The Duchess Of Malfi Character Analysis

The duchess of Malfi is a tragically intriguing story that ivoloves greed, love ,and murder Bosola is a recently released seven year galley-slave when we first meet him. He murdered someone for the cardinal and the cardinal didn’t reward him and let him take the fall. Bosola is now desperate for a place in society. He needs his reputation back because he cannot get a job or make any money until he fixes his reputation. bosola reason for lowering his moral code is to gain social status and security. He criticizes the brother’s actions against the duchess but he continues to spy for them. He knows they are ruthless and corrupt, but he still believes they will reward him for his actions. Ironically the duchess who is of good moral character …show more content…
Antonio is the duchess’s steward, and later on he becomes the duchess secret husband. He runs the household for her, so it was not uncommon to always be seen at the duchess’s house. Antonio is honest, hardworking, and loyal to the duchess. In the beginning of the play is conversation with Delio shows that he realizes the brothers are corrupt and the duchess is the morally righteous one. So before the reader actually meets the major characters they are described through Antonio’s eyes. The interesting thing about Antonio and the duchess is that they are married, but he is her employee. So in one sense he is supposed to over her and have more power, but in another he should be subordinate because he is employed under her. Socially Antonio is not equal to the duchess to marry her, but he does. However, they loved each other and overlooked the social boundaries. Their marriage would have been happy if it would have not been ruined by the brothers. Antonio did not marry the duchess for power or for personal gain and this truly supports his character of being an honest and hardworking …show more content…
After marrying because of status, she has decided she is marrying for love even if the person is below her social rank. The duchess has a morally righteous character unlike her corrupt brothers. The duchess has a strong character, and she is a bold and independent. She is a loving mother of two sons and a daughter. The duchess cleverly came up with a plan to conceal that Antonio was the father and save him and Milan, her oldest son. While they escaped, the duchess and her two children were killed. Even in the last seconds of her life she remained a strong and unfearful person. She knew she would go to heaven and she died bravely. The corruptness of the brothers and the terrible death she died revealed how righteous her character was compared to everyone