Flamineo is in many ways the classic “malcontent” who manipulates /causes problems for the other characters of the play. In The White Devil, however, villains are everywhere and it seems that each character has some secret agenda or complicity in one of the many murders. As I read the play, I found myself most interested in Flamineo and his motivations for the (often unforgivable) crimes he commits. He says to his mother that as a young child “the money was spent” (2.1.319) by his father, that he had to put himself through university by mending his tutor’s stockings (322), and that the court life made him “more courteous, more lecherous by far, / but not a suit the richer” (326-7). Webster seems to suggest that it is the corrupt world of the court and his desire to rise from poverty and move up the social ladder that has polluted or degraded his morality. When Vittoria is arraigned, he articulates his disgust with the corrupt religious court [Religion--oh, how it is commeddled / with policy! (3.3.37-8)]. Although Webster is careful to provide us with reasons for Flamineo’s discontent, as the play moves on his actions speak louder than any rationale we are provided.
Yet despite his violence and misogyny, he comes to the aid of his mistress Zanche when Marcello kicks and verbally abuses her (5.2.189-203). After seeing his mother driven insane by Marcello’s murder, he feels “compassion” (5.4.116) and admits he has behaved “riotously ill” (120) and has “felt the maze of conscious in [his] breast” (122). As he dies in the final scene, he takes the blame for his actions. His death is also the last to occur, which is usually reserved for tragic heroes. Given these elements, does it seem that Flamineo is redeemed by the end of the play? He is at least the most self-aware of any character, and he is the closest thing to a "moral" voice in the play, but does that excuse his actions in any way? What are we to make of his character given that in The White Devil almost everyone is a plotter, murderer, liar, or criminal?
The Dumb Shows
The first two murders in The White Devil are presented to the audience as dumb shows. In 2.2, Bracciano witnesses his wife’s death by poisoned portrait and Camillo’s fatal “sports injury.” Why would Webster choose to represent these characters’ deaths in dumb shows rather than integrating them into the general action of the play? Does it make a difference that Isabella and Carmillo are the only innocent victims in a play filled with murders? Does watching a murder in the form of a dumb show distance the emotional impact of the death, and why would Webster want to do this?
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