Critical Responses
In The Devil's Law Case, as in his Appius and Virginia, "Webster reverses his anarchistic position" as displayed in The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, "and asserts the priority of social order." "As Webster becomes more pessimistic about nature, he turns to law to replace it, or at least to control it." The subject of the law is very prominent in Webster's play, and has drawn the attention of a range of commentators.
James Russell Lowell called The Devil's Law Case Webster's "best play." No other commentator has reached the same height of enthusiasm. Critics have complained of the play's looseness in plotting and structure.
Read more about this topic: The Devil's Law Case
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or responses:
“The disaster ... is not the money, although the money will be missed. The disaster is the disrespect—this belief that the arts are dispensable, that they’re not critical to a culture’s existence.”
—Twyla Tharp (b. 1941)
“Apathy is one of the characteristic responses of any living organism when it is subjected to stimuli too intense or too complicated to cope with. The cure for apathy is comprehension.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)