CHALLENGING TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE LAWS IN THE DUCHESS OF MALFI: LOVE OR LONGINGS OR DEFYING PATRIARCHY?

The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster speculates into the tradition of Elizabethan marriage, laws regarding marriage, its violation and the consequences it brings. The drama continues to reverberate among today’s audiences because of the majestic appeal of the Duchess and her enterprising tryst at rebuffing the ‘authority of social conventions and norms’. The Duchess has been credited for her attempt and bravery to choose and win over a spouse for love. Wedding, one of the most important moment of a woman’s life, was seen from a completely different perspective, temperament and in a ‘non-secular’ impression. The woman during the Elizabethan age had absolutely no choice in selecting her prospective groom. Women were seen subservient to men. Elizabethan woman were raised to believe that they were inferior to men and that they must abide by ‘the other’s verdicts’. Disobedience was a crime against religion and the consequences were monstrous. Webster uses majestic traits to exemplify the Duchess’ feminine strength of virtuosity and greatness which instil in the modern audience’s empathy and respect for the Duchess. This paper tries to revisit The Duchess of Malfi, decoding these socio-cultural and religious perspective and the ways of the aristocracy used by Webster, contributing to the eventual downfall of the Duchess. This paper also delves deep into documenting Webster’s attempt to portrays her as a tragic heroine and victim of law. KEYWORDS: The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster, Elizabethan marriage laws, Violation of laws, Tragedy

The Status of Women in Renaissance Drama: An Analytical and Critical Study of Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam (1613), and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1612)

This paper attempts to analyze two plays, Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam (1613), and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1612). It focuses on main characters in these works which compares and contrasts between them. These plays were selected to highlight issues related to Renaissance women such as marriage, feminism, misogynist, silence, and obedience. This analysis shows the tyranny of the husband against women, and their revolution against their social status. The outcome of this analysis endeavors to present new kind of heroines who want to change the traditional stereotype about women. Special attempt is given to propose feminist explanations for these characters.

Innovation and experiment in Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi

This essay argues that Webster was more than just the dramatist ‘much possessed by death’ depicted by T. S. Eliot but a bold and innovative writer. Taking advantage of the emergence of an exceptionally gifted boy actor, he brought a new and more realistic type of woman to the English Renaissance stage, and also two unusually disturbed and psychologised male characters, one who thinks he is a wolf and one who looks into water and sees a monster. He also benefited from the King’s Men’s move to an indoor theatre, the Blackfriars, when the Globe burned down soon after the first performances of The Duchess of Malfi, not least because one of those who lived near the new theatre had been Lady Arbella Stuart, whose story chimed very closely with that of the Duchess. Finally he astonished by the richness of his imagery, which together with his recurrent use of sententiae (pithy sayings) creates a sense that the play has a language all of its own. Eliot was right to identify Webster as violent, but he was also much more, and in the Duchess herself he has given us a moving and haunting female hero.