The Duchess of Malfi “And the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Do you think that Hobbes’s formulation of the “natural condition of mankind” is applicable to Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. According to Thomas Hobbes, in his book Leviathan, Chapter XIII (Of the natural condition of Mankind, as concerning their Felicity, and Misery), the “natural condition of mankind” is what would exist if there were no government; no civilisation; no laws; no common power to restrain human nature. The state of nature is ‘war of man against every man’ in which humans constantly seek to annihilate each other in a ceaseless quest of power. In the nature of man there are “three principle causes of quarrel”: Competition, diffidence and glory. The first makes men work for gain; the second for safety and the last for their reputation. To achieve gain from competing with others, violence is used so that they may become Masters of other “men’s persons, wives, children and cattle...