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TERM PAPER

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH BENGAL

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI is the tragic tale of woman’s struggle

against patriarchy . Discuss.

MATERS IN ENGLISH

1st Semester

Course 103- 17th Century Studies

Name of the student – Pragati Pradhan

Roll Number – 016

DUE DATE- 5th DECEMBER,2018

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The Duchess Of Malfi is the tragic tale of woman’s struggle against

patriarchy.

JOHN WEBSTER is recognized for his works in Renaissance dramas where he made

an unprecedented move in placing a strong women character at the centre of his

tragic plays .Seventeenth century women were seen as inferior men with extreme

restrictions on what they could do .The Renaissance patriarchy separated women ’s

sexuality from the natural sexual desire of human kind , hoping it to control it from a

position of authority i.e Patriarchy.

The Duchess Of Malfi was believed to be part of a genre where a women attempts to

transgress social bounds and was seen as a threat to the society .The play is further

seen as the story of resistance of a wilful window who continuously defies her

brother’s wishes and refuses to be constrained by contaminated male authority .In

Websters’ play, the widowed Duchess is warned against remarrying by her

controlling brothers , Ferdinand and Cardinal. The two brothers view any mention of

marriage as an act of dishonour against the family. The arragonian brothers even

complains that her aristocratic blood will be contaminated if she consummates with a

man outside her station. In their opinion , those who marry for the second time

possess a most lecherous nature .(Prioti Jahan Ishrat,201)

‘‘Marry! They are most luxurious will wed twice”

(The Duchess Of Malfi.1.1.259)

Also that the two brothers views marriage as a prison for women and play

house of men. Cardinal believes ,

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“ The marriage night/ Is entrance into some prison” ( 1.1 .328)

Ferdinand on the other hand views it as the male’s time for sex when he says-

“ And those joys,/ those lustful pleasures , are like heavy sleeps/

Which do forerun man’s mischief ”

(1.1,328)

Duchess however views marriage as a positive venture and thus defies this society’s

view of marriage. Marrying for the second time in a way expresses her martial

freedom to marry again and also that she engages in an active sex life resulting three

children .It is the Duchess who takes the conventional male lead in this courtship.

She marries Antonio , her faithful steward who’s far below her rank and wisely

determines to keep it as a secret, without any approval of her brothers or the society

at large. It is she who proposes to Antonio and puts a ring on his finger, it is the same

“ring” from her first marriage .The Duchess thus transgresses the society’s notion of

proper “ female conduct” both in exercising her own will in a matter of personal and

sexual choice and in choosing a husband who is social inferior.(Callaghan,210)

Thus, the play in a way participates in the discursive construction of women in the

early modern period and helps to reveal the contradiction in the notions of female

ruler. These contradictions are explored in the ways in which the Duchess is

represented as using her body natural and her politic.(Axton,53)The norms of

matrimony in Renaissance times did not approve of the idea of marriage based on

romantic or personal equality consideration .Additionally , they viewed women as an

individual who should be deprived of independence to choose a husband according to

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their own preference and that the family should be largely responsible for designating

the life partner for female members ,so that to ensure the enhancement of family

status and preserve their aristocratic rank.( prioti,250)

The Duchess has really been seen as a political figure by critics despite

the fact she rules Malfi. She is primarily focused for her private roles of wife, mother

,unruly widow or victimized women. It is only Joyce E Peterson who with a

sustained political reading of the play argues that the- “Duchess improperly sets the

private claims of her body natural above the public claims of her body politics”.

The first essence of patriarchy is seen in the first act itself,, where Ferdinand tries to

frighten the Duchess by pointing out his dagger.

Ferdinand-

“ you are my sister.

This was my father’s poinard;do you see?

I’d be loath to see it look rusty,

‘cause ‘twas his”

(1.2.103-7)

The dagger signifies the patriarchy based family structure. Their father may be dead

but his dagger portrays the patriarch power. The same power with which Ferdinand

wants to wield over his sister. The widow liberates herself to a degree from

domination by the men in her life by getting married to Antonio. To her marriage

represents freedom and it grants her to proclaims her right. Courageously , she

marries without social content , but as a

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punishment for her actions, she is subjected to imprisonment and torture by her own

brother and ultimately dies.( Prioti JahanIshrat, 282)

The sketch of the Duchess in the play gives the picture of renaissance aristocratic

woman who is prohibited by any means from expressing their own desire.

Duchess-

“ if all my royal kindred/

Lay in my way unto this marriage /

I’d make them my low footstep.”

(1.2.150-154)

Thus , thus in a way she is not lead down by the obstacles in her way. In marrying

Antonio he gets the right to embrace her sexuality rather than repressing it. She does

not deny her sexual desire even though she belongs to aristocratic ranks . She is clear

about being flesh and blood and not an alabaster figure kneeling at her husband’s

tomb.

Duchess -

“ this is flesh and blood ,

T’s not the figure cut in alabaster,

Kneeling at my husband’s tomb”

(1.1.453-455)

Thus, it shows that she is a woman of all sorts of desires and instincts and she

cannot be expected to become an alabaster

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statue with no feelings and desire desire . Whereas the two brothers portrays the

chauvinistic attitude of the patriarchy who meddles in her life, curses her and

punishes her.

Cardinal-

“ Curs ’d creature ,

Unequal nature, to place women ’s hearts,

So far upon the left side !”

(2.5.43-45)

Ferdinand-

“ We must not know use balramum but fire,

The smarting cupping - glass,

For that’s the mean

.......... Blood as hers”

(2.5.32)

The horrific nature of the arragonian brothers is unfolded here, where they want to

punish their own sister. Their interference in their sister’s life shows the nature of

Renaissance men, who reputedly controlled their women ’s freedom and treated them

as chattel. Later when the Duchess’s secret marriage is revealed by her brothers, she

is imprisoned. Ferdinand who represents patriarchy plans to punish her in a most

cruel manner, in such a way to dislocate her from her body . He plays with her like a

predator, toying with his prey before making the kill. He shoes the Duchess wax

figures and tell her those of her family which brings her to utter dismay. Further he
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gives her a dead man’s hand, imprisons her among madmen to make her go insane

with their mindless chatter. Ferdinand sadistically enjoys her pain. Finally, she is

strangled to death .

Marriage during renaissance period served totally to objectify women. Duchess for

example, she became an object of commerce who- passed from father to husband -

sealed a bargain of greater or lesser economic significance. Even her body was seen

as an object of trade either by husband or by the father ,the products of her body - her

children - were seen as an object of commerce to be used to solidify further trade

agreement between her husband and other family

Thus, in the end Duchess’s action of transgression costs her life and reminds that

Renaissance noble women of hierarchy suffered from terrible consequences

whenever they broke traditional social custom.

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WORK CITED

1. Axton, Marie , The Queen’s Two Bodies : Drama And The Elizabethan

Succession , London: Royal Historical Society, Newnham College Cambridge.

1977, Press

2. Peterson, E. Joyce , Curs’d example : The Duchess Of Malfi and Commonweal

Tragedy , Columbia and London ; University of Missouri Press , 1978. Print

3.Prioti, Jahan Ishrat, Sexuality of female Royals in Renaissance Plays - Duchess of

Malfi , Gertude and Cleopatra April 2017, Page no -19, Print

4.Whigham, Frank. “Sexual and Social Mobility in The Duchess of Malfi.” PMLA,

vol. 100, no. 2, 1985, pp. 167–186. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/462288

5.Webster ,John, The Duchess Of Malfi and the other plays, Ed. Rene Weis Oxford:

Oxford University , Press ,1996, Print.