John Webster's The White Devil

John Webster’s revenge tragedy The White Devil explores themes of passion, vengeance, misogyny, and murder all while under the literary confines of an ultimately ambiguous title. The disputes that come with the words ‘white’ and ‘devil’ are seemingly antithetical. The word ‘white’ comes with implications of light colours, purity, God, etc. Whereas the word ‘devil’ comes with darker, almost black, connotations and is ultimately the exact opposite of the adjective describing it. Webster’s title communicates a belief that, in this play, outward appearances can frequently be deceitful and reality is kept as clandestine, hiding just below its exterior. His characters may seem pure, innocent, and “white” but only below their external, primary persona

She, too, is represented with duplicity in manners that accentuate her as the white devil character. While she remains absent for the murders she was privy to, she was likewise absent for the plotting of the murders. She is portrayed pure, clean, and guiltless discontinuously throughout the play. For instance, she examines herself in contrast before the court in her statement, “So you may blame some fair and crystal river, / For that some melancholic distracted man / Hath drowned himself in’t. (3.2.5-7) This imagery establishes Vittoria as the pure and clean river. Her intellect, fearlessness, and ethical structure are additional features of her purer portrayal. Her intellect is confirmed during her trial when she argues for the lawyer to not speak in Latin, even though she understands the language, so that the people that have come to hear her trial may be able to comprehend her position. At the end when she and Zanche are about to be killed, she shows no fear against Lodovico. This is proven in the quote, “I am too true a woman! Conceit can never kill me. I’ll tell thee what, / I will not in my death shed one base tear, / Or if I look pale, for want of blood, not fear.” (5.6.225-228) She, in realizing and facing her wrongs, she cries, “Oh, my greatest sin lay in my blood! Now my blood pays for’t” (5.6.243-244) The duality of this quote suggests that Vittoria is at first glance referring to her greatest sin as trusting her nefarious brother, but it can also be seen as her referring to all of her sins as ultimately her own