Ghosts, Echoes and Reflections

Act V is filled with echoes. Thorough this final segment, various characters remind the audience of events they have just seen. This can be seen in Julia’s echoing of the Duchess. After Julia confesses her love to Bosola, he asks Julia if her advances toward him will cause the Cardinal to consider Bosola a villain. Julia contends that it will not be Bosola at all but rather Julia herself who will be blamed:

“No, he might count me a wanton,/Not lay a scruple of offence on you;/For if I see and steal a diamond,/The fault is not i’th’ stone but in me the thief/That purloins it. –I am sudden with you;/We that are great women of pleasure use to cut off/These certain wishes and unquiet longings,/And in an instant join the sweet delight/And the pretty excuse together. Had you been i’th’ street,/Under my chamber window, even there/I should have courted you” (V. ii. 187-197).

Julia’s description of a woman giving into her longings and being punished like a criminal while the object of her longings is left comparatively unharmed is a story that sounds all too familiar. This is one of the prime examples of where the ghost of Duchess seems to haunt Act V. Julia’s speech so closely mirrors the fate of the Duchess that one could argue that Julia has become possessed by the ghost of the Duchess.

With this echoing of the Duchess’s fate, Webster forces the audience to reconsider what they already seen: Why are these ‘great women of pleasure’ comparable to thieves and men to diamonds? Based on the thief and diamond allegory, were the punishments of Duchess and Antonio fair? How does this portrayal of women as decisive and active and men as passive objects relate to their depiction in the rest of the play? How does this story of throwing logic to the wind and embracing love reflect on the reference to Romeo and Juliette’s balcony scene?

These are some of the many questions Webster challenges his audience to consider with the numerous echoes throughout the play.