Marriage (Malfi)

Question 1

How would the traditional Jacobean audience have viewed marriage?

Answer 1

It seems highly likely that Webster’s original Protestant audience would have responded favourably to his depiction of a marriage based on shared admiration and the desire to raise a family.

Question 2

How would the audience have reacted to the way in which Antonio and the Duchess got married?

Answer 2

When the Duchess declares ‘We now are man and wife, and ’tis the Church / That must but echo this’, she is giving priority to an idea of marriage as a private contract outside the direct control of the ecclesiastical authorities – an idea with which many of the play’s original spectators would no doubt have sympathised.