Isabella, Zanche & Cornelia

Isabella, Zanche & Cornelia

1. Isabella

   • Brachiano's wife, Francisco's sister & Giovanni's mother
   • Devoted to her husband even after their divorce
     • Kissing his picture every night - murdered
   • Devoted mother - nursing son at time when aristocratic women rarely did
   • Willing to pretend to divorce husband in public to prevent a war
     • "Let the fault remain with my supposed jealousy"
   • Believes in the power of love for reconciliation
     • "These arms shall charm his poison... and keep him chaste from an infected straying"
   • Regrets her female weakness
     • "O that I were a man, or that I had power / to execute my apprehended wishes"
     • But fierce words "I would whip some with scorpions"
       • Suggests she has these bitter feelings, despite claiming it is an act
   • Parting words spoken as aside
     • Those are the killing griefs which dare not speak"
       • Pity/sympathy from audience

2. Zanche

   • Vittoria's servant & Flamineo's mistress
   • Quick-witted, lively and changeable, trying to make her way in the world
   • Is a Moor - from Africa
     • At the time, cultural associations surrounding people of colour were negative
       • Webster plays with contrasting ideas of black and white - suggesting interchangeability
   • Sexual promiscuity is assumed of her
     • Monticelso believes her Vittoria's "bawd"
     • Called "devil" by Marcello "why doth this devil haunt you?"
       • Tells Flamineo "She is your shame"
     • Cornelia calls her a "haggard" - meaning promiscuous woman
       • Tells her to fly to the "stews" - meaning brothel
   • Cornelia & Marcello object to her relationship with Flamineo, on grounds of her colour
     • Strike her - inappropriate treatment
     • Flamineo treats her badly, admitting he promised marriage but doesn't intend to honour it
       • "I made to her some such dark promise and in seeking to fly from't I run"
   • When Francisco adopts a Moorish disguise, she confesses her love and is willing to leave with him
   • When Flamineo is dying, she gloats, telling him he is going to "most assured damnation"
   • Makes a joke when facing death
     • "Death cannot alter my complexion / For I shall ne'er look pale"

3. Cornelia

   • Mother of Flamineo, Vittoria and Marcello
   • Represents voice of conventional Christian morality
     • Disapproval of affair between B & V
       • "most adulterous Duke"
       • "May'st thou be envied during his short breath / and pitied like a wretch after his death"
   • Accepts marriage - is part of celebrations
   • Voices disapproval of Flamineo's relationship with Zanche
     • Difference in attitude to Zanche and to Brachiano
       • Fearlessly condemned Brachiano to his face
       • Strikes Zanche - on account of gender and social inferiority and colour
   • Attempts to shield Flamineo from the blame for Marcello's death - last remaining son
   • Descent into madness, modelled on Ophelia's madness in Hamlet, that causes Flamineo to feel "Compassion"