Webster's Machiavellian antagonist, Ferdinand, demonstrates a decline into madness in "The Duchess of Malfi" by showing signs of uncontrollable emotions, fixations on his sister, and incestuous desires and the development of lycanthropy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Ferdinand's explosive fits of anger and his passionate plot against the Duchess when he discovers her secret marriage reflect a man with no control over his own behavior. An example of this can be found when he intends to dip his children in "sulfur" and "light them like a match." In this scene Ferdinand utters numerous long monologues in which he describes the murder of the duchess and her children, while the cardinal speaks only one or two lines at a time; the contrast between the two highlights Ferdinand's uncontrollable passion and anger, while the cardinal shows that he has much more control over his emotions despite harboring the same anger over the duchess' betrayal of his brothers. Later in this scene Ferdinand confronts his incestuous desires for his twin sister; he shows a literal loss of control of his thoughts when he asks the cardinal to distract him otherwise his 'imagination will lead him to see her in the shameful act of sin'. By asking the Cardinal to do this, Ferdinand shows how his subconscious is angry at his sister having intimacy with another man rather than the revelation of her pregnancy and bastard children, as he cannot help but imagine his sister in a sexual light. In the performance of the play, the actor who played Ferdinand showed numerous physical losses of control over the Duchess, such as flinching to touch her and even kissing her corpse, which could tell the audience that his mental state is now controlling him and who actually has no control over his actions. Ferdinand's anger in this conversation is directed at the Duchess's sexual activity, suggesting that he is jealous of his lover rather than angry at her betrayal. This is further demonstrated when he imagines who he slept with physically as a "strong-thighed barker". Ferdinand's fixation on who his lover is physically rather than socially or emotionally reflects the way he is fixated on the physical element of his sister's relationship. Ferdinand's inability to accept that his incestuous desires are his own flaw rather than the Duchess's is demonstrated by his decision to kill her and her children, rather than address his personal and mental problems with incest. By blaming the Duchess for his problems, Ferdinand shows arrogance and lack of personal awareness, this may also have been influenced by the patriarchy during which "The Duchess of Malfi" was written, which could lead to women being blamed for the wrongs of men. In Renaissance England, when "The Duchess of Malfi" was written, werewolves had connotations of an unbalanced relationship between a human's body and mind. Contemporary audiences of the opera during the Jacobean era were more likely to believe that lycanthropy was a real disease and to have more faith in the supernatural, however modern audiences are more likely to see Ferdinand's "transformation" into a wolf as a more comical element in the work. the game. Although lycanthropy was sometimes believed to be a literal transformation from man to world, it also commonly referred to someone who was deluded enough to believe they were capable of such transformations. Although Ferdinand is often linked to wolves and images.