg: Planning to kill Ferdinand, the Cardinal tells his courtiers not to come into his rooms no matter what they here, as Ferdinand needs to learn that causing a disturbance won't get him anywhere. This comes back to bite him when Bosola turns up and kills both of them.

* GalleySlave: Bosola spent some years in the galleys, the last punishment for serious crimes before execution, for murder. This may explain [[CompleteMonster his initial attitude]].

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Cardinal.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: The Cardinal subverts this: his motives initially seem to be this, but ultimately he doesn't seem to have any beyong ForTheEvulz.

The Duchess of Malfi is a macabre, tragic play written in 1612-13 by Jacobean dramatist and Shakespeare-contemporary JohnWebster. A court piece, first performed before king James I, it deals with corruption and the power of women at the Italian court, and criticizes Catholicism in the process.

The play is set in the court of Malfi (Amalfi), in Italy, 1504 to 1510, but filled with [[AnachronismStew references to then-current events]]. The recently widowed Duchess falls in love with Antonio, a lowly steward, but her brothers, not wishing her to share their inheritance, forbid her from remarrying. She marries Antonio in secret and bears him several children.

The Duchess' lunatic and incestuously obsessed brother Ferdinand threatens and disowns her, instructing Bosola to spy on her. Antonio escapes with their eldest son, but the Duchess, her maid, and her two younger children are arrested and die at the hands of Bosola's executioners. However, his guilt turns Bosola against the Cardinal and his brother.
The final scene involves an elaborate fight that leaves most main characters dead.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Catholicism, focusing on the corruption of mind, body and soul, in particular in the Cardinal.

* CompleteMonster: Bosola starts out as this, but later has a HeelFaceTurn after his guilt overcomes his melancholic indifference. The real monsters turn out to be the Cardinal and Ferdinand.

* Narm: Arguably, the entirety of the play. You've got to love a play where someone gets poisoned by a Bible, there's an echo-ey grave, mad men are cavorting around outside a jail, the heroine holds a dead man's hand ... And a mad incestuous Prince thinks he's a werewolf and later says, "I account this world but a dog kennel." The Cardinal's reaction on being stabbed? "You have hurt me." Oh, dear. The doctor tries to cure Ferdinand of his madness and thinking he's a dog by... trying to fight him. Also, the number of people hiding behind tapestries.
** Bosola is with both the leads when they die...and has howlers both times. With the duchess, he responds to her brief revival and subsequent final death with a mildly frustrated, "Oh, she's gone again!" With Antonio, he gets the following tactless exchange:
---> "Thy fair duchess and two sweet children--"\\
"Their very names kindle a little life in me."\\
"Are murdered."
** Most Jacobean drama is like this, which is why it's awesome.

* RuleAbidingRebel: The Duchess becomes a widow at a young age and is thus a single woman in a position of great power. She uses this power to marry again, over the wishes of her two brothers, who don't want to share her fortune. This is arguably the point of the play.

* ValuesDissonance: The play revolves around a forbidden marriage and what we would nowadays consider to be an honour killing. While her behavior in disobeying her family, marrying her steward, and actually proposing to him rather than vice versa, would have met with strong disapproval from most audiences, Webster is clearly depicting her as the most noble character in the play, the only one who didn't do anything seriously wrong; the rest of the court is populated by scheming tyrants, incestuous brothers, hypocrites, and murderers -- the anti-hero protagonist is a killer-for-hire. This was a very radical play when it premiered. Nowadays sympathies are entirely with the lovers.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: Catholicism, focusing on the corruption of mind, body and soul, in particular in the Cardinal.