Duchess Of Malfi Flashcards
AO5: Dympha Callagham on female desire
In the Renaissance period female desire was seen as “a monstrous abnormality”
AO5: Kate Augherston on female sexuality
“Despite her political sovereignty, her brothers assume a patriarchal control over her body and sexuality”
AO5: Theodore Jankowski
Posits that the Duchess’ ‘body politic’ and ‘body natural’ are 2 separate entities constantly warring with one another throughout the play
AO5: Liz Shafer on the Duchess’ death & disobedience
“Webster details the punishment of the Duchess with excruciating precision”
“There is something of a slow motion snuff movie about it all”
AO5: Brian Gibbins on Bosola’s sycophancy and corruption of society the system
“The system devours those who serve it”
AO5: Lisa Jardine on the Duchess’ death and disobedience
“In the moment of disobeying her brother and remarrying the Duchess asserts her sexual self”
AO5: Christina Luckyj on the Duchess’ death and disobedience
The Duchess “acts on humans impulses in the name of virtue only to discover that she cannot control the consequences of her choices”
“Catalyst for social transformation and tragic recognition”
AO5: R.S White on the play as a whole
“The tragedy of a virtuous women who achieves heroism through her death”
AO5: Tim Trelor on Bosola and the play
“Killings are done without passion, coldly and clinically”
“No one is born evil necessarily, people are made evil”
AO5: Christopher Hart on Ferdinand and the Cardinal
“The two brothers are not driven by any sense of possessive outrage […] but by delight in malice itself […] even against their own flesh and blood”
AO5: Muriel Bradbrook on Ferdinand
“The sight of the Duchess’ face awakens Ferdinand to what he has done”
AO3: John Knox’s ‘The First Blast of the Trumpet’
- against the monstrous regiment of women
- criticised women in power saying it was “a monster in nature”
LINK in the play female power is implicitly questioned throughout
AO3: James I’s ‘Basilikon Doran ’
- King James’ treatise instructing his son on how to run a court including (ironically) how to choose courtiers wisely
LINK Webster criticises James I’s court by drawing parallels between the English and Italian court in the play
AO3: Shakespeare’s ‘Titus Andronicus’
- bloodiest revenge tragedy (rape, mutilation etc)
LINK in the play excessive violence is also present and often sensationalised through accidental and cold blooded murders
AO3: John Webster’s ‘The White Devil’
- Webster’s only other play, asserts importance of social order, particularly in terms of law
- critical of lack of social order in Jacobean court and distrust between hierarchal groups
AO3: Thomas Kyd’s ‘The Spanish Tragedy’
- established the genre of the Elizabethan revenge tragedy
- writes of the ‘endless cycle’ of ‘revenger on revenger’ alluding to the ethics of revenge
LINK in the play ethics of revenge are also questioned especially in the murders of the children
AO3: Lady Arabella Stuart
- first cousin of James I
- James I denied her marriage go William Seymour, they married anyway and as punishment were imprisoned
- After attempted escape she was recaptured and died by suicide in the Tower of London
LINK Webster was inspired by her to create a transgressive and independent female character to subvert expectations of the time
AO3: Catherine de Valois
- married for love not social gain
- some believed she was guilty of shrinking her public responsibilities and violating the norms established by the patriarchal society
AO3: Thomas Beard: ‘The Theatre of God’s Judgements’
- retelling of the original story between the Duchess of Malfi and her marriage to her social inferior
- this version is more ambiguous in the way in which marriage is presented - loyalties surrounding the Duchess were questioned
AO3: William Painter’s ‘The Palace of Pleasures’
- blames the Duchess entirely for both Antonio and her ruinations
- criminalises the Duchess for having too much sexual desire calling her a ‘lusty widow’
- links to terra incognita of female desire
-didactic text
AO3: Giovanna d’Aragona
- real Duchess of Malfi
- supposedly murdered for her marriage to her steward
- Webster recognised that he could use her story to warn a contemporary audience
AO3: Why was the play set in Italy?
Allowed Webster to explore sensitive & domestic political themes and draw parallels to English court without being accused of treason
AO3: Elizabeth I
- speech at Tilbury Docks : “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and stomach of a king”
- Duchess often refers to herself as a ‘prince’ - direct allusion
- concerns over Elizabeth I’s reign are echoed in the portrayal of the Duchess
- Querelle des Femmes
AO3: Heirachy
- medieval concept of The Great Chain of Being and The Divine Right of Kings together with the bible suggest that heirachy is sacrosanct
- people were beginning to question kings and power which led to Machiavellian ideas of meritocracy
- conflict in ideologies led to many malcontent characters like Bosola
