The Duchess of Malfi is the Tragic Tale of a Woman's Struggle Against Patriarchy

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman...It is civilization as a whole that produces this creature...which is described as feminine.”

       – Simone De Beauvoir : The Second Sex (330)

John Webster’s masterpiece The Duchess of Malfi is in many ways a remarkable pioneer to the adulterous and tragic heroines found in landmark 19th century novels. The Duchess, the protagonist of the tragedy, is completely an extraordinary figure from the typical Jacobean Era. Webster’s Duchess exercises transgressive, independent sexual agency in defiance of social conventions not through infidelity but through marriage, or more accurately, remarriage. Remarriage in the 17th century was not inevitably a recipe for tragedy. In this play, the Duchess defies social and sexual orthodoxies in ways that are not dissimilar to those of comic widows.

Many of the famous critics agree that Webster's second tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, is a more coherent play than The White Devil. The difficult situation of the Duchess gives the play a dramatic center that The White Devil where the complex revenge intrigue and the love affiar of Vittoria and Brachiano are both undercut by skeptical mockery appears to lack. In The Duchess of Malfi, the most important thing to know about the Duchess when we begin reading this play is her very special snowflake social position. In Renaissance Europe, a woman was, in almost every conceivable situation, under the power of some man in her life. Webster’s the Duchess, though, is almost unique in that, having been widowed by her first husband and not having had any children. The central theme of the play is the Duchess’s struggle against her brothers Cardinal and Ferdinand, and also against the Bosola, who are the image of so called patriarchy in the play. The importance of Webster’s depiction of the Duchess' widowhood lies not only in his exonerating her but also in his using the dynamics of her marital status to construct and then deconstruct a female hero within the genre of tragedy.

(Picture Credit- Orient BlackSwan)

Unlike Shakespeare, whose tragic female characters such as Desdemona, Hermione and Cordelia represent virtue victimized, Webster chooses instead to offer a far more nuanced portrait of a woman whose chosen departure from ‘the path...Of simple virtue’. In considering the Duchess’ character, we shall focus on the particular nature of her status in society and the decisive steps she takes to challenge the structure of that society. According to David Male:

"Her actions demonstrably break the conventions and expose her lively, bold personality, willing to challenge the accepted hierarchical structure of the society." (63)

Her brothers represent secular and ecclesiastical government. From the start we notice how much her personality differs from those of her malicious and devious brothers Cardinal and Ferdinand. They always try to pressure her into remaining a widow, by intemperate, threatening, coarse language, but she is by no means subdued. As a woman in a man's world, she makes a bold, sympathetic impression, but her married state makes her a more vulnerable target especially with a spy in the household. Webster places the pressure for the Duchess' remaining single squarely on Ferdinand and Ferdinand alone. The Duchess, for instance, defends herself by telling her brother he is "too strict" and asking,

"Why might I not marry?

I have not gone about, in this, to create

Any new world, or custom." (Webster 52)

The world of The Duchess of Malfi includes the powerful and important. Together, her brothers the Duke and the Cardinal represent the principal temporal and spiritual influences in that society so that their actions have public as well as private consequences. The sensual, feminine nature of the Duchess's character is not stifled by her brothers' injunctions, but with them, her tone is brisk and uncompromising. Her error, under pressure, is to misread the devious Bosola's attitude and place a misguided trust in him. That single misjudgement has serious consequences. The Duchess' remarriage provides the central conflict of the tragedy yet no legal objection can be raised against her action. The Duchess cannot be condemned for any outrageous legal or spiritual misconduct.

Webster emphasizes The Duchess also observes other strictures on remarriage. Like any woman, a widow would not marry within interdicted degrees of kinship or commit bigamy. Neither she nor Antonio bears any responsibility for the Duke's death, in contrast, for example, to Vittoria de Corombona and Brachiano in Webster's The White Devil. One aspect of the Duchess that commentators have left undiscussed is Webster's emphasis on her youth. In the literature on widows of the time, even the most conservative moralist and  the most vitriolic misogynist exempt the young woman. 

 

The imprisonment demonstrates another facet of the Duchess's character her indomitable spirit. The physically-vile tricks and traps that Ferdinand sets fail to distract her. Each new sequence of the play develops and deepens the Duchess's character. The reasons for the brothers' prohibition are only sketchily outlined. The Duke and the Cardinal proclaim their general antipathy towards the marriage of widows, suggesting that such unions mean loss of virtue and giving way to baser instincts. According to the Duchess:

          

"I am Duchess of Malfi still" (Webster 84)

By this statement the duchess tries to show that she is not lost or defeated, she is still the Duchess of Malfi. Her final speech is unfrightened and dignified. We also know that the decision of her marrriage is directly contradictory to the expressed wishes of her brothers. The Duchess and Antonio are undoubtedly deeply in love with each other. This line has been traditionally interpreted as an affirmation of dignity in the face of degradation, it is instead deeply, ironically tragic.

That early modern England was patriarchal is beyond question: that a widow possessed anomalous freedom and choice in this society is also clear. On the one hand, there was the lusty widow, one of the most prevalent stereotypes of the period. On the other, there was the "true widow," the woman who spends the remainder of her days after her husband's death in prayer and good works.

To sum up, we can say the Duchess’ unorthodox, unconventional, but not wicked, behaviour is exposed to a world of corrupt social, moral and religious judgement. Webster seems intent on creating a character of some depth and complexity with recognisable human contradictions rather than a stereotype virtuous widow who dies for love. The characters of the Duchess contribute to the totality of the play rather than individually question what is call motivation and self-motivation. That is why the Duchess does not foreground but only wavers between patriarchal privilege and the woman’s identity. What Webster does is show in the character of a woman what the hero loses in the process. From my point of view, the tragedy is truly "the tragic tale of a woman’s struggle against patriarchy." 

Works Cited:

1. Webster, John. The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi. Ed. David A. Male. London: Macmillan, 1986. Print.

2. Beauvoir, Simone De. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 2011. Print.

3. Oakes, Elizabeth. “The Duchess of Malfi as a Tragedy of Identity.” Studies in Philology 96 (1999): 51-67. Web.

4. Webster, John. The Duchess of Malfi. Ed. Kajal Sengupta. Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2004. Print.

University of North Bengal,

Siliguri