The Duchess of Malfi: Comprehensive Guide for AS/A Level

Set text for:
  • Edexcel AS & A Level
  • OCR A Level
  • Eduqas A Level

Betrayal, secrets and political machinations – there is plenty here to capture your students’ attention! Ready-to-use, detailed study notes guide your students through Webster’s enduring play.

Fantastically clear and comprehensive analysis helps students get to grips with the text while comparison points throughout ensure they start making links with their second chosen text at the earliest possible stage.

Of great educational value because of its academic evaluation of plot/character/theme

E Kirby, English Teacher & Peer Reviewer

Tackles the key stages of text analysis:

Engage your students!

Includes debate prompts; active learning tasks; further reading suggestions; key literary and linguistic terms; practice essay questions throughout!

  1. Walk-through
    Thorough section-by-section commentary walks students through each scene
  2. Drawing it all together
    In-depth discussion of whole text focuses on: characterisation, relationships, genre, themes, attitudes and values, language, form, structure, context, literary approaches
  3. Indicative content
    Supports teaching by ensuring all key areas are covered

Plus! A glossary of key terms ensures full understanding

A very comprehensive and detailed overview of the themes and characters of the play

O John, Head of KS5 English & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (6408)

The resource was incredibly useful and offered excellent analysis of the text. It would prove particularly useful for a teacher who is relatively unfamiliar with Malfi as it is very comprehensive... I particularly liked the detailed scene-by-scene analysis, which covered so much material. I also like the way key characters and themes were analysed chronologically, and yet there were also detailed, summative evaluations of these at the end of the resource, taking into account the whole play... This resource is of great educational value because of its academic evaluation of plot/character/theme...

E Kirby, English Teacher & Peer Reviewer

There is much that is very useful about this resource, particularly the scene-by-scene exploration of characters, themes, and language, and the contextual information.
The key terminology in boxes is particularly useful and would be useful as a way into each scene through the language itself.
This resource enhances learning because it provides a very comprehensive and detailed overview of the themes and characters of the play and how they are presented in each scene. The contextual readings of the play would be particularly useful for students.
The suggested debate prompts and active learning activities are well thought out and would allow for high quality, deep learning.

O John, Head of KS5 English & Peer Reviewer