The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi takes place in Italy, during the 16th century. It begins in Malfi, or Amalfi, at the duchess’ court in the province of Salerno on the Western coast of Italy. The scene later changes to Ancona as well as Loretto, and interspersed throughout are scenes in Rome where Bosola reports to Ferdinand and the Cardinal. The play is believed to be set between the years 1504 and 1508, but spans several years as Antonio and the Duchess establish their family, all while keeping it a secret from her brothers. The setting of the play also coincides with the beginning, or early middle, of the Italian renaissance. At this time, Italy was divided into independent city states ruled by kings and princes, and strongly influenced by “merchant princes” such as the Medici. The merchant class, as shown by the reach of the…

The Dualities of “The Duchess of Malfi” Throughout Webster’s play “The Duchess of Malfi”, there is an ever present theme of duality that pervades through the story. Instances of characters being depicted as either animals or insects, imagery of poisoned and pure water, and the depiction of characters being each other’s twin both figuratively and literally, are constant. However, this is not simply story building by Webster. One could argue that the symbolism of all of these actions helps to make…

In the time period that John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi was written, women had absolutely no sexual agency. Divided into categories of Madonna or Whore, women had impossible expectations to live up to. While marriage is the one institution in which it is socially acceptable for a woman to be sexual, the play subverts this. That Webster has the Duchess’ brothers the Cardinal and Antonio’s critique her for remarrying makes the categories of Madonna and Whore indistinct, thus demonstrating…

As depicted by the countless sold copies of this sort, tragedies appeal to the pathos of human pity. Having been distinguished from their beginning in ancient Greece, when authors such as Sophocles and Homer wrote rhetorics that are still being taught today. In fact, famous, talented Elizabethan playwright, William Shakespeare is best known for his tragedies including the acclaimed Romeo and Juliet. Therefore, it is no surprise that he exquisitely produced the play “Othello”, illustrating the…

John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and the anonymous The Revenger’s Tragedy are both typically cynical Jacobean revenge tragedies. They share in common imagery of flesh and anatomy, carrying with it connotations of the human body as a fragile, corporeal shell, and the assertion that human existence is either fundamentally corrupt or corrupted. In The Revenger’s Tragedy, the human forms of the degraded ducal family are likened to hollow vessels of sin by the aptly named revenger Vindice, this…

The bonds within a family are hard to break. It’s all in the old saying that “friends come and go but family is forever.” The Duchess of Malfi contradicts what society deems as a normal sibling relationship. Ferdinand is consumed with his constant desire for his sister’s inherited fortune. He plays countless and heinous tricks on the Duchess to make her go crazy, but the real person that ends up mad is himself. Ferdinand does all of these things out of spite to the Duchess, but, once he sees her…

they certainly must not remarry and instead remain celibate. This attitude is reflected in The Duchess of Malfi, where the protagonist’s brothers shame her for expressing her desire to remarry after her husband dies. Even so, she possesses an extraordinary amount of power in the play that…

The Duchess of Malfi Vs A Midsummer Night’s Dream The female characters in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi mirror each other. The Duchess and Hermia show courage and determination when standing up to their oppressors. Cariola and Helena, when confronted with authority, submit to it. Regardless of the strength of the women, however, genre determines their fate -- those in the comedy live happily ever after, whereas, those in the tragedy do…

Women were overrepresented as “mad” or “hysterical” in society, but what of the men? Men were never deemed as such because that was just “men being men”. However, some British literature texts beg to differ, for example, most of the men who were extremely misogynistic start to develop a loss in their mental stability. A critical analysis of the characters Leontes from “The Winter’s Tale” and Ferdinand “The Duchess of Malfi” can attest to this male mental illness. Leontes and Ferdinand go through…

Renaissance theatre was staged in an exceedingly patriarchal and misogynistic society where women were considered beneath men. One only has to look at the words of English Puritan cleric William Whately, who said that a woman during this period should “acknowledge her inferiority” and was to “carry herself as inferior” (Whately). However, there are some works of Renaissance theatre that do subvert these gendered beliefs, such as William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, John Webster’s The…