Commentary on The Duchess Of Malfi Essay

The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi is not a book that I would ever read in my personal time or ever enjoy reading but the book did have some interesting parts in it. The play on the other hand I think I would enjoy watching just because of all the violence and drama. The book was defiantly hard for me to read and understand but once I got past that the characters had some interesting and weird personalities. I also thought that it was a little weird that almost everyone in the end dies, because that just means all of that drama and backstabbing was for nothing.

Act 1 has one of the hardest acts for me to read because it was hard trying to figure out which character is which and that characters personality. In Act 1 Ferdinand seems like the nice brother out of the two but he seems like he is a violent person. Before the marriage of the Duchess and Antonio, Ferdinand was nice to Antonio. He even congratulated Antonio on his knightly competition that Antonio won. Just because Antonio married the Duchess doesnt mean that Ferdinand has to be angry at Antonio. I think it was wrong for the Duchess to marry Antonio without telling either of her brothers but you cannot stop true love. The two brothers just need to respect her decision. I think Ferdinand and the Cardinal would still be furious at the Duchess if she would have told them but I dont think that they would have killed her like they did later on in the story. I think finding out that the Duchess had been married with kids for a few years really drove Ferdinand crazy, and finding that out from Bosola didnt help the situation either. I think that it is very wrong that the Cardinal and Ferdinand used Bosola to spy on the Duchess. Its an invasion of her privacy. I think that it is a little weird that the brothers are taking such extreme measures to make sure that the Duchess does not remarry. I know the brothers are just trying to protect their family reputation but who cares what other people think.

I think its clever in Act 2 how the Duchess conceals the birth of her first born child but it is all for nothing because Bosola found another way to prove that she was pregnant with a child. I think it is cruel what Bosola did to the Duchess. Feeding her apricots and making her vomit is very dangerous and cruel. I just didnt understand why Bosola didnt reveal his findings to the brothers at that point. Maybe he just wasnt fully sure yet. I was surprised to find that even when Bosola recovered the note that Antonio dropped he still didnt consider Antonio as the possible father. I guess marrying someone of a lower class in that time period was just unimaginable.

In Act 3 I was surprised that it took so long for Ferdinand to take action against the Duchesss marriage. Ferdinand must have been going insane for the years that he knew about the marriage. It was stupid for the Duchess to confess everything to Bosola knowing that he would report that information to Ferdinand and the Cardinal. It must have been terrible for the Duchess and Antonio to separate but it had to be done for them to stay safe.

The next act was the weirdest and the hardest for me to understand. I understand the anger Ferdinand has built up but the way he kills the Duchess is just too insane. Killing the Duchess is one thing but making her think that her lover is dead before she dies is just cruel. And doing all of this in the dark because he vowed to never see her face her face again is just a little weird. Its sad that the Duchess thinks her whole family is dead but they are really not. I thought it was admirable that the Duchess faced her death with dignity and Im glad she thought that she did no wrong because she didnt.

The last act was interesting but I didnt like it because almost everyone died. All the drama and violence in the whole story was for nothing because everyone dies in the end. I think that Antonio was brave and stupid at the same time for trying to reconcile with the Cardinal knowing that the Cardinal and Ferdinand would be furious. Im not sure why the Cardinal wanted Bosola dead because Bosola helped the brothers a lot throughout the story. I expected Antonio to die but no accidentally. I also didnt understand why Ferdinand stabbed and killed his own brother. I did like however that Antonios son became the new Duke.

I think obviously that Ferdinand was in love with her sister. I dont think any normal brother would go into that kind of rage over his sisters marriage. Ferdinand defiantly had some problems because right after he had his own sister killed he regretted it and then blamed her death on Bosola. All Bosola did was follow orders he was given from the Cardinal and Ferdinand. Ferdinand just couldnt stand the fact that the Duchess was in love with someone else. I dont think that Ferdinand wanted to be with his sister. That would tarnish the family name, but he didnt like the thought of the Duchess remarrying or being with another man. You can tell he was crazy because if you had any sympathy you would trick your sister into thinking that her husband was dead when he actually was not. I dont think Ferdinand every truly understood his own sick state of mind.

There were some things I liked and disliked about the Duchess of Malfi. I did enjoy the drama of it all. I also liked reading about Ferdinand and trying to decide if he was a good character or a bad one. The last statement each character made before he or she died I think was the most interesting. The Duchess of Malfi I think had a good story but it was just too hard to understand for me.