Dympna Callaghan: The Duchess of Malfi is an unusualcentral figure for a 17th century tragedy, not only because she is a woman, but also because [...] she combines virtue with powerful sexual desire
Dympna Callaghan: Webster's Duchess defies social and sexual orthodoxies
Dympna Callaghan: women were immoral, over-sexed, weak minded
Dympna Callaghan: Bosola is the instrument to her tragedy
Michael Billington: Webster uses the tragedy to offer a vision of human existence as chaotic and unstable
Michael Billington: destructive lusts of sexuality and power
Alexander Leggatt: She is by turnsnatural, unorthodox, courageous and in need of ordinary reassurance
Bernhardt-House: A modern psychological reading may well see Ferdinand'sLycanthropia on a Freudian level, i.e. as a manifestation of a deep-rootedsexual problem
James L Calderwood: Suggests Ferdinand's outbursts represent an identification of his “latent desire with her realised desire” - he associates her sexual fulfilment with his own unconscious yearning for her
Timothy Fox: Suggests Ferdinand not only longs for an incestuous relationship, but that “he and his siblings are the product of one”
Timothy Fox: Suggests that in imprisoning his sister Ferdinand is attempting to fulfil his lust. He also adds that in tormenting his sister with frolicking madmen designed to keep her awake at night, Ferdinand is envisaging his own rape of the Duchess
Lori Haslem: The apricot scene expresses widespread disgust with female sexuality.Pregnancy is likened to a "patient who has overindulged in the wrong sort of foods"
Brian Gibbons: Each brother is driven by a different obsession; Ferdinand's is sexual, the Cardinal's is social rank