The Duchess of Malfi Characters
The main characters in The Duchess of Malfi include the duchess of Malfi, Ferdinand, the cardinal, and Daniel de Bosola.
- The duchess of Malfi is an admirable noblewoman who marries secretly and maintains her dignity despite her brothers’ attempts to drive her mad.
- Ferdinand is the duke of Calabra and the duchess’s cruel twin brother, who ultimately has the duchess murdered.
- The cardinal, a corrupt churchman who kills his mistress, is the brother of Ferdinand and the duchess.
- Daniel de Bosola spies on the duchess for the two brothers but later avenges the duchess’s death.
Character Analysis
Antonio Bologna
Antonio serves as the steward, or manager, of the Duchess of Malfi’s estate. He is skilled with both horse and lance, and is renowned for his honesty—so much so that the Cardinal dismisses the idea of hiring Antonio to spy on the Duchess. Antonio is also a perceptive judge of character, offering his friend Delio keen insights into the personalities of others. He is captivated by the Duchess's beauty and temperament, and when she proposes marriage, he humbly accepts without considering the wealth he might gain. In fact, he consents to keep their marriage secret, thus forfeiting any power or prestige it could bring. After their marriage, Antonio's character becomes less prominent, and he does not live up to the promise shown in Act 1. He misplaces the paper on which he calculated their child’s future and passively follows the Duchess's plans to evade capture, offering no suggestions of his own. Ultimately, he is killed while heading to the Cardinal’s door to seek reconciliation. Despite these shortcomings, he remains a good man, deeply loved and trusted by the Duchess until the end.
Daniel de Bosola
Bosola holds the position of provisor of horse for the Duchess. At the play’s start, he has just been released from prison after committing a "notorious murder" at the Cardinal’s behest. He is now employed by Ferdinand, who places him with the Duchess to spy on her and prevent her from marrying. Bosola is arguably the most complex character in the play, and the only one whose thoughts and personality evolve significantly. Antonio predicts this transformation early on, noting that Bosola is "very valiant" but fears his melancholy might "poison all his goodness." Indeed, Bosola is capable of great evil. He spies on the Duchess (though he fails for three years to uncover that Antonio is her husband), oversees the murders of the Duchess, her children, and Cariola, accidentally kills Antonio, and intentionally kills the Cardinal, Ferdinand, and a servant. As he witnesses the nobility with which the Duchess and Antonio face death, and realizes that committing vile acts for the Cardinal and Ferdinand does not bring him gratitude or financial reward, he starts to doubt his belief that it is better "to appear a true servant, than an honest man." However, when the "stars" drive him to kill Antonio, whom he had resolved to protect, Bosola concludes that all human effort and goodness are futile.
The Cardinal
The cardinal, brother to the duchess and Ferdinand, is as calculating as Ferdinand is excitable. A high-ranking official in the Roman Catholic Church, he does not embody the life of a saint. He maintains a mistress, employs spies and murderers, and appears to lack any religious duties or thoughts. As Antonio tells Delio, “Where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plots for them than ever was imposed on Hercules for he strews in his way flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters.”
The cardinal is the silent force orchestrating the schemes against the duchess. It is his idea to hire Bosola as a spy, yet even Bosola remains unaware of the cardinal’s involvement. After Bosola kills the duchess, the cardinal feigns ignorance of the crime. He shares Ferdinand’s desire to prevent the duchess from marrying and his anger when she has a child, but he “can be angry / Without this rupture” of “intemperate noise.” He shows no affection or loyalty, displaying chilling indifference towards Bosola, who killed on his orders, Julia, his mistress, and even his siblings, the duchess and Ferdinand. His reasons for tormenting his sister are...
(This entire section contains 1590 words.)
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unclear. He does not seek her wealth or affection and is incapable of feeling humiliation or shame. He is indifferent to his reputation or legacy, as his final words reveal: “now, I pray, let me / Be laid by, and never thought of.”
Cariola
Cariola is the loyal servant of the duchess, privy to all her secrets. She witnesses the marriage between the duchess and Antonio, helps deliver the duchess’s children, and remains by her side at her death. In her own death, Cariola does not display the same nobility as the duchess; she struggles, screams, and tries to escape. Throughout the play, she is more cautious than the duchess, considering the marriage to Antonio “madness” and fearing that the deception of a false pilgrimage will bring bad luck.
Delio
Delio is a courtier and Antonio's close confidant. His primary function in the narrative is to serve as a listener for Antonio. Delio’s inquisitiveness about the court allows Antonio to articulate his thoughts on the duchess, her brothers, and Bosola, much like an omniscient narrator in a novel. Additionally, Delio is the trusted friend to whom Antonio reveals the secrets of his marriage and the births of his children. Similar to Cariola, Delio guards these secrets diligently. Delio has no direct ties to any of the siblings and does not partake in their schemes or deaths. He remains the loyal friend, ever ready to assist Antonio when needed. In a scene from Act 2, Delio visits Rome and makes advances toward Julia, who rejects him. This interaction has no further impact on the play, and the two characters do not encounter each other again. Delio utters the final words of the play, arriving "too late" with Antonio’s eldest son after the boy's parents have been killed. He encourages the survivors to help the young man claim his inheritance and declares, “Integrity of life is fame’s best friend, / Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.”
The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi is the sister of the cardinal and Ferdinand's twin. Throughout the play, she is never mentioned by name, only by titles that denote her roles as sister, duchess, and wife. At the beginning of the play, she is a young widow in her prime. (According to Webster’s source materials, the real duchess was twelve years old when she married an older man and became a widow at twenty.) Despite her brothers' prohibition against remarriage, and her promise to obey them, she yearns for a husband. She secretly asks her steward, Antonio, to marry her, and they conduct a private wedding ceremony. Fearful of her brothers’ wrath, the duchess keeps her marriage hidden for years, even after the birth of three children. When her brothers eventually discover the children, she flees with Antonio but is ultimately captured and killed.
Early in the play, Antonio describes her as a woman whose speech is “full of rapture,” with a “sweet countenance,” and who lives a life of “noble virtue.” Although her gentle nobility has no effect on her brothers, her every word and action confirm Antonio’s assessment, and she is adored and respected by her subjects. She is intelligent, able to match her brothers’ wit in their exchanges, and quick to devise elaborate escape plans. She displays deep affection for her husband, children, and servant, showing a tenderness that the cardinal and Ferdinand lack. Even in the face of her brothers' torment, she maintains her dignity, declaring, “I am Duchess of Malfi still.”
Some critics argue that the duchess deserves her fate due to her impulsive decision to marry below her social rank. However, most dismiss this idea, agreeing that Webster does not criticize the marriage between Antonio and the duchess. Her tragic end is not her fault but rather a consequence of existing in a “gloomy world.”
Ferdinand
Ferdinand, the Duke of Calabria, is the duchess's twin brother, younger by only a few minutes. Unlike his cold and calculating brother, the cardinal, Ferdinand is highly emotional. His reaction to the prospect of his sister marrying is extreme. Critics have long debated Ferdinand's motivations, with many suggesting incestuous feelings fuel his anger. Upon learning that his sister has given birth, he labels her a whore and “a sister damn’d,” envisions her “in the shameful act of sin,” and fantasizes about burning her and her lover in a ventless coal pit to prevent their “curs’d smoke” from reaching heaven. He even imagines boiling her child into a soup to serve to its father.
Antonio's early description of Ferdinand proves insightful. He tells Delio that Ferdinand has “a most perverse, and turbulent nature.” Even the cardinal questions whether Ferdinand is “stark mad.” After brooding over his sister’s perceived betrayal, Ferdinand indeed approaches insanity. Upon ordering Bosola to kill the duchess and seeing her dead body, he regrets his decision, lamenting, “when I was distracted of my wits, / Go kill my dearest friend,” though there was no prior indication of any closeness between them.
The realization of his actions drives Ferdinand into madness, possibly even believing himself to be a werewolf. He is found in a graveyard, digging up corpses, and is seen “with the leg of a man / Upon his shoulder; and he howl’d fearfully, / Said he was a wolf.” Ferdinand reappears in the final scene, where he attacks the cardinal and Bosola, stabbing both. Bosola retaliates, and as Ferdinand lies dying, he “seems to come to himself,” reflecting, “Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, / Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.”
Julia
Julia is the wife of an elderly nobleman and the cardinal’s mistress. While staying with the cardinal, she is propositioned by Delio, whom she rejects, and attempts to seduce Bosola. Ironically, the cardinal kills her by tricking her into kissing a poisoned book while she vows to keep his secret.
