The more intense the passion, the more
bitter its effects - writers explore intense emotion
Passion:Love/Lust
White Devil
Vittorias lust for Brachiano ultimately leads to her death
Vittorias arraignment
scene shows her as foolish
as she tries to justify her
actions
Wife of Bath
The wife's loneliness is so bitter as the initial want for true love is so intense
Love and lust as different
Lust as physical desire
Love as emotional desire
Vittorias lack of satisfaction from camillo
"cuckold" means that it is potentially intense lust
for brachiano that leads her to her eventual death/to set up the death with her dream
Passion in the form of hatred and oppression of and against women
Women standing up for themselves against men
Wife of Bath
Shows defiance against Jankyn and the "book of wikked wives"
However she is punished by him and becomes "somedel deef"
Adding to the repulsive nature of her
character, her endless confessional
sermons may be verbally distorted or loud
as she cannot hear herself
She is independant
however her passion for a partner - may only be physical
White devil
Monticelso in the arraignment scene and his passionate argument against vittoria
"you were born in Venice"
an explanation for Vittoria's
promiscuity as AO4: Venice was
considered a place with a high
population of prostitutes
Due to his passion, monticelsco gets vittoria sent to "a whore house" to repent her sins
Ironic as monitelsco sins but is protected by the vatican and society as he is a man
Websters bleak world view : T.S Eliot "he saw the skull beneath the skin"
Susan Carter : "by giving women authority... the
consequences can be rewarding and even lead to
joy
Passion and desire for materialistic
White Devil
Monticelsco's black book in order to gain power as a cardinal - innate corruption
Webster comment on english court and
James 1
Vittoria's want for brachiano as he is duke and
therefore wealthier than Camillo
Wife of bath
She marries 5 times supposedly for love
"the first thre were goode and olde"
She speaks at length however the death of
her husbands are not mentioned
2015 context of reception interpretation as a serial killer, a
modern concept a jacobean audience wouldnt be familiar
with
However her desire has left her alone and old and without a husband
Her intense desperation
leading her on endless religious
pilgrimages
Gail Ashton: Her view of love is a business
transaction, entered into for personal gain where
love is an irrelevancy