Vittoria rejects Latin so that ‘All this assembly/Shall hear what you can charge [her] with’, engaging with both the audience of her trial and of the play itself, flattering them by suggesting their judgement and integrity are valuable, possibly surpassing that of the powerful men at court. Her comparison of Latin to Welsh, a banned language considered rare and unintelligible, would be a source of humour to the English audience; that Vittoria is educated enough to speak it shows her motives for dismissing its use in court were genuine, presenting her as intelligent and rational. Sensory imagery, such as ‘poisoned perfumes,’ creates a stifling and overwhelming atmosphere as the audience is reminded to Isabella’s death, an example of coalescence between imagery and dramatic action. Corrupt characters confirm upper class values which reflect dominant ideologies; from a Marxist perspective, the play is an indictment of Webster’s society dominated by a ruling class fraught with the prodigality of court life and sycophancy, evoking Flamineo’s melancholy words: ‘as in this world there are degrees of evils/ So in this world there are degrees of devils.’ Such alliteration and phonological link between ‘evils’ and ‘devils’ highlights the futility of seeking fair judgement in a system where immorality is present at every level; there is little difference between personal acts of revenge and ‘fair’ punishment through an amoral judicial