BOSOLA

John Webster created the character of Bosola from several different men in his sources,

including an historical Daniel de Bosola who murdered Antonio. Bosola, at times, falls into set

roles of the Jacobean Tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. Combining various roles in the story has

made Bosola a complex and sometimes contradictory character. He is too complex a character to

be called the villain of the play. He is certainly, a very interesting character, second only to the

Duchess but first in male characters. Shelling says that Bosola is the most consummate character

in The Duchess of Malfi. What he says, in all sincerity, doesnt agree with his deeds and this fact

defies understanding .Often, he blurts out philosophical truths and worldly wisdom, which

doesnt appear to agree with his behavior. It appears he is an enigma not only to the readers and

the viewers of the play, but also to himself too. one finds this professional soldier playing a

series of roles .but the interesting thing is that he succeeds in all those roles, except perhaps, in

the unwitting killing of Antonio. Despite this clear success in his actions, he dies as he lived, a

rather confused man, in a mist and with a tinge of cynicism. He says, We are only like dead

walls or vaulted graves /that, ruind yield no echo. (Act V scene 5, LI 105-06) .However, if

there is one character that does have a philosophical input to the play it is the ever perceptive

Bosola, who ironically is (in line with the slasher genre of the play) is a hired killer.

Bosola is Websters mouthpiece for the dramatists restless, mocking, intelligence. Throughout the play

Bosola reels out pragmatic observation. However petty and comical:

"There was a lady in France that, having the small-pox,

Flay'd the skin off her face to make it more level;

After she resembled an abortive hedgehog."

Although Bosola is quick to point out other peoples weaknesses, particularly the vices of the

professions, when he talks to Castructio about the legal profession he is quick to mock.He is also aware

of his own shortcomings with an admission of avarice follow by a justification of it. The rest of the world

screws each other so will he:"Physicians that apply horse-leeches to any rank swelling use to cut off their

tails, that the blood may run through them the faster: let me have no train when I go to shed blood, less

it make me have a greater when I ride to the gallows."There is no question about the nature of Bosolas

character at the beginning of the Play.

However it is a matter of greater debate whether Bosolas motivation for killing changes and therefore

his morality improves with the course of events. Some argue that after the death of the Duchess, for

whom Bosola feels remorse, he is then driven to kill his employers through revenge on behalf of the

wronged party.However I would argue that he is still driven by his own self-interest. His conscience not

plagued by the acceptance that he has killed the Duchess for evil men, but that he is not being paid for

the deed.Because of the nature of his character the audience would not expect Bosola to have

passionate leanings; however he does enjoy some flirtation with Julia at the expense of the Cardinal.

To conclude; Bosolas defining characteristic is his intelligence. This is perfectly demonstrated when he

speaks of the sycophants at court and compares them to parasites getting the best fruit from an isolated

tree.

Bosola plays a triple role in the play, The Duchess of Malfi. He is a malcontent mediator, a

tool villain and an avenger. In the opening scene, Bosola appears as the malcontent and an anti-
hero with a bitter, sarcastic, dark view of life. The malcontent is a certain character type that

emerges in Jacobean revenge tragedy. Examples include figures like Ford's Vasquez and

Middleton and Rowley's De Flores. A malcontent can be identified by a number of traits. He is a

discontented person; a rebel; disaffected, satirical and melancholic; bereaved or dispossessed and

detached from an often corrupt society by his grievances; he has knowledge and intelligence

without status. As one the key characters in 'The Duchess of Malfi', Bosola can easily be studied

to see if these traits of the malcontent are present in his own character. The initial presentation of

Bosola in the first scene of the play certainly does agree with this description of the malcontent.

Antonio defines him as a "black malcontent" whose "foul melancholy will poison all his

goodness"(Act I scene 51, LI 77-8). Bosolas talk with the Cardinal, justifies Antonios

description of his person. We see him making sarcastic remarks, being critical of court and

Church, feeling bitter after his imprisonment in the galleys and he seems perceptive showing his

intelligence despite lack of position in the society of Malfi. Fredson Bowers called him "a misfit,

a man of worthier talents forced into a degrading position, and with a brutal philosophy making

the most of it. . . If he must play the villain, then he has decided to be an efficient one."

(Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, 1940).his advice to Castruccio on how to become a good courtier

illustrate his dark view of life .he says with sarcasm that a good face ,an impressive night cap,

knowledge if shaping the cap-bands, occasional hums between speeches, and blowing the nose

,are the signs of a good courtier. Further he should be hypocrite, Bosola tells Castruccio.

Possibly, Webster is sarcastically attacking the courtiers of the Jacobean English court, through

Bosola.Ironically he also becomes the chief spokesman for the play, demanding the audience's

attention and, to some degree, and understanding.

Duchess of Malfi. He is hired by Ferdinand to spy on the Duchess, for whom he serves as

manager of her horses. he appears to be a perfect villain. He is a former servant of the Cardinal

who now returned from a sentence of imprisonment in the galleys for murder and sent by

Ferdinand to spy on the Duchess as her provisor of horse. He is employed by Ferdinand to spy

on the Duchess in hopes of keeping her away from marriage. He is involved in the murder of the

Duchess, her children, Cariola, Antonio, the Cardinal and Ferdinand, and a servant. He works as

the spy of Ferdinand. Nothing can be more dishonorable than the work of spy. He sends

secret information to Ferdinand and betrays the secret of Duchess. He does not hesitate to

kill Cariol and the little kids of Duchess.Like Antonio, Bosola is low-born, and therefore

entirely dependent for material success on the patronage of his social betters. His role thus

contributes significantly to an important aspect of the play: its examination of class relations in a

highly stratified society. Bosolas wit and satirical edge are throughout the play levelled at a

patronage system that rewards toadying rather than merit. Yet the play makes clear the invidious

position he is in. Indeed, Antonio has already given us his opinion of Bosola: yet I observe his

railingIs not for simple love of piety,Indeed he rails at those things which he wants, Would be as

lecherous, covetous, or proud,Bloody, or envious, as any man,If he had means to be so.(1.1.23

8)Bosola is torn between an acute awareness of the social and moral deficiencies of the

patronage system and a longing for social advancement that binds him to it. His vision of himself

as a horse-leech, greedily sucking the brothers blood until he drops off, captures something of

this doubleness: he may despise the yes-men who thrive in the courtly milieu, but at the same

time he wants to share in the material prosperity they enjoy. Bosola has in common with Iago

from William Shakespeares Othello his status as a disgruntled servant, though Webster invests
his version of this character type with a level of moral awareness absent from Shakespeares

viciously resentful ensign.

Eventually Bosola participates in the torture and the murder of the Duchess and her waiting

woman. After which he becomes disturbed by his part in the crimes against the Duchess because

he knows her innocent, good qualities which should have offended no one. Even though he is

reluctant in these recent treacheries, Bosola will still defy his conscience when greed urges him

to carry out these acts for hope of Ferdinand's preferment. Finally, Bosola, the villain who has

perpetrated and carried out so many terrible crimes against the innocent characters of the play,

murders the Cardinal and Ferdinand in payment of the account he ovres the deceased Duchess

who trusted him for true employment. Greed motivated Bosola to begin the numerous offences

that labeled him as the villain of The Duchess of Malfi, but revenge against those who

manipulated him for their own purposes prompted his final villainous acts against men.

Upon witnessing the nobility and fearlessness of the Duchess and Antonio facing their deaths,

he then experiences guilt. Though he was the one who arranged her death, he then seeks to

avenge it. Bosola can be considered the most complex character in the play since he goes from

being a killer without regret, and then changes and is filled with regret. Being the malcontent of

the play, he tends to view things cynically, and makes numerous critical comments on the nature

of Renaissance society. He is frequently characterized by his melancholy. Ultimately he is

fulfilling a role, Acting as a tool for Webster to fulfil multiple roles; malcontent, satirist, avenger,

as well as being a catalyst for the plot and link to the play for the audience. However, Bosola is

not `merely a tool'. His behavior is interesting in general, not just as a device for Webster.
He is a psychologically convincing character. Daniel de Bosola is essentially an intelligent, witty

and good man but he does not realize his own goodness. He wanted to become a man of rank

and power and so that becomes cardinals tool. He also takes dishonorable job offered by

Ferdinand. But he is not really bad man. Circumstances compel him to become. He has

suffered much from poverty. So he cannot refuse a tempting offer. He had once burnt the

midnight oil to achieve his aspirations. But circumstances did not permit him to realize his

ambition. As his deeds lead to worse and worse consequences--the banishment of the Duchess

and her family, the murder of the Duchess and her children, Antonios accidental death--he

shows more and more remorse for his actions. Then, The fortitude and loveliness of the duchess

pierce his heart, and after murdering her, he has a strange devotion for her and avenges her. It is

only when Ferdinand and the Cardinal refuse to reward him for all he has done, though, that he

stops blindly following their orders, and avenges the Duchess and Antonio by murdering the

Cardinal and Ferdinand.Even though Antonio perceives him as a potentially valiant character

"He's very valiant', he also realizes that he 'like moths in a cloth do hurt for want of wearing'.

Hence, Bosola is seen as one who has some inkling of goodness in him but it is overshadowed by

his 'close rearing'.

Indeed, it is ironic that Bosola is the one who imprisons the Duchess in her own castle for in the
exploration of this concern of entrapment and imprisonment of the play; one realizes that Bosola
is also victim of entrapment. He assumes the darkness to survive in the dark and corrupt court.
He 'thrives' because he chooses to abandon his morals and love of justice that he may survive in
the court. He kills the Duchess and shows her no mercy because it is his profession to carry out
the Cardinal's orders. Yet he tells Ferdinand that 'you may discern the shape of loveliness more
perfect in her tears than her smiles'. He is clearly touched by the stoicism of the Duchess and he
is angered when he does not receive payment for killing her. He was angered, not at being
unpaid, but because he had been made to go against his character and ethics to kill the Duchess
and then is blamed for it. We see his true character and the facade in conflict when he speaks of
wanting to 'save your life' and lamenting on 'this world a tedious theatre'. Hence, it is NOT a
change of character from evil to good that we see in Bosola, but a battle of his conscience with
his evil deeds. He was never an evil character, only one who was bitter about his situation and
who in seeing the integrity and stoicism displayed by the Duchess, realised the own quality
within himself.

Bosola can surely be seen as tragic hero in the play.It can be seen that how he works for
ferdinand and cardinal and acts as a spy to the duchess but fails to get the wishful rewards.It can
also be seen that in the end when he realises the gravity of the crime he has committed and
wishes to take revenge,he ends up killing Atonio unintentionally.Hence,he can be seen as a tragic
hero who get no satisfaction by taking part in the conspiracy against the duchess.

Bosola thinks of himself as a realist, self-aware with an honest assessment of his nature and
condition, but actually he proves to be more of a disillusioned idealist. He realizes that in an evil
age, doing well often goes unrewarded, but he still believes there should be honor among thieves
at least. Even though he plays the faithful henchmen in murdering for the brothers, neither of
them shows any gratitude. During the course of the play Bosola and the Duchess are pitted
against these powerful forces; as they strive for independence of action, they become more aware
by suffering.

Daniel de Bosola an embittered, satirical villain. A complex character, but ruthless,

He is a profound scholar. Instead of a scholar, Bosola

. He is also satirist. There is ample evidence of his intelligent in the play. He met Cardinal
and committed murder at his instance.

\But at the end of play, he plays a role of noble and avenger. From the above discussion, we
can say that Bosola is a complex character.

You might also want to look through Gradesaver's themes for the story. They will give you a
more indepth look at the character.

Bosola can be described as a convincing character as unlike some of the characters in the play, his
opinions and principles change throughout, therefore constantly altering the audience's feelings about
him.

Bosola's inconsistency makes him different to some of the other characters in the play; the Cardinal is
always cold and calculating, Antonio is honorable and benevolent and Ferdinand is fierce and aggressiv...

Here we see Bosola as dispossessed and detached from others due to his yearning for what he
cannot have.

There are many instances in the play where we see Bosola as having knowledge and intelligence
without status, although sometimes...
Indeed, one realizes that Bosola's character is not brought about by a stark change in character,
but an uncovering of the facade of coarseness and evil to reveal his true character, one who only
works to be paid and who when taken advantage of seeks to find his own justice because there
would be no other way to achieve it. He understands that it is the only way to survive in the court
would be to become the worst of them all. 'i look no higher than i can reach'. He cannot aspire to
happiness but only to survive. One realizes that true evil is not part of his nature when in
accidentally inducing labour for the Duchess; he apologizes 'I am sorry' and leaves. Indeed, that
even Antonio makes use of Bosola's character to 'give out that Bosola hath poisoned them' shows
that while Bosola may play the role of the murderer, he is very much a victim of it all. He hides
in the darkness to protect himself. It is only at the end that he allows his true nature to overpower
his nurture. Indeed, it is true that his character changes little, for in being made the scapegoat of
the Duchess death, he can no longer conceal his hatred for corruption and his desire for justice.
We see this in his character from the beginning when he smile at being able to 'make her
brother's galls overflow their livers'. He enjoyed seeing the anger and frustration of Ferdinand
and the Cardinal to learn of their adulterous sister more than the role of the murderer. Indeed, he
speaks of 'this base quality of intelligencer' and one feels that he certainly means it.

Webster inaugurates a new fashion of writing plays which we find the tragic protagonists

who are mostly women. The duchess of Malfi presents us a world of utter depravity wearing the

mask of ordered society of universal hypocrisy on a tragic level. And into this world Webster

brings his Duchess, the heroine a gallant women brave enough to live as she right. We cannot but

admire the courage with which she lives her life in contrast to her craven servant who wants to

cling to life of cost in contrast again to the Quite desperation in which her ordinary husband

meets his end.

There is no doubt that Webster saw the action of the two brother of the Duchess as quite

diabolical. But he utilizes the conversational case against the Duchess as material for the tragedy.

Websters Duchess is warm-hearted. She is witty, if charmingly so. She relies exclusively on her

likings and her immediate feelings. She shows directness in her choice of Antonio:

Let old wives report

To thy know secrecy I have given up.

More than my life, _ my fame. (Webster, Act I, scene I, line 342-345)

The same directness makes her favor him dangerously before the court. It makes her also

ready to dismiss the inevitable from her mind, and live from hand to mouth, equivocating

pitifully with her brothers. Antonio feels the degradation of it. The Duchess also feels the

degradation of it. Antonio has perhaps a mingling of ambition, but his case appears desperate to

Delio. Cariola feels that the marriage of Duchess shows a fearful madness.

There were three reasons against Duchesss marriage: she was a widow; she acted simply

on a duty to her rank and she acted simply on her liking, without advice, without the rules of

church, and with publishing her marriage. Her brother advances all three reasons but the second

seems by far the most potent with them. This second reason is refuted at length by the Duchesss

rhetorical remark. There was in those time a general theoretic objection to the remarriage of

widows: none wed the second but who killed the first was the customary belief; to marry out

of ones class was definitely wrong, being contrary to the teaching of Church. To marry out of

ones class is definitely wrong, being contrary to the teaching of church. To marry secretly and

without the advice of relations was no light offence, however it may appear today.

The constant shadowing with such dark images is to be the tragic consciousness of the

mature mind contemplating the nave expectation of happiness. It can also be felt in the wooing

scene that the Duchess is not a child. She is blind to the outcome, but she rather ignores it than

remain ignorant of it: her widow-hood, which is stressed through the scene means that she is

well-awake to the direction of her feelings. She handles the situation at the same time that she is
guided by it. The combination of experience and immaturity is a piteous thing, when the

isolation of the young Duchess is added to it. The Duchess is at first frank and lovely flesh and

blood with all the graces of that state. Not to feel her pleased recognition or invention of an

indecent joke, together with Antonios enthusiastic to her continence, is to miss the complexity

of the situation.

The violent abuse which Ferdinand pours upon her for two scenes, when he hears the

rumors, should not be under-estimated. Ferdinand sees only lechery: the Duchess defends herself

on the ground of nature:

Why might not I marry?

I have not gone about in this to create

Any new World or Custom, (Webster, Act III, scene II, line 98-100)

Why should only I,

Of all the other princes of the world,

Be cased up, like a holy relic? I have youth

And a little beauty. (Webster, act III, scene II, line 126-129)

The mirth of the bed-chamber scene is of a tone to fit this. The Duchess to the common

people as a strumpet: she used religion as her riding hood to woo Antonio, beginning her talk

with buying up a treasure in heaven. Antonio is not religious; nor do they desire the rites.

It is through the awakening of responsibility that the Duchess develops into a tragic

figure. She faces friends dagger, the banishment from Ancona and the parting from Antonio. It is
always she who plans: Antonio is passive and at one point he ungenerously sinks to suspecting

Cariola. The Duchess parts from Antonio with foreboding: This puts me in mind of death,

Antonio speaks like a dying father. But she accept her fate willingly. This is entirely a new

mood for Duchess and it is one which grows upon her. She never acknowledges that her brothers

have the right to judge her; but she does acknowledge that she is in need of a corrective

judgment. It is this development of the Duchess that the interest of the prison scene lies, and by

this, these scene are saved from being merely sadistic exhibitions.

Ferdinand and the Cardinal, the two brothers of the duchess speak of the sin of marrying

twice but they do not convince us that the duchess should be condemned as unfaithful to a

nameless dead husband. Nor do they convince us that she earns that she earns her tortures by

breaking the laws of social decorum. Her marriage to a man unworthy of her disastrous mistake,

yet one she never regrets and which she redeems by the beauty and selfishness of her devotion.

Moreover, it is not the marriage itself which is shameful but the moral compromise involved in

hiding it. Deeply religious before her death, the Duchess sees her agony as heavens scourge; but

Ferdinand and Bosola, her judges and executioners, declared her innocent. If she is to serve as

a cautionary example, we must assume that had she not married she would have been safe from

the animalism of her brothers.

Websters search for nobility that rises above enslaving circumstance is consummated in

his portrait of the Duchess a fragile tormented young woman kneeling before her murderers only

he Jacobans dared to find a tragic heroism in a vain, witty girl who until her dying moments is

careless of her name and blind to the responsibilities which accompany prerogative. In

temperament she is a heroine of Shakespearean romantic comedy, graceful, witty, wanton and

innocent, at the same time who woos and wins her husband of himself. She capriciously ignores
the challenge of an aristocratic life, but the challenge of death the supreme challenge Jacoban

tragedy she accepts boldly and triumphantly. There is a beauty in her death that makes the

ugliness of friends life unbearable and that shakes that cynical nihilism which is Bosolas

defense against conscience caught in the trap that Fortune set for her, the Duchess ceases to be

fortunate slave. Her murder would drag her down and open her eyes to the realities which they

perceives they would they have her share the horror of their lives. They bring her to the knees

but it is the posture of heaven. They surround her with assassins but it is she who gives the last

command:

Go tell my brothers, when I am laid out

They then may feed in quiet. (Webster act IV scene II line 230,231)

From the lips of a woman who has gone beyond despair we learn the annihilating truth

that the power to oppress and kill is an ultimate value only to those who find death, in finitely

terrible.

For the duchess no gesture of defiance is needed to obliterate the terror of death. It is

against the attempt to despoil her humanity that she things her celebrated assertion of

individuality, I am Duchess of Malfi still. Perhaps we have a tendency to exaggerate the heroic

ring of this line, which could be justly interpreted as a tremor of a meaningless pride. But even if

it is an expression of that quality which Chapman calls nobleness, there is no justification for

removing the line from its context as quite essential moment of the play. The Duchess strength is

lovely existential awareness of self but a remembrance of love, expressed in her parting words to

Cariola and in her answers to Bosola. The spirit of woman that once betrayed now sustains her,

for she knows that the fragile, illusory joys of devotion are deepest certainties of human
existence. Websters other heroes and heroines die obsessed with their sins and follies, projecting

their individual experiences as the pattern of mans fate. The Duchess is the only one to move

out to self, to turn her through outward upon those loves and upward is serene religious faith.

The duchess was killed by her two brothers becomes of her secret marriage with Antonio, which

is the cause of her death.