The White Devil

1. What is the significance of Zanche’s role in this play? She appears briefly in the beginning as a conspirator in the affair between Vittoria and Bracciano, only to mostly disappear during the next three acts, then reappearing in the last act to take on a very large role in the play’s conclusion. Quite suddenly the audience learns that she and Flamineo have had some sort of affair, she becomes the subject of an argument between Flamineo and Marcello that results in Marcello’s death, she declares love to Francisco, reveals secrets to him, forms plots with him, and ultimately dies a tragic death at the side of her mistress Vittoria in a final struggle against Flamineo. Her role in the last act seems incongruous with her minimal role throughout the rest of the play. Why is she suddenly given such importance? Is she simply an emergency plot device used to catalyze a climax? If not, why is she saved until last, and what is her contribution to the play as a whole? Does her status as a servant hold any special significance? As a woman? As a Moor? Is she another one of this play’s numerous villains, or one of its victims? Is her role somewhat parallel to that of Vittoria?
2. This play contains continuous criticism of the Catholic Church. In response to the Cardinal’s questioning of Vittoria at her trial, Vittoria cries out “O poor charity! / Thou art seldom found in scarlet” (3.2.72-73). She later proclaims that the house of prostitution to which she has been sentenced will be “honester” than “the Pope’s palace” (3.2.295-6). What effect does this criticism have on the play? How do various relationships with the church contribute to the audience’s perception of the play’s characters? In view of this harsh criticism of the church, what are we to make of the reference made to Flamineo breaking/desecrating the crucifix as a small child, and his mother’s simple mending of it? Are these references meant to reveal hypocrisy within the church, or just the opposite? Is Webster aligning the church’s critics with villainy?