critics

• 'The Duchess of Malfi is a work of genius...it is a great play because it deals with universal human problems' - Kenneth Tynan
• 'the play collapses under its own contradictions' - Mary Beth Rose
• the duchess 'acts of human impulses in the name of virtue only to discover she cannot control the consequences of her choices' - Christina Luckyj
• 'Webster's God, unlike his devil, is a hidden one' - Dominic Baker Smith
• Ferdinand is 'a threatened aristocrat, frightened by the contamination of his ascriptive social rank' - Frank Whigham
• widows in jacobean comedy are in general, portrayed as welcoming the prospect of rape - Jennifer Panek
• the duchess cannot be seen as a 'model of goodness' - Whitman
• Ferdinand has a 'dark web of lust' around his sister - Dusinberre
• the strangulation of the duchess is a way of webster condemning the destructive manipulation of the society around her - Whitman
• Bosola is particularly vulnerable as an employee of the corrupt Duke. His work dehumanises him. - Marxist critics
• Frank whigham on Antonio

  'he cares more for his own safety than theirs.'