Saz Hersh Mohammad

Prof. Dr. Bakhtyar

Drama

10-2-2021

"Marriage Between the Individual Desire and Social Barriers in The Duchess of Malfi"
 Abstract

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster is a dramatization of the unsanctioned around one

hundred years before the play's 1613 success in England, the marriage and disappearance of

an Italian Duchess. Although Webster had various sources for his output, in his version of

the story he made substantial changes that illustrate the anxieties surrounding cultural,

economic, and political issues. There is a marriage proposal first, then a secret wedding and

a baby's birth. Although the brothers are frustrated, they make no immediate attempt to kill

the innocent. In addition, the loosening of restrictions on gaining entrance into the gentry

due to the lenient view of preference of King James contributed to aristocratic anxiety about

place. In the play, the relaxed expectations of choice combined with the shifting views on

marriage are reflected, particularly by the bold marriage of the Duchess to her steward and

her subversion of both her family and the influence of the church over her.

Years are passing indeed. The Cardinal urges caution when the Duke's rage is voiced. Their l

anguage may become abusive, but until the moment when the Duchess

and Antonio are exiled from Ancona, there is no intentionally cruel physical act.

In the first article we talk about The Duchess of Malfi and Renaissance women which

include: (Tragedies, Gender, sexuality, courtship and marriage, Power, politics and religion).

In the second article we talk about Arbella Stuart and The Duchess of Malfi in The Crime of

Marriage.

In the third article we talk about Widows in The Duchess of Malfi in Catholic and Protestant

views.
 INTRODUCTION

The main problem in the play of "The Duchess of Malfi" is that the marriage of the

Duchess is a result of lust, Self-love and lead to lying and duplicity and thus against all the

religious beliefs of the age. Others also suggested that marriages in the upper class political

agreements were not subject to private interests and that the as a queen, the Duchess was a

disappointment because she placed personal desire above public obligations. In light of

Renaissance gender roles, by marrying without the agreement of male members of her

family, the Duchess flouted patriarchal authority, abused decorum by remarrying and

choosing a partner below her in the station, and exposed a transparent and dangerous female

sexuality. Thus, the role of the Duchess in the aristocracy overrides religious philosophy and

she, thus, breaches a taboo by marrying over family considerations for companionship. There

are three reasons for marriage outlined by the Church; specifically, the service recognizes the

value of procreation as the first intention of marriage, followed by fornication legislation,

and finally, for the provision of companionship.

 Argument

First Article

_ The Duchess of Malfi and Renaissance women

*Article written by: Dympna Callaghan

*Published: 31-March-2017

*- Patriarchal order and the Duchess’s transgression through remarriage She makes her

choice of husband quite independently of her male relatives and wisely determines to keep

secret her second marriage to her faithful steward, Antonio The Duchess is a young widow

with children who decides she will remarry. This is profoundly troubling to the patriarchal

order in which she lives, and specifically to her brothers – one of whom is a corrupt,

fornicating cardinal, while the other is her demented twin who believes he is a wolf: The

Duchess thus transgresses her 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 her

social inferior.

While she decided to remarriage the wolf is coming then the human being arrived, and the

writer refers to the human being side on the other hand he refers that in all of the human

inside there is something like a wolf. In another side the writer indicates to faithful of her

servant when the Duchess decided to remarriage and tell him, and with a lot of loyalty he

keeps this secret, it is related to the pure of servant that the Duchess trust him. In this century

the Renaissance rules like (now a day’s culture) is another problem that women faced at that

time, at that period the problems were more difficult than now, because she does not have
any solutions without making the crime, that is remarriage. The writer tries to tell us the

boring rules were despotic at that time.

Second Article

_The Crime of Marriage: Arbella Stuart and The Duchess of Malfi

*Author(s): Sara Jayne Steen

*Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal

*- In this article the writer refers to the critic side of the marriage he says the audience at that

time it is not like a modern audience. The narrator tries to show the different the modern

audience and the classic audience at that time, which is too normal to have a marriage like a

Duchess marriage for the modern audience, but it is the sin for classic audience to have a

marriage like that. In another hand the writer tells us about the Renaissance standards at that

time when the marriage between the Duchess and Antonio is a crime because the Duchess in

a high class and her servant in a low class. In their speech's she referred to the critic that

mentioned a self-love and leading lying against all the religion of the age. He tries to expose

that others have asserted with upper class marriage were the political agreement it is not a

personal subject that the Duchess in.

The Duchess was a failure widow against the rules, and she takes all of the responsibility. By

marrying with neglect of the male members of her family, she decided to choosing a made

bellow in her situation to live with her, to being with her, to be hugging with her …etc. Then

she refers to the Renaissance reaction to a marriage that has not been recognized and more
fully acknowledges about the Duchess. In this article like the most of the other articles that

wrote she mentioned a religion side. She refers to the murder when the brothers kill his

sister because of her marriage again with her servant but differently she mentioned, because

she says about it’s a big crime when you kill your sister because of a marriage.

It is true this marriage is a crime for this century, but It is not true to kill someone because of

the marriage as if it is between a person in a high class and a person in a low class.

Third Article

_Catholic and Protestant Widows in "The Duchess of Malfi"

*Author(s):-MARGARET LAEL MIKESELL

*Published by:-Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance ET Reforme

- In this article the writer give as some introduction about the Duchess of Malfi which is

about a secret marriage of the widow that the Duchess birth of one of child and murdered by

two brothers , in here the author refer that two brothers is a leadership roles of villains and

protagonist and it is a dramatic conflict between them .

And the Duchess of Malfi along with other tragedies of the period, and it is a translation of

nature of sixteenth and seventeenth century English society, it is confusing the readers which

is understand how was the process worked at that time. For a time, a Widowhood and

remarriage in this circle it is too strong because of that the Duchess have a strong character

in the play, and this problem in this drama was resolved twenty-five years ago.
In addition, the books and the plays it so helpful for resolving this problem at now, she

means twenty-five years ago. The writers indicate to the role of The Duchess of Malfi in

Renaissance Reform because in The Duchess of Malfi the author refers to one of the biggest

problems at that time, those people, and those organizations was developed a reform of

Renaissance those selected problem in the Duchess of Malfi and the other tragedy's plays

was so helpful to accept the Renaissance reform by them.

In another side the writer refers to (The Bothers attitude) toward the Duchess as widow

drives from traditional catholic, particularly they attempt to immobilize their sister, represent

the per-version of that doctrine because of the Marriage of Duchess.

On the other hand, conforms to Protestant counsel for the widow, found in religious conduct

books. This straightforward dichotomy shapes the underlying dynamics of the play, which

dramatizes a fairly clear-cut conflict between good and bad characters. It also suggests that

The Duchess of Malfi makes simple use of changing attitudes toward marriage and

widowhood. In the final vision of the tragedy, accorded a leisurely exposition through Act

five, this alignment is developed and even extended. However, there is a dramatic shift in its

balance, so much so that ultimately a different sense emerges of how tragedy can utilize and

reflect social tensions of the day.

A widow in Christianity should devout her life to Christ and his teaching, this is an advice to

the douches of malfi which is shown here in this verse from the teaching of bible:

"praie more intentysfely and öfter, faste longer, and be muche at masse and preachyng, and

rede more effectually, and occupy hir selfe in the contemplación of those thynges that may

mende hir liuynge and maners. (sig. Mm2) Only at the end of this section does Vives discuss
an alternative course of action, when he allows that the widow who is young and incapable

of a life devoted to prayer and discipline should seek remarriage - counsel accom- panied by

the familiar Pauline exhortation that marrying is preferable to burning. Vives compels the

widow to confront what he regards as the only genuine motivation prompting such a

decision; listing the usual arguments advanced for remarriage, such as protection of property

and lineage, he charges that all are merely rationalizations and insists (in a close translation

of Jerome), "for none of you taketh an husband but to the entent that she wil lie with him, nor

except hir lust prick hir”. For this reason, she should not marry a young man, who would be

"wanton, hote, and ful of play" but a man "something paste mydle age, sobre, sadde, and of

good wyt ..." Vives' discussion yields a concept of the chaste widow, whose attention is

transferred from husband to God, and a contrasting portrait of the lusty widow who, because

she cannot discipline her body, chooses the less desirable alternative and remarries. His

advice is everywhere shaped by his view of woman as naturally lustful and incapable of self-

governance, a condition previously kept in check by her husband (see, for instance,) but now

jeopardizing her spiritual and mundane well-being." (MIXESELL p.4)

Compare:
In the first article the writer talks about The Duchess of Malfi and with it picturing the

Renaissance women on the whole, the writer tries to use the duchess as the subject of the

play to depict the social issues of that time, to tell the audience and the readers how women

of their age in any kind of class is inferior to men, while at the same time capturing the

issues of class between people, since the people of that time (the middle class and especially

the high class) associating themselves with the low class of people was kind of a sin to them.

That said, in the Second article the writer tries to picture the crime of the duchess and

renaissance women on the whole by viewing the outlook of that time and comparing it to the

outlook of these times, while we as modern people view what the duchess did or what

women of that time did as something totally normal, the people of that time viewed it as

some kind of sin, actually for some them it was a blasphemy, like we said in the first article

the people of those ages (the middle class and the high class) didn’t want any business or

anything to do with the low class, some of them didn’t even view them as humans, and so in

a society where men are in power and there is a class system, for a woman to marry someone

of a low class was something huge of that time, for them it was the crime of the century.

And on top of all of that there is the religion side of things which is talked about in the Third

article, where the writer shows us how the subject matter was treated, how widows of that

time were treated by Catholic and Protestant, which is in its all but the same, both are the

sides of the same coin, they both were not much of help to women, the opposite actually,

they also shamed women like the duchess who married people who were classes beneath

them. And not just that, they took it even further like for example in Christianity a widow

should dedicate her life to Christ and Christianity. And this is how these articles describe the
Duchess of malfi. But what if we looked at it in a different view, like how is gender is

depicted in the play? How Does Webster Reframe Concepts of Gender?

Webster starts to reframe such conceptions through the twinned relationship of the Duchess

and Ferdinand. The play appears to respond to the characterizing of sexual orientation

through isolated circles of physiology by making a twofold gendered body on arrange. The

elements of this relationship make a liquid sex character in which the match share an

inherent association not as it were physically as twins, but through representations of sexual

encounter and forbidden motivation. Webster starts a sexual coupling when Ferdinand

appears to involvement his sister's sexual acts, the character envisions her adore making in

detail as in case it were his claim. The group of onlookers are displayed with a kind of

'shared body' which starts to straighten out sex contrasts considering the way that Ferdinand

embeds himself into the Duchess's body and involvement:

FERDINAND Or my imagination will carry me

To see her in the shameful act of sin.

CARDINAL With whom?

FERDINAND Haply with some strong thighed bargeman,

Or one o'th' wood-yard that can quoit the sledge,

Or toss the bar, or else some lovely squire

That carries coals up to her privy lodgings (2.5. 40-45). [5]

the play not only deals with conceptions of gender, but deconstructs them, and urges the

audience to do so too by positioning them within this misogynist discourse,

Thus, by bringing together the male and female body into one through Ferdinand's inclusion

into the Duchess's involvement, Webster starts to destroy the regular surrounding of male

and female by proposing a liquid sexual orientation. The proposal of a body without sexual

orientation boundaries would communicate with Webster's group of onlookers; Early

present-day society saw pressures rising encompassing the thought of male and female

existing on a continuum. Ladies were seen cross-dressing in challenge while men's mold was

seen as progressively womanly. the audience see exactly how Ferdinand inserts himself into

his sister's bedroom and sexual experience:

You have cause to love me: I entered you into my heart

[Enter Ferdinand behind]

Before you would vouchsafe to call for the keys

We shall oneday have my brothers take you napping

Methinks his presence, now being in court,

should make you keep your own bed (3.2. 61-65).

Looking at how this thought of the 'shared' body plays out on stage, Webster makes

unmistakable the flimsiness of sex by uncovering this sexual coupling.

 Conclusion

Webster is fascinated by investigating the association between adore and rough sexual envy

by finding the desperate envy in a brother’s longing for his sister he compounds our

mindfulness of the dim side of sexual want, the potential for certain species of adore to blow

up into viciousness. In Ferdinand, Webster presents us with another frame of illegal adore

and permits us to investigate the relationship between love and death from the perspective of

the villain. The Duchess of Malfi tells the story of the vivacious duchess and her adore for

her reliable steward Antonio. They wed furtively, in spite of the resistance of her two

brothers, Ferdinand (the Duke of Calabria) and the Cardinal. In spite of the fact that she

bears three children, she denies to title the father. Inevitably sold out by Bosola, a spy, the

duchess and her family escape but are capturing; Antonio and the most seasoned child, a

boy, elude. Ferdinand orders Bosola to choke the duchess, her two more youthful children,

and her house keeper and after that goes frantic with blame. In typical fashion for vindicate

catastrophe, the ultimate act is one of carnage. All are murdered but for the eldest child of

the duchess and Antonio, who is named ruler of Malfi. Webster’s fashion is dependent on

thick typical symbolism. The duchess, by distant the most grounded character within the

play, may be a energetic respectable lady who rejects her brothers’ requests for the purpose

of cherish. Unbroken by unfeeling treatment, she announces some time recently her passing,

“I am Duchess of Malfi still.”