Death becomes increasingly important as the play goes on, and the main characters are forced to confront their mortality. Flamineo and Brachiano seem to have a pretty bleak attitude towards death: they don't expect to go to heaven, and nothingness is the most they have to hope for—although hell is really their most likely destination. When confronting death, Vittoria is mainly confused—she has no idea where her soul is going and feels like it's lost in a "black storm." We never see a really hopeful depiction of death in the play—the closest is when Giovanni and Francisco discuss mortality, and Francisco tells Giovanni that the dead will rise someday, when God wants them too… but until then they sleep (3.2).
Questions About Mortality
- Which character's attitude towards death do you find most reasonable?
- Did any of these characters have a shot at heaven or redemption, as Webster portrays them? Or were they damned from the beginning of the play to the end?
- Is hell depicted as a reality in the play? Are we meant to take Brachiano's visions of the devil somewhat seriously or just as hallucinations? Or are both possibilities left open?
Chew on This
Prepare for death, because you never know when it might happen.
Don't prepare for death, because you'll die whether you've prepared for it or not.