Of Bosola As A Machiavellian Villain In Othello By William Shakespeare

So we may conclude that Bosola is a Machiavellian villain with a conscience. Had circumstances been more favorable, he would have been a good man instead of a villain.
Machiavelli"s influence on Webster is also seen in the character of the Cardinal who has been called the most consummate ' politician ' or Machiavellian of the Elizabethan stage. He is ruthless in the pursuit of his aims and can commit murders in cold blood. As Bosola puts it he can bear murder extremely well; he has no conscience to trouble him. He is not unhinged as is Ferdinand by the murder of the Duchess. However , it should be noted that unlike Machiavelli, Webster does not regard the governance of the world as Satanic. In his view the world order is essentially moral,

In his plays, virtue may suffer, but evil never escapes unpunished.
Shakespearean Reminiscences in The Play: The Duchess recalls Desdemona and Cariola, her woman, Emilia in Othello. Bosola, the monster, the tool of the two brothers, is modeled on Iago. The anger of Ferdinand , the criminal brother against Bosola, after the murder he himself has ordered, is like that of King John against Hubert when he believes him to have put Arthur to death. The remorse of the other brother, the Cardinal who can no longer pray , is a parallel to that of Claudius in Hamlet. Every such comparison would merely show up Webster's extreme inferiority, were it not that he substitutes for the psychology at which Shakespeare principally aims, a search for the pathos inherent in situations and even the material effects. It is this search which is proper to melodrama. Webster has a strange power of evoking shudders. His means are