The Duchess of Malfi

incest in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ by understanding the social conception of ‘incest’. Talcott Parsons says-“ it is not so much the prohibition of incest in its negative aspect(maintaining sexual relations) …(Instead) Incest is withdrawal from the obligation to contribute to the formation and maintenance of supra-familial bonds on which major economic, political and religious functions of the society are dependent.” Ferdinand’s incestuous behaviour towards the duchess follows the similar

John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi is a Renaissance tragedy. Threats lurk the widowed Duchess and her forbidden husband Antonio. The Duchess’s power greedy brothers, Ferdinand and The Cardinal forbid her sister to remarry. The play is an unconventional Renaissance tragedy as the protagonist focuses on a female character rather than a male. (Pacheco, 2012, p69) This essay focuses on Webster’s use of distinctive features of language. This passage is important because it displays the violent

First performed in 1613, ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ is a timeless and tragic piece of literature which explores both the conflict of good and evil within Jacobean society and the underlying corruption which inhabited the courts and government of James I. Webster particularly uses the setting of this Machiavellian Italian court to offer a direct political and social commentary on the abuse of power within the era and the hypocrisy of the church. Heavily influenced by Webster’s skeptical and forward-thinking

within his Senecan play, The Duchess of Malfi. The play was written in the Jacobean era which, at the time, was a patriarchal society and so by creating a dominant female protagonist, who did just about whatever she pleased Webster has managed to incorporate a semantic field of death and pain to fit alongside his juxtapositions of a typical Jacobean marriage. To begin, Webster uses the idea of marriage being equal to ownership and power over another. As a widow the Duchess has the potential to wield

THE EVALUATION ART OF WEBSTER AS A DRAMATIST ABSTRACT Webster is one of the greatest dramatist in the Post- Elizabethan period and his place is among the tragedy writers of the Elizabethan Age. The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, in these two tragedies, he reveals himself as great dramatist, and his power to grip the imagination by subtle suggestions. Both these plays present a study in revenge-a subject dear to the heart of the Elizabethan dramatists. Webster used psychological approach

The Duchess of Malfi not only challenges the concept of absolute male authority by having a female main character who has a will of her own and disobeys this authority, but it also illuminates the problem of the mentality of the conventional male who unquestioningly accepts the doctrines of the patriarchal system. This system is created to ensure that males are imbued with nearly limitless power, especially over women. In her book Male Subjectivity at the Margins, Kaja Silverman quotes Gayle Rubin

with little or no regard for their own feelings. Furthermore, the church basically offered women two options. They were to become celibate and lead the life of a nun or be committed to a loveless marriage and procreate. As we witness in both The Duchess of Malfi and The Castle of Otranto, marriage was not an ideal situation for women. Being forced into arranged marriages, neither the bride nor the groom had the prerogative to fall in love naturally. Women were treated like objects and were forced to

Bosola, the life and times. In John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, much of the play revolves around themes of social status and class, and within this construct, relationships and honor that result from these statuses. However, one character shines through though they are far from royalty. He’s far from front and center- rather, you’re much more likely to see him sneaking around the perimeters and eavesdropping on any conversations he can hear. Bosola seems to have been dealt a rough hand by his

In the plays, The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster and Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, the main female characters can be put together from either story for easy comparison. The Duchess and Cariola, from The Duchess of Malfi, can be compared to Hermia and Helena, from a Midsummer Night’s Dream, respectively as they serve as foils, even though they appear in different plays. The reaction they have towards authority creates this comparison as they act similarly to each other when it

Shakespeare and Webster represent the female characters in ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The duchess of Malfi’ by using general themes such as the patriarchy and the social control, the female identity and its independence, this institution of marriage, the expressions of sexuality and finally women shown to be either conformist or transgressive. Men were firmly in control in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era, and the expectations for women were to stay home, cook, clean and raise a family. Women’s status and roles