The Theater
The Duchess of Malfi is a play often cited by scholars for its investment in meta-theatricality, or a self-referential performance that comments on the experience of theater itself. As such, numerous descriptions of play-going and performing appear throughout the play. For example, the Duchess describes her suffering in theatrical terms, saying, "I account this world a tedious theatre, / For I do play a part in't 'gainst my will" (4.1). These moments remind the audience that they are watching a play, and that elements of life often mimic the theater and vice versa.
Bodies and Souls
In a play with so much death, there is bound to be talk or corporeality and transcendence of one's soul. In The Duchess of Malfi, descriptions of bodies and souls abound as different characters reflect on death. Bosola, for example, tries to tell the Duchess that her soul is imprisoned in her body, and entrapment much worse than her literal imprisonment at the hands of her brother.
Darkness
The play is rife with images of darkness, especially as characters reflect, at the end of the play, on the state of the world. In Bosola's dying speech, for example, he says, "Oh, this gloomy world! / In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness, / Doth womanish and fearful mankind live!" (5.5). Bosola describes the world as a dark pit, in many ways suggesting that life on earth is the equivalent to Hell itself. This is one of the many reasons that The Duchess of Malfi is considered a bleak play with a pessimistic worldview.
Bestiality
References to beasts, savagery, and animalistic behavior appear throughout the play as indicators of what certain characters find to be reprehensible behavior. Of course, Ferdinand later believes he himself is turned into a beast (a werewolf), becoming an embodiment of his malicious interiority. The play suggests that men are unredeemable beasts at heart, and that life is nothing but competition and suffering.
