John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi"
             The Cardinal and Ferdinand; two very powerful brothers who are trying to make their sister's life miserable. They succeed in doing this extremely well, nevertheless, she manages to keep her head up high and fight (and die) in style. What makes her brothers (and the hired murderer Daniel de Bosola, who seems to be struggling with his character) so cruel and evil? How does she manage to stay so calm and dignified?
             In the first scene of the play, we are introduced to Antonio Bologna who has just returned from France. He talks about Bosola with Delio, his friend, and admits that he's rather rough, but also says that he heard (and believes) that He's very valiant and that he's afraid that this foul melancholy will poison all his goodness. He seems to think that Bosola could be someone 'better' if he just set his mind to it.
             As a reader, having just read that Bosola has spent seven years in the galleys for committing a murder, one is quite impressed by these remarks. It certainly shows that Antonio likes to see the best in people. This makes it all the more impressive to read his remarks on the Duchess' brothers. According to him the Cardinal often 'works' with flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists and a thousand such political monsters, and Ferdinand is nothing more than a deceiving, implausible crook. That sounds ruthless coming from someone who only minutes ago admitted that the murderer Bosola was actually quite valiant, which doesn't sound like a point of criticism to me. Antonio's positive description of the French royal court, from which he has just returned, is also in great contrast with this corrupt Italian court; the stagnant pool where nothing can grow or be nurtured.
             Having given this information, I would like to take a closer look at all these characters; are they really evil, what reasons do th
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