Duchess of Malfi context

Question 1

Webster - cruelly mocked by contemporaries

Answer 1

Webster was cruelly mocked by many of his contemporaries for being the lowly son of a cartwright, making him acutely aware of the hierarchical nature of society.

• In writing The Duchess of Malfi, Webster may well have been motivated by a desire to win renown and respect

Question 2

Webster - championing personal merit

Answer 2

Webster championed personal merit over hereditary privilege.

• Clear from the dedication of The Duchess of Malfi to George Harding - “I do not altogether look up at your title”

Question 3

Webster source material

Answer 3

Webster’s principal source for The Duchess of Malfi was William Painter’s The Palace of Pleasure (1567), which followed the true story of the marriage of Giovanna d’Aragona to the Duke of Amalfi.

• Webster follows the story faithfully, apart from his depiction of Bosola as a conflicted character who kills the brothers; in fact the brothers were never accused of the crime in their lifetime and died of natural causes
• Webster added many more deaths, which enhanced the drama with typical Jacobean revenge tragedy characteristics
• Webster manipulates Painter’s interpretation of the Duchess as a ‘folysh woman’ who wanted only to ‘glut her libidinous appetite’, leading to her well-deserved downfall
  
  • Webster depicts the Duchess in a much more sympathetic way

Question 4

Features of a Jacobean revenge tragedy

Answer 4

The Duchess of Malfi is a Jacobean revenge tragedy, which has the following key characteristics:

• Disguise
• Violent finale
• Madness
• Murder
• Espionage
  
  • Creates a sense of fear and corruption, as well as amplifying the nefarious motives of characters
• Driven by a mechanism of revenge

Question 5

Other revenge tragedies of note

Answer 5

• Hamlet (Shakespeare)
• The Revenger’s Tragedy (Middleton)
• The White Devil (Webster)
• The Spanish Tragedy (Kid)

Question 6

Character tropes in The Duchess of Malfi

Answer 6

• The Malcontent (Bosola)
  
  • Discontented character who questions the social structures and other characters
  • Alienated
  • Provides political and dramatic dissatisfaction
• The Machiavel (Ferdinand)
  
  • A treatise on power
  • Plays a manipulative role whilst still remaining in favour with the other characters
  • Inspired by The Prince

Question 7

Webster and Seneca

Answer 7

Webster was inspired by the Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca, whose dramas included violent and bloody actions, themes of revenge and supernatural elements.

Question 8

Religious features of The Duchess of Malfi

Answer 8

• The Cardinal represents Webster’s criticism of the corrupt nature of the Church e.g. poisoned bible.
• Fear of popery and anti-Catholic sentiment were rife in England at this time.

Question 9

The Great Chain of Being

Answer 9

Both Italian and English society were dominated by the ‘Great Chain of Being’, a powerful code which dictated that class divisions were sacrosanct because the social order had been fixed by God with the King placed firmly at the top and the aristocracy just below.

• It was sacrilegious to marry too far above or below your ordained social status

Question 10

Italianate setting

Answer 10

The Italianate setting was chosen because Renaissance Italy was viewed as exotic and exciting. It was also a strategy for playwrights to interrogate their own society without consequences.

Question 11

Webster’s critique of the court

Answer 11

• The play critiqued the idea that the powerful and influential are not above the law, and the lack of social mobility.
• Other plays by Webster emphasise how justice and society are infected with the corruption of the Court.

Question 12

Elizabeth I and spies

Answer 12

Elizabeth I was under constant threat from Catholic assassination and consequently employed an army of spies, led by Francis Walsingham.

• Numerous plots against her life were made by Philip II of Spain, the most notable being the Ridolfi Plot of 1571 and the Throckmorton Plot of 1587 (which forced her to execute Mary Queen of Scots).

Question 13

James I’s reputation

Answer 13

Although the ascension of James I in 1603 was initially welcomed by many, soon the sense of security of having a married monarch with an heir was undermined by the extravagant habits and sexually ambiguous intrigues of the court.

• James was believed to have had relations with the Duke of Buckingham and the courtier Robert Carr

Question 14

Importance of correct marriages

Answer 14

Correct marriages were highly important for Jacobean aristocracy - while James I was linked to women like Anne Murray in his reign, he fulfilled his primary duty in marriage, which was diplomatic for monarchs, by making strong protestant links through Anne of Denmark in 1589.

Question 15

Responsibilities of Stuart leaders

Answer 15

The duties and responsibilities of leaders in the early Stuart era came above all else:

• James I wrote Basilikon Doron (1599) emphasising the significance of kingship
• Charles’ violation of parliamentary privilege in Five Members incident (1642) was a key catalyst in his downfall

Question 16

Audience’s helplessness mirroring stage

Answer 16

In witnessing scenes of torture and the casual murder of defenceless women and children, an audience is as helpless as the ‘victims’ on stage; an inability to arrest the action mirrors perfectly the helplessness that would have been experienced by the Jacobean public to stop the real abuses of their aristocratic rulers.

Question 17

Patriarchal society

Answer 17

Society at the time was patriarchal, with female rulers such as Elizabeth I and Marie de Medici regarded with hostility and suspicion due to concerns of volatility.

Question 18

Duchess asserting her right to free marriage

Answer 18

In The Duchess of Malfi, the Duchess asserts her right to marry whom she pleases.

• Although it may be considered that the patriarchy was entirely dominant in Jacobean England, a proliferation of manuals reminding women of their wifely duties and the dangers of straying from them (e.g. A Crystal Glass for Christian Women by Philip Stubbes, 1591) suggests that women were, in practice, challenging the patriarchy.

Question 19

Arabella Stuart

Answer 19

James I imprisoned his cousin, Arabella Stuart, in 1610 for a clandestine marriage to William Seymour.

• She died in the Tower of London in 1615 after refusing to eat

Question 20

Edward Coke daughter

Answer 20

Lord Chief Justice, Edward Coke, kidnapped his own estranged daughter in 1617 in order to force her to marry someone of his choice.

Question 21

Original performance and cast

Answer 21

Originally performed in the first enclosed theatre - the Blackfriars Theatre in London.

• This 600 seat theatre created a claustrophobic atmosphere, added to by Webster’s use of blackouts
• Allowed for a more subtle kind of staging, with
• Greater control of lighting and sound effects

The original cast was made up of all male actors, with all the male characters named before female ones. Bosola also appeared first, subverting the established hierarchy and showing his prominence as a character.

Question 22

2014 production

Answer 22

In the first performance at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2014, the scene in which Ferdinand visits the Duchess in her imprisonment was played in total darkness with all the candles removed.

• It was only when the Duchess called in horror for lights that the audience realised he had given her not his own hand in greeting but a dead man’s hand
• This maintained minute-by-minute terror for the audience

Question 23

2017 production

Answer 23

Held in the Swan Theatre in Stratford, used 30 bathtubs of blood to create atmosphere

Question 24

1580

Answer 24

Webster born

Question 25

1606

Answer 25

Webster marries the 17 year old Sara Peniall at St Mary’s Church, Islington - a special licence had to be obtained to permit a weddin in Lent, which was necessary since Sara was seven months pregnant at the date of their marriage

Question 26

1614

Answer 26

Duchess of Malfi performed by the King’s Men at the Blackfriars Theatre

Question 27

1623

Answer 27

Duchess of Malfi published

Question 28

1634

Answer 28

Webster certainly dead