English Study Hub

John Webster’s (1580-1625) masterpiece is “The Duchess of Malfi”, of which it may confidently be alleged that it is the finest tragedy in the English language outside the works of William Shakespeare. It is a story of revenge, a story of blood-shedding. In this play we find the triangle of villainy, even evil works through such triangle. Evil forces here operate their jobs through three characters- Ferdinand, Cardinal and Bosola. Let us now have some ideas in brief about the triangular villainy in “The Duchess of Malfi”.           In the centre of the play there is a duchess, the Duchess of Malfi , who is young but widowed. She has two brothers, Cardinal and her twin, Ferdinand, the duke of Calabria. Both the brothers of the Duchess are vicious, pernicious and dangerously sinister. Their motive is to prevent their sister from re-marriage. Because they do not want to share her property with anybody, rather they want to share it within the...

“ The Duchess of Malfi ” is a revenge play which comes from the pen of John Webster (1580-1625), one of the most prominent playwrights of both Elizabethan and Jacobean Age. This play is a story of avenge, a story of blood-shedding. In the centre of play there is a Duchess, who is young but widowed. She has two brothers, and between these brothers one is her twin. Her brothers plot heinous conspiracy against her. Let us make a discussion on it in brief.           Conspiracy is a secretly contrived evil plan to act against some ones interest or to harm somebody. It is a sinister procuration to cause destruction to somebody, and this destruction maybe death as well. The twin brother of The Duchess, Ferdinand is the duke of Calabria. He had an uncontrollable mental and physical frenzy. He appears in a violent manner and we see great fury in his character all the time, as we see in the character of Tybalt in “ Romeo & Juliet ”. On the o...

The Spanish Tragedy belongs to a class of drama known as the revenge play, which comes from the pen of Thomas Kyd (1558-1594). Almost all the English playwrights of that time followed the Classical playwrights, Classical tragedies. Kyd also did the same. Especially he followed Roman playwright Lucius Annaneus Seneca (4BC-65AD) blindly. So he is called The English Seneca.           Seneca was also a Roman Stoic philosopher. Primly he wrote tragic dramas. His dramas were full of melodramatic elements, such as, blood-shed, killing, assassination, horror scenes, etc. For these reasons his dramas are suitable for only to read in chamber or in closed room. Let us now have a brief discussion about the elements of Seneca used by Kyd in his play The Spanish Tragedy.           In all the plays of Seneca we find the revenge theme . Revenge was the main plot, main motive in his plays. Like him, Kyd a...

Doctor Faustus is an unimpeachable creation by The Central Sun of the University Wits, Christopher Marlow (1564-1593). Marlow has rightly been called The Morning Star of the great Elizabethan drama. Doctor Faustus has been treated as a link between the miracle and morality plays and the illustrious drama of Elizabethan period. William Hazlitt remarks : “His Doctor Faustus , though an imperfect and unequal performance, is his greatest work. Faustus himself is a rude sketch, but it is a gigantic one. The character maybe considered a personification of the pride of will and eagerness of curiosity, sublimed beyond the reach of fear and remorse.” In Doctor Faustus, though we find the elements of mystery and miracle primarily, mainly we find the elements of morality. Morality plays were influenced by Bible, by religion. The prime concern of morality plays was to teach moral lessons to the contemporary people. In such plays we also see constant contradiction between good and evil, per...