ABSTRACT
The Duchess of Malfi is a young widow. The author's The Duchess of Malfi considers being one of the most moving tragedies in English drama. The plot concerns the disastrous consequences that follow from liaison between the virtuous and widowed Duchess and her steward Antonio. The protectiveness and jealousy of her two brothers based on dynastic and economic stratagems eventually lead to her violent and diabolical death by strangulation. The play is celebrated because it manages to mix the grosser excesses of Jacobean revenge tragedy with heightened poetic passages that describe the Duchesss plight and state of mind. Her death scene is one of the most memorable and pathetic moments in drama. Throughout the play the Duchess is forced to descend from her high position of nobility. As she speaks the speech she has her maid hidden behind a screen, witnessing the whole proposal scene, so the monologue is delivered in an atmosphere of tension, suspicion and uncertainty.
