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 Name : Binasree Ghosh

 Class Roll No. : 28

 Course : 103. 17th century Studies

 Topic : Tragic Tale of a Woman’s Struggle

Against Patriarchy in The Duchess of Malfi
 Tragic Tale of a Women’s Struggle against Patriarchy in The Duchess of Malfi

The Duchess of Malfi raises questions about the nature and gendering of political authority. It

reveals the power of relationship between men and women in English Renaissance Drama.

The figure of the Duchess combines the role of tragic protagonist and tragic victim, and

occupies a dramatic centrality that is conventionally only accorded to male characters, such

as Shakespeare’s great tragic heroes: King Lear, Hamlet and Othello. However up until the

feminist movement of the 1970’s and 80’s, an engulfing weight of critics opined that The

Duchess of Malfi lacked to focus its centre in action as critics tended to equate tragic

centrality with masculinity.

The Duchess of Malfi is a young widow, who decides to remarry and this is profoundly

troubling to the patriarchal order in which she lives, and specifically to her brothers – one of

who is a corrupt fornicating Cardinal, while other is her demented twin, Ferdinand. She thus

transgresses her society’s notion of proper female conduct in exercising her own will in

choosing a husband who is her social inferior. Ferdinand and the Cardinal depicted as strong

dominant and insolent figures, they endeavour to oppress and control their sister, both

economically and socially. The Duchess’s brothers are primary mouthpiece for the

misogynist discourses of the era, which held that women are immoral, over-sexed, weak

minded and so on. The mannerism of the brothers draw attention to the fundamental

discourse that how was an individual to find justice if the contemporary fountain head of

justice itself was polluted. While Cardinal is anxious that she might marry a social inferior,

Ferdinand wants to prevent marriage. Ferdinand warns the Duchess “They are most

luxurious/ Will wed twice” (Webster, I. I, 288-89). Coerced by her brothers into vowing “I’ll

never marry” (Webster, I. I, 222) the Duchess is very much in vein of going against degree.
The nature of Renaissance dynastic marriage served almost totally to objectify the woman.

She became an object of commerce who-passed from father to husband-sealed a bargain of

greater or lesser economic significance. (Eve, 38). Thus, the woman's biological life-her

ability or inability to produce viable offspring-becomes as much a possession of her male

owners as her physical body itself. Thus, as Ferdinand and the Cardinal feel justified in

controlling their sister's "use" as a wife, they also feel justified in controlling the biological

uses of her body-its ability to produce offspring. In this sense, their inquiry into the chastity

of their sister's body is understandable, though grotesque, for her production of children the

patriarchy considers illegitimate would decrease her value as a trade article for her family.

Control on female fecundity is pivotal to the preservation of the order. Perhaps the ideal

dream of patriarchal monarch would be reproduction of son by marriage to a twin sister. We

see the brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal, as they leave the country for Rome, giving their

sister, counsel to remain chaste. Ferdinand tries to bring home is point about marrying by

taking out the dagger and menacing the Duchess:

“You are my sister,

This was my father’s poniard: do you see,

I’ll’d be loath to see’t look rusty, ‘cause ‘twas his.” (Webster, I.i, 249-251)

Thus the father’s poniard is not only phallic but symbolic of patriarchal lineage. Ferdinand’s

remark on their relation makes it clear how patriarchy dominance is very much patent in the

play. “The father’s dagger represents the power that patriarch typically held over the family

and that’s the power Ferdinand wants to wield over her sister” (Shoomp Editorial Team). .

Here we shall also observe that the Cardinal, although, he abided by the code and conduct of
the society he did not allow the Duchess son from her first husband to acquire his position as

a successor.

The Duchess in her heroic position to her brothers is the symbol of life whereas the patriarchs

at home is of death, destruction and corruption. In regards to her social status the no one will

dare to woo the Duchess, so, it is the Duchess who takes initiative in wooing Antonio. She

says:

“The misery of us that are born great-

We are force to woo, because none dare woo us.” (Webster, 1.i, 358-

359)

James Calderwood has convincingly said that the Duchess’s intent in wooing scene is to

divest herself of her role as social better, discard degree, to establish Antonio and himself as

equals. The Duchess devoid of any fault it is the corrupted society that brings her misery and

suffering. The Cardinal and Ferdinand decides to take revenge after they learnt that she has

tarnished their royal blood by marrying the Steward, Antonio.

“Shall our blood?

The royal blood of Aragon and Castile,

Be thus attained?” (Webster, I. ii. 22-24)

Webster develops the Duchess’s character while resisting the polarised discourses around,

which presented them as either chaste paragons of virtue or lascivious whores. The brothers

definitely places her in the latter category as a “lusty widow” who can be seduced by a “neat

knave” (Webster, I. I, 259) with a “smooth tale” (Webster, I. I, 258).

The Duchess is in constant struggle with the patriarchal bondage. Her resourcefulness and

ability to take decision in grave dangers is brought to light under the discourse of her struggle
against patriarchy. She smells danger when Ferdinand visits her and being apprehensive takes

the decision to send her husband the children to Ancona. But soon we see her getting trapped

in mere tyranny laid down by the male sex and she is brought to Malfi as a prisoner. It is

typical of his treatment of enclosure that the Duchess’s own house should become her prison.

The bird cage is an important component of the spatial tension her. Birds represent the soft,

natural life the Duchess advocates and that is vulnerable to brute strength.

Throughout the play we find a sceptical impulse to access the interior of the body. When in

the torture scene, Bosola prays Ferdinand: “Faith, end here; And go farther in your cruelty…”

(Webster, IV.I. 115), Ferdinand retorts: “Damn her! That body of hers.” (Webster. IV.I. 119).

The Duchess’s declaration that she is “the Duchess of Malfi still” shows that even at the face

of rigorous tortures, she still maintains her pride Throughout the play the Cardinal and

Ferdinand have, through Bosola, acted to bring hell to earth for the Duchess but the

consequences spill over onto themselves. We can contrast this character's views on

pregnancy, and old age with Ferdinand's views on the sexual nature of women's bodies,

especially his sister's. “It is ironic that in describing cowardice, Bosola uses the term

‘womanish’ since the Duchess exhibits significantly more courage than any male character in

the play.” This reminds the audience of the contrast between their death scenes.” (Jankowski,

36)

With each torment applied on her, we see her coming out more strengthened and fortified.

She was made to kiss the hand of a corpse, view the waxed statue of her dead husband and

children. Again the dance of the madmen, which is analogous to a special antimasque

performed before a second wedding, is a symbolic device which serves to illuminate a

particular human dilemma: the Duchess' second marriage and what this has entailed in

persecution, threatened madness, and eventual destruction by her brothers.

She is eventually murdered for her defiance of her brothers. The tragic ending originates from

the patriarchal social structure. She could not escape the destiny of being oppressed by the

male characters. Peter Murray writes, “Webster shows that the worldly life of courts and

courtiers is vain, and that integrity cannot finally defeat such evil, but there is another kind of

life possible, a life deriving its values from moments of love and sharing mercy”

(Holdsworth, 179).

To conclude, we might say while the brothers are shown to support that tradition which

validates the power of the patriarchal family over women, the Duchess can be seen as

challenging that discourse either by creating a new one or by consciously harking back to a

tradition which, at least philosophically, granted women a certain measure of autonomy. We

see a male dominated power structure throughout the society and in individual relationships

within the genius of Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. D. L. Frost thinks that the heroine

defines her integrity not by development but by a stoical resistance to change, by remaining

"Duchess of Malfi still." The vigilance of the Duchess is significant. She does not render her

fate to the will of the brothers easily. Perhaps she could not finally triumph over the bondage

of the patriarchal gloom.

 Work Cited

1. Webster, John. Eds. The Duchess of Malfi Code: Worldwide Critical Edition. Delhi:

World Publications, 2016. Print.

2. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between men: English Literature and Male Homo Social

Desire New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1985. Print

3. Holdsworth, R.V. Eds. Webster: The White Devil and the Duchess of Malfi . India:

Macmillan India Limited, 1984. Print.

4. Shoomp Editorial Team. “The Poniard of Patriarchy in the Duchess of Malfi.”

Shmoop University, Inc.2008 Nov

5. Jankowski, Theodora. A. “Defining and Confining the Duchess: Negotiating the

Female Body in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi.” Studies in Philology, Vol.87,

No. 2 (1990): 221-245. University of North Carolina. Press. Web. 13 Sept. 2018