Act 5.2: Why do we find sibling conflict/betrayal/fratricide so
shocking? Why does it grip our imagination?
The killing of
one’s brother
or sister
STARTER: What do we already know about Marcello and Flamineo’s relationship? Avoid over
simplifying their relationship. What can we tell about their relationship from the following instances:
Act 3.1
• What advice does Marcello give Flamineo about virtue? (lines 59-61)
• Is Flamineo shrewd or vicious in his assessment of Marello’s behaviour? (lines 39-46)
• What is the effect of Flamineo’s use of witch imagery in these lines? Where else have you seen
Flamineo aligning his own intentions to witchcraft? (3.3)
Act 5.1
• How do you respond to Marcello’s racist invectives against Zanche? Why does he take such a strong
position?
• How does he show loyalty towards his mother in this scene? Compare this with how Flamineo
dismisses her feelings and advise in 1.2.
• How do we know that Marcello expects a fair duel with Flamineo?
Read Act 5.2 and answer these
questions
• How does Webster build suspense at the start of the scene?
• Why does Webster include the anecdote of Flamineo’s actions as a baby? Why
is this symbolic?
• How does Marcello die? Why is the method so shocking?
• What is the effect of Flamineo’s response to the murder in lines 15-16?
• What is the effect of Marcello’s final words in the play?
• How does Webster build sympathy for Cornelia in this scene? Look at the nature
of her prose on p. 104 and her verse on p.105. How would you evaluate her
tone and language?
• Explain how Flamineo avoids death twice in this scene.
• What is the significance of the stage direction at the bottom of p.105? What
parallels does it drew with earlier events in the play?
Intertextuality: Considering Webster’s reference to
the Biblical story of Cain and Abel
3.3.40-41 Flamineo: “The first bloodshed in the world
happened about religion”. Allusion to the story of
Cain and Abel, ironic foreshowing, considering the
way Flamineo becomes a murderer of his brother.
Read the story of Cain and Abel on your handout and think about
the similarities and differences with the fratricide in Webster’s
The White Devil.
- What details does Webster keep the same to shock the
audience?
- How does Webster use additional characters as provocation
for the murder? What themes is he emphasising through the
catalysts of Zanche and Cornelia in the murder?
Cain and Abel
1And
Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
2And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
3And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.
4And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto
Abel and to his offering:
5But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
6And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
8And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up
against Abel his brother, and slew him.
9And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?
10And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.
11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from
thy hand;
12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond
shalt thou be in the earth.
13And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
14Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I
shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall
slay me.
15And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
16And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Plenary: The downfall of Virtuous characters?
In this scene, we see the death of “virtuous
Marcello” and the onset of distraught madness
in Cornelia. Is Webster suggesting that, in this
society, virtue make you vulnerable? How and
why are Cornelia and Marcello made more
vulnerable?
Homework
Ideas for Cornelia’s character development so far...
Act 1.2
•
What Christian values does she exemplify in 1.2?
•
Is she quick to judge in 1.2? Emotively manipulative? Exaggerated insults of her children? Why?
•
As a woman, how are her feelings dismissed by Flamineo?
•
299-301: why does Cornelia use a sententiae?
•
What imagery does she use to suggest her concern about her family’s status? Why?
•
Are her warnings about moral behaviour overly didactic? Or do we feel pity for her?
Act 5.1
•
Racist invectives and violence towards Zanche.
•
Symptomatic of her fierce protection of her children/maternal instincts?
Act 5.2
•
Is her denial of Flamineo’s part in Marcello’s murder dishonrouable? Desperate? A result of shock?
•
How do we respond to her frantic, manic madness?
Homework Extension: With Which of these critical ideas can you debate/engage? What
quotations would you use to do so?
It would seem that [Cornelia’s] struggles to protect her diminished family (her only possible role in this
society) have forced her to compromise her principles. Oxford Student Text p. 211
Cornelia’s plight is used to great dramatic effect in the last act...Cornelia’s madness makes a sad
counterpoint to, and heightens the horrors of, the violence in the play...Oxford Student Text p. 211
Cornelia does establish a moral stance despite the fact that her words have little effect. MacMillan
Master Guides p. 34
For Cornelia, the moral tragedy lies in the disintegration of her own family. The one child with positive
values is destroyed and the other recklessly rejects her advise. MacMillan Master Guides p. 34
As the voice of feminine decorum, Cornelia tries to resist the drift toward immorality denouncing not
only her own family members, but Brachiano also. Dr June Waudby
http://www.thisroughmagic.org/waudby%20article.html
Cornelia, so powerful and peremptory in reproof of vice, also takes advantage of Bracciano’s fortunes;
and in defeat she is deceitful, and in madness concerned, not with honour or virtue, but with the
preservation of her son’s body; her regard for virtue, has not been, we may suspect, for its own sake.
John Russell Brown, from Introduction to The White Devil