Not only in Act 3, Scene 2, but also throughout the play, Ferdinand's abrasive temperament and unbalanced emotions are shown through his unrelenting sexual innuendoes towards his sister. Webster has given the repressed younger twin Ferdinand the capacity for extreme love and hate. He is not married, which adds to his sense of alienation and inability to relate to women. Ferdinand's incestuous feelings occur throughout the play, as in Act 1, for instance, Ferdinand speaks offensively towards his sister, finally calling her a "lusty widow". In response to the Duchess's remarriage he also treats her with continued scorn and violent behaviour. Evidence supports the idea that Webster would like his audience to view Ferdinand's rage against his sister's re-marriage stemming from a feeling of incest, that even he himself may not recognise. Incest was widely used as a theme in Elizabethan and Jacobean plays, for example Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and Fletchers "A King And No King", examples that Webster may have had in mind while writing "The Duchess of Malfi".
Throughout the play, the Duchess is a contrast to Ferdinand's evil nature, as she shuns the dark that her brother operates around her. In Webster's time most widows did not remarry, but through the Duchess he shows a strong and wilful character, that doesn’t want to be hindered by her brother's words or conduct. The Duchess in nobly enduring all his cruel torments becomes a 'reverend monument whose ruins are even pitied'. Yet to a certain extent, while we pity the Duchess, it cannot be denied that one feels a great admiration for her strength of character. She accepts suffering as her 'fate' and is 'acquainted with sad misery as the tanned slave is with his oar'.
The relationship between the Duchess and Ferdinand is publicized to the audience, purposely through Act 3, Scene 2. The animal imagery used by Ferdinand of a "howling wolf" implies that he pines after the Duchess, complimented by the sexual imagery that he also incorporates "Thou art undone". Webster builds on Ferdinand's angered emotion, as the audience previously witnesses his rage to his sister's re-marriage that even the cardinal believes to be too keen "Are you stark mad?" Though it could be argued that the Duchess has neglected her duties "You have shook hands with reputation, and made him invisible", Ferdinand's expression towards her, indicates that he is not just angered by her "poisoned fame" but the fact that he cannot have her "I will never see thee more". Ferdinand is angered that she has disobeyed (the sin of Adam and Eve), fouled his reputation and sullied his image of her, but more angered by the fact that she has allowed another man to take his place. The language and imagery of decay throughout lines 88- 140 suggests that death draws near for the Duchess and what Ferdinand is capable of "Death told them/ cities plagu'd with plagues".
Webster uses the nature of the relationship between Ferdinand and his sister to emphasise the corruption of the Italian court and specifically Rome. Webster indicates how the court has become a centre of Catholic corruption, as Ferdinand's obsession to 'purge infected blood' seems less a move to right a wrong than out of jealousy "my imagination carrys me to see her in the shameful act of sin". Webster does not fully reveal the relationship between the Duchess and Ferdinand, but enough to make the audience question Ferdinand's motives and actions towards the Duchess. It is fair to say that the relationship between the Duchess and Ferdinand that Webster reveals, especially in Act 3, Scene 2, illustrates the unique and strong feminine qualities the Duchess retains throughout the play "I am the Duchess of Malfi still". The language and imagery that Webster uses throughout Act 3, Scene 2, supports the nature of the perplexed relationship, which many believe to be the most contentious relationship of the play.
