Almost Faulkneresque

(see Bosola turn on the charms and the prose in IV.ii.122?)

Lots of very macabre imagery in this act. The ones that first popped out at me were the severed hand in the darkened room and Ferdinand gives to the Duchess, which is immediately followed up by the eerie wax figures of Antonio and her children. This is the first step in an attempt to distance the Duchesses cell from the real world. The tone I get off of it is same as when I see a wax museum. The use of life-like models to show death is just off-putting, and it makes these scenes that much more suspenseful. The severed hand is just another example of Ferdinand being a crazy, sadistic bastard, since the darkened room allows for a certain sick sense of dramatic irony, allowing the audience to see that which the Duchess cannot.
Later on, there's another, better example of this macabre tone that this Act has taken on: the scene with the Madmen. When cariola said that Ferdinand had sent a group of crazies to take up residence around the Duchess, I think we can all agree that it was pretty brilliant. A sick form of torture, something to drive her mad, and thus allow her to suffer before the executioners get there. The interplay between the madmen I thought was exceptionally deft, since Webster used the comic timing that has been present throughout the play, for a slightly darker take on the world.