English Renaissance Literature

Dr. Ahmad-zadeh
Zahra Barancheshmeh

Femininity in The Duchess of Malf

Renaissance period is a time in the history of human being and literature

which has produced its unique characters. Reviewing the literature of the

time allow us to see how the characters of this period suffer from a duality

in their character which reminds us of the skull in the famous Hans

Holbein’s “The Ambassador”; on the one hand we see certain characters

trying to transgress the boundaries of the dominant discourse, on the other

hand it is witnessed that these personae are devoured by the very system

against which they rebelled. We can trace this this idea in many of the

literary productions of the period amongst which this essay attempts to

focus on John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi. Unlike many of the plays of the

period which have a male hero, Duchess of Malfi is “praised for its use of

the female as the focal point of dramatic action” (Marie Stahl 1). Through

his female hero Webster takes his readers into the heart of the patriarchal

society of his time and “examines the role of the female as prescribed” by

that society (1). What is aimed in this short essay is to shed more light on

what is befalling the female characters of the paly.

Before discussing the main point, it is worthy to occupy some space and

discuss what was the real condition of women during the Renaissance
period especially ones that are related to the theme of the play which are

women’s marriage and their destiny after the death of their husband. To

remind us a second time, Renaissance society is a patriarchal one wherein

“women [are] seen as property of their fathers and then of their husbands”

(Huntley 10). Besides, for women of this period, marriage was the most

important event of their life and they were expected to “marry well to befit

[their] family’s social standing and to make [their] husband proud” (10).

Therefore, it is easy to guess how important marriage could be for a

Renaissance lady since through a good marriage not only could they achieve

a high rank in society (according to which family they married into) they

could also guarantee the social status of their own family; accordingly, their

marriage played a crucial role in their family’s reputation in terms of social

status. While married or single women did not have any control over their

own property and it was just transferred from their fathers to their

husbands until they become a widow.

After the death of the husband, it was expected of women to either grieve

their husband’s death and never marry, or wish to be buried with their

deceased husbands or some could decide to remarry. After the death of

their husband women also took the control of their property; though it can

be inferred that widows had more freedom than other women, “from late

sixteenth century to early seventeenth century, restrictions were specifically

tightened concerning widows […] demanding that these women choose a

male guardian to oversee financial affairs” (Marie Stahl 4). The character of

Duchess happens to be put in under the same circumstance in a

misogynistic context against which she “stands for a while before it destroys

her” (Liebler 19). The essay will discuss the character of Duchess in full

detail and then goes on to discuss the two other female characters Julia and

Cariola.

From the moment we understand in the play that Duchess is a widow we

see her brothers trying to have control over. As we see Ferdinand telling:

“She's a young widow: I would not have her marry again” (Webster 21) or

Cardinal saying: “You may flatter yourself and take your own choice:

privately be married under the eaves of night” (24) which duchess defy

openly as when she tells in an aside:

Shall this move me? If all my royal kindred

Lay in my way unto this marriage
I 'd make thee my low footsteps. And even now,
Even in this hate, as men in some great battles,
By apprehending danger, have achiev'd
Almost impossible actions-I have heard soldiers say so-
So I through frights and threatenings will assay
This dangerous venture. Let old wives report
I wink'd and chose a husband (Webster 26).
But this defying does not last long as we witness in the end. The point which

is worthy to mention here is how the brother’s only concern is with power

and relations of power. We read in the beginning of the play they call their

sisters “a lusty widow”, but it is a plausible question to ask whether they

are really concerned with lust or matters related to human dignity? The

answer is no and that is for two important reasons. First of all, we have
Cardinal who has a secret relationship with Julia against the fact that he is a

cardinal and the treatment of the matter in the play is as if this is something

normal. As a result one could say“The presence of Cardinal’s mistress

reminds the audience that the Cardinal’s antimarital advice does not arise

from any distaste for lust in general” (Liebler 170). On the other hand, if we

accept Frank Weigham’s idea of incest in “Sexual and Social Mobility in The

Duchess of Malfi” we can claim that Ferdinand’s fear of her sister’s

marriage is because of certain tendencies he has towards her which is again

based on lust. As a result, the brothers’ accusation of their sister falls back

on themselves since they are engaged in the same practice themselves. The

obvious conclusion to this part would be nothing but an obsession about the

materialistic issues at hand. Both Ferdinand and Cardinal are “threatened

aristocrats who [are] frightened by the contamination of [their] social rank

and obsessively preoccupied with its defense” and their sister’s secret

marriage with someone of a lower rank not only threatens their social rank

due to politics of kinship of the Jacobean period, but also deprive them of a

whole sum of property” (Weigham 169).

There is consensus among critics that The Duchess of Malfi is the portrayal

of female attempt to transform the existing power structures in relation to

their own status in society with a tragic ending (Leibler 6). The process of

this transformation follows a male order and there are several instances in

the text. The very act of wooing done by Duchess follows a male pattern

since it is always men who woo women. Another instance of the idea is

carried out via the language. In her defying her brother, we see her using
lots of masculine imagery such as: “soldier”, “battle” and “fight”. Also the

very fact that she is eloquent throughout the play, shows how she follows

male patterns in order to define a new role for herself. This is because of

the relationship of honor and silence for women in the period and

“promiscuity was connected to eloquence” (Stahl 5). We see male

characters are promiscuous and eloquent and there is nothing wrong with

that but as the pattern is followed by a female character it turns into a

sinful act.

As the play moves on there are moments of hope for the Duchess to be able

to break the mold. During the torture scene we never see her surrender or

express regret over what she has done. We read:

What would it pleasure me to have my throat cut

With diamonds? or to be smothered
With cassia? or to be shot to death with pearls?
I know death hath ten thousand several doors
For men to take their exits; and 'tis found
They go on such strange geometrical hinges,
You may open them both ways: any way, for heaven-sake,
So I were out of your whispering. Tell my brothers
That I perceive death, now I am well awake,
Best gift is they can give or I can take.
I would fain put off my last woman's-fault,
I 'd not be tedious to you (Webster 109).

Even we see Bosola pitying her or Ferdinand not being able to look into her

eyes after her death. Against all her attempts to transgress the boundaries

and there is a possibility for her to “transcend patriarchal constrictions”

(Stahl 40), she falls prey to the patriarchy. At the moment of her death “she

cannot identify herself as anything other than being connected to her dead

husband” (Stahl 22) by saying “I am the duchess of Malfi still” (Webster

105). Even the fact that she does not have a proper name reminds us

furthure of how deeply she is inscribed within the system (Weigham 174).

There are two other minor female characters which almost follow the

similar pattern. As Christina Luckyj mentions in her article “‘Great Women

of Pleasure’: Main Plot and Subplot in The Duchess of Malfi”, the actions

involving Julia acts as a subplot to the story of duchess and the parallelism

reaches its height especially at the moment when she is wooing Bosola.

Julia is a persona who is mostly at the service of patriarchy; she is there to

satisfy cardinal’s desires. There is also a very critical moment for her to be

subversive but then again she is silenced by the system. While worming out

information out of cardinal she is equipped with a something which can give

her “a chance at transcending any type of boundary restricting the female

character in this play” (Stahl 20). Although revolutionary, her action is still

in line with the patterns of patriarchal society and is still “subject to

masculine control because she is trying to get information for another male

character, Bosola” (20). In the end she is afflicted with the same

catastrophic end as duchess since her new knowledge may threaten

masculine authority and must be eradicated immediately.

Cariola takes a more conservative stance in the play and it is like she is

voicing the dominant discourse. Her response to duchess’s wooing Antonio:

 Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman
Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows

A fearful madness. I owe her much of pity (Webster 34).

“Cariola occupies the old mode of identity in service with its hierarchical

origins” (Weigham 172) But her silence becomes the very reason of her

tragic fall since it is not in the service of male authority and as a result

should be condemned.

In conclusion it is worthy to mention that “tragic heroes […] suggest

alternative cultural values” (Leibler 7) and the character of Duchess is not

exempted. We see in Webster’s Duchess of Malfi a reversal of the male and

female role which is not at all strange because in Elizabethan drama “the

interchangeability of the sexes is an essential assumption of this theater

[because] for the Renaissance the line between the sexes was blurred, often

frighteningly so” (qtd. in Leibler 7). But the reversal of the roles results in

the victimization of women. Women in Renaissance society are viewed as

commodities and they are respected until they follow the prescribed roles

by patriarchy. The moment they oppose those prescribed roles they turn

into a threat which must be rooted out immediately. Patriarchy would

welcome women who are obedient and who are objects of desires rather

than being the subject of it.

Selected Bibliography:
Baker, Susan C. "The Static Protagonist in The Duchess of Malfi." Texas
Studies in Literature and …..Language, Vol. 22, 1980, pp.343-357.

Liebler, Naomi, ed. The Female Tragic Hero in English Renaissance Drama.

Springer, 2016.

Lord, Joan M. "The Duchess of Malfi:" The Spirit of Greatness" and" Of

Woman"." Studies in …..English Literature, Vol. 27, 1976, pp. 305-317.

Luckyj, Christina. "" Great Women of Pleasure": Main Plot and Subplot in
The Duchess of …..Malfi." Studies in English literature, Vol. 27, 1987, pp.
267-283.

Oakes, Elizabeth. "" The Duchess of Malfi" as a Tragedy of Identity." Studies

in Philology, Vol. 96, …..1999, pp. 51-67.

Stahl, Somer Marie. Social Commentary and the Feminine Center in John
Webster. Diss. University of North …..Carolina at Wilmington, 2007.

Webster, John. The Duchess of Malfi. Brian Gibben Ed. 5th ed. Bloomsbury,
1964.

Whigham, Frank. "Sexual and Social Mobility in The Duchess of

Malfi." Publications of the Modern …..Language Association of America, Vol.
100, 1985, pp.167-186.