My OpenLearn Profile
- Personalise your OpenLearn profile
- Save your favourite content
- Get recognition for your learning
- Subjects
- History & The Arts
- All content
- Duchess of Malfi: Deconstructing the play
This page was published over five years ago. Please be aware that due to the passage of time, the information provided on this page may be out of date or otherwise inaccurate, and any views or opinions expressed may no longer be relevant. Some technical elements such as audio-visual and interactive media may no longer work. For more detail, see our Archive and Deletion Policy.
Does the Duchess of Malfi have any resonance with modern-day audiences? Are it’s themes of politics and revenge still relevant today? Since it was originally published in the seventeenth century the play has been interpreted in a variety of ways, each different director examining the story and realising a unique translation of the work. In 2010 the Greenwich Theatre performed The Duchess of Malfi and in this collection we follow the cast and crew as they analyse the language used by John Webster, as well as exploring different ways of understanding the text and converting his words into a performance.
This material forms part of The Open University course A230 Reading and studying literature.
By: The OpenLearn team (The Open University,)
- Duration 30 mins
- Updated Wednesday 5th October 2011
- Posted under History & The Arts
Track 5: Bosolo
During the course of the play the importance of Bosolo’s character increases.
© The Open University 2011
- Read a transcript of this track - you'll need a PDF viewer, such as Adobe's free Adobe Reader
- Download this track from iTunes U - you'll need Apple's free iTunes software
- See details of the Open University course this album comes from
- Discover more from The Open University and iTunesU at open.edu/itunes
Tracks in this podcast:
Track | Title | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | The Duchess of Malfi | A brief introduction to the play. Play now The Duchess of Malfi |
2 | Understanding Webster’s text | The cast discuss examine what the language means and why Webster chose to use those particular words. Play now Understanding Webster’s text |
3 | Interpreting Webster’s text for the stage | An exploration of the different ways the text can be deciphered and translated for performance. Play now Interpreting Webster’s text for the stage |
4 | Anatomy of a scene | During a workshop day the actors are given the opportunity to work on different interpretations of a scene. Play now Anatomy of a scene |
5 | Bosolo | During the course of the play the importance of Bosolo’s character increases. Play now Bosolo |
About the author
Author
Publication details
-
Originally published: Wednesday, 5th October 2011
Copyright information
- Body text - Content : Copyright The Open University
- Audio/Video tracks: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 The Open University 2011
- Image 'Duchess of Malfi: Deconstructing the play' - Copyright: The Open University 2011
- Image 'John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi' - Copyright: Used with permission
- Image 'Cartoon of Hamlet and Julius Caesar on stage ' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Hamlet (David Tennant), watched by Osric (Ryan Gage) listens to Claudius (Patrick Stewart) as he prepares to fight Laertes (Edward Bennett) ' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'David Tennant as Hamlet' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'A journal with writing in and a pen on top' - jen.k.r [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0], via Flickr Creative Commons under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Cartoon of George Eliot with two readers' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Emily Davies image' - Copyright free: Public Domain
- Image 'Winston Churchill statue, westminster' - Copyright: Chris Dorney | Dreamstime.com
- Image 'A map of the Caribbean' - Copyright: Fmua for Dreamstime.com
- Image 'Dutch painting of the Golden Age' - Copyright: © Wallace Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library
- Image 'Laura Bassi image' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'Image of the word philosophy on a black board with a heart for the o. ' - Copyright: Yuryz | Dreamstime.com
Tags, Ratings and Social Bookmarking
Related content
Feeds
If you enjoyed this, why not follow a feed to find out when we have new things like it? Choose an RSS feed from the list below. (Don't know what to do with RSS feeds?)
Remember, you can also make your own, personal feed by combining tags from around OpenLearn.
- Latest OpenLearn pages
- Latest pages by The OpenLearn team
- Latest pages tagged - play
- Latest pages tagged - 2010
- Latest pages tagged - collection
- Latest pages tagged - Examining
- Latest pages tagged - forms
- Latest pages tagged - IT
- Latest pages tagged - IT
- Latest pages tagged - Language
- Latest pages tagged - literature
- Latest pages tagged - modern
- Latest comments on this page
Share this video
Related content
Other content you may like

History & The Arts
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
This free course, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, concentrates on Acts 1 and 2 of John Webster's Renaissance tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. It focuses on the representation of marriage for love and the social conflicts to which it gives rise. The course is designed to hone your skills of textual analysis.

History & The Arts
Outside the book: Tragedy
Discover how renaissance tragedies such as Hamlet and The Duchess of Malfi emit strong moral and political messages.

History & The Arts
How do we 'know' Hamlet?
Pulling together a production is more than just the script, Hannah Lavery from the Open University explains the process behind Hamlet and invites us to compare the text.

History & The Arts
From Page to Stage
How does the casting of Hamlet effect our perception of the play? Hannah Lavery explores different performances of Hamlet and introduces questions to study the play further.

History & The Arts
360 Degrees of Separation
How does Surrealism relate to Freud? What does Freud have to do with the Prisoner's dilemma? Josie Long takes you on a whistle-stop tour and finds the connections between Surrealism, Psychoanalysis, Game Theory, Nuclear Fission and microbes that may have played a key role in the origins of life.
History & The Arts
A spiritual revolution? Wicca and religious change in the 1960s
This free course, A spiritual revolution? Wicca and religious change in the 1960s looks at the ‘crisis’ of traditional religion in the Sixties in the Western world. It explores the process of religious renewal, looking at the development of Wicca, the prototypical form of modern Paganism. Originally presented as a Goddess religion of great antiquity, which had survived the Roman invasion and Church persecution, Wicca is in fact best seen as a new religion, clearly belonging to an age in which sexual norms, gender roles and traditional power structures were changing. It questions to what degree we can view religious change in the 1960s as spiritual revolution. This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course A113 Revolutions.

History & The Arts
Scotland’s links with Caribbean slavery
Scotland’s first black professor, leading human rights and Open University honorary graduate, Prof Sir Geoff Palmer CD, shares his history and Scotland’s slavery history.

History & The Arts
World-Changing Women: Charlotte Maxeke
A rights activist against the exploitation that was prevalent in South Africa, Charlotte Maxeke was South Africa's first black female graduate and one of the first female freedom fighters. Find out more about her extraordinary story...

History & The Arts
Subjugation and slavery: fake news in the nineteenth-century press
Fake news is not a new phenomenon. Pauline Brown explores this concept in relation to the portrayal of black people as the inferior race in nineteenth-century newspapers.
Publication details
-
Originally published: Wednesday, 5th October 2011
Copyright information
- Body text - Content: Copyright The Open University
- Audio/Video tracks: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 The Open University 2011
- Image 'Duchess of Malfi: Deconstructing the play' - Copyright: The Open University 2011
- Image 'John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi' - Copyright: Used with permission
- Image 'Cartoon of Hamlet and Julius Caesar on stage ' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Hamlet (David Tennant), watched by Osric (Ryan Gage) listens to Claudius (Patrick Stewart) as he prepares to fight Laertes (Edward Bennett) ' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'David Tennant as Hamlet' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'A journal with writing in and a pen on top' - jen.k.r [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0], via Flickr Creative Commons under Creative-Commons license
- Image 'Cartoon of George Eliot with two readers' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'Emily Davies image' - Copyright free: Public Domain
- Image 'Winston Churchill statue, westminster' - Copyright: Chris Dorney | Dreamstime.com
- Image 'A map of the Caribbean' - Copyright: Fmua for Dreamstime.com
- Image 'Dutch painting of the Golden Age' - Copyright: © Wallace Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library
- Image 'Laura Bassi image' - Copyright: BBC
- Image 'Image of the word philosophy on a black board with a heart for the o. ' - Copyright: Yuryz | Dreamstime.com
- Image '360 Degrees of Separation' - Copyright: The Open University
- Image 'charlotte maxeke potrait' - Copyright free: Public domain
- Image 'A photo of a chain' - Copyright: Docer for Dreamtime.com
Other content you may like

History & The Arts
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
This free course, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, concentrates on Acts 1 and 2 of John Webster's Renaissance tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. It focuses on the representation of marriage for love and the social conflicts to which it gives rise. The course is designed to hone your skills of textual analysis.

History & The Arts
Outside the book: Tragedy
Discover how renaissance tragedies such as Hamlet and The Duchess of Malfi emit strong moral and political messages.

History & The Arts
How do we 'know' Hamlet?
Pulling together a production is more than just the script, Hannah Lavery from the Open University explains the process behind Hamlet and invites us to compare the text.

History & The Arts
From Page to Stage
How does the casting of Hamlet effect our perception of the play? Hannah Lavery explores different performances of Hamlet and introduces questions to study the play further.

History & The Arts
Scotland’s links with Caribbean slavery
Scotland’s first black professor, leading human rights and Open University honorary graduate, Prof Sir Geoff Palmer CD, shares his history and Scotland’s slavery history.

History & The Arts
Dutch painting of the Golden Age
Seventeenth-century Dutch painting stands out from other art of the same period and even more so from that of previous centuries on account of its apparently ‘everyday’ character. Works by artists such as Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch and Jacob van Ruisdael seem to offer a faithful picture of life in the Netherlands at the time. In studying this free course, Dutch painting of the Golden Age, you will discover that there is much more to Dutch painting than meets the eye. You will explore scholarly debates about the possible meanings that might be attributed to this type of picture and learn how the very idea of ‘realism’ in art has been challenged in recent times.

History & The Arts
World-Changing Women: Laura Bassi
Laura Bassi is perceived as the first woman to hold down a science career, setting up a renowned school in her own home. Read up on her acheivements here...
History & The Arts
What makes a great Christmas number one?
Will Flakefleet Primary School beat Ariana Grande to Christmas Number One this year? Explore the musical compontents that make up a great festive chart-topper here...

History & The Arts
Exploring Philosophy with The Open University
Consider fundamental questions from six core areas of Philosophy: the self; philosophy of religion; ethics; knowledge and science; the mind; and political philosophy.
OpenLearn Search website
OpenLearn Links
Footer Menu
Our partners
OpenLearn works with other organisations by providing free courses and resources that support our mission of opening up educational opportunities to more people in more places.


©1999-2020. All rights reserved. The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to its secondary activity of credit broking.
Be the first to post a comment
We invite you to discuss this subject, but remember this is a public forum.
Please be polite, and avoid your passions turning into contempt for others. We may delete posts that are rude or aggressive, or edit posts containing contact details or links to other websites.