Malfi contexts

The Aristocracy

Revenge tragedies focus on a corrupt and immoral milieu - the ruling class is presented as tyrannical and tainted by sinfulness

Social and moral corruption infects legal and judicial system, eroding justice and embedding the power wielded by those in control

The Divine Right of Kings

The Divine Right of Kings was a doctrine which claimed that kings were God’s representatives on earth, thus investing the monarchy with a religious significance. This doctrine was fully endorsed by James I who wrote a book about it

James I’s court

James I’s court was famous for it’s corruption - he enjoyed flattery and he gave his favourites money, titles and privileges. His court was famous for its sexual licentiousness, (also evident in Malfi in the relationship between the Cardinal and Julia)

The Body Politic

The Body Politic was a metaphor in which a nation is considered to be a corporate entity, likened to a human body. In the seventeenth century the monarch was a symbolic embodiment of the nation. If the monarch pursued their own desires (the body personal - their own mortal, weak body) over the body politic (a ruler ordained by God), this was believed to affect the moral and political health of the country therefore putting it’s stability at risk

Women’s Sexual Desire

Early modern England expressed some anxiety about female sexuality as women were believed to have a much stronger sexual appetite than men and so were feared as untrustworthy

New Individualism/Emerging Capitalism

Those in power in early modern England believed in a fixed social order (The Chain of Being) but that was under threat from a new restlessness as land and wealth began to move into the hands of ‘new’ men, along with a nascent meritocracy - where one might be rewarded for merit rather than for birthright - as Antonio is by the Duchess

Widowhood

Widows, as sexually experienced women, were thought to be especially susceptible to sexual desire, a fear expressed by Ferdinand in his insult ‘lusty widow’. The Duchess, however, celebrates her sexual nature in her loving desire for a new husband

Religion: Catholicism & Protestantism

Audiences at Malfi would have been, in general, anti-Catholic as Catholics were seen to be disloyal and potentially treacherous because of the religious friction and turmoil caused by Henry VIII’s break with the Church years earlier and the recent Gunpowder Plot. Thus, the demonisation of the Catholic Church (made clear in the characterisation of the Cardinal) and Italy embodied the English fear and fascination for this distant land and seemingly hostile religion

The Malcontent

The malcontent was a stock character in early modern drama who exposes the vices of those he despises whilst also participating in the vicious world he rails against

• discontented with social structure - voice dissatisfaction against the corrupt political atmosphere

• outsiders who who observe and comment on the action

• they often use asides to build up a relationship with the audience

• Gunby - the malcontent is ‘on the one hand a blunt mor

The Chain of Being

The Chain of Being organised the world into a fixed order. Within that order, men were organised from the king down to serf

The Renaissance

• The Renaissance was a rejuvenating movement in European culture during a transitional period between the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the modern world

• it’s focus was a curiosity of thought which challenged old assumptions and traditions - Webster examines the assumptions and politics upon which Elizabethan and Jacobean were founded

Machiavelli

• the Cardinal is a Machiavellian character

• Machiavelli wrote The Prince in 1513 and in it he argues that the political end justifies the means, even when the means are brutal or devious.

• his name has become a byword for amoral political cunning

Companionate Marriage

Protestants approved of marriages based on shared admiration and a desire to raise a family - this was known as a companionate marriage and did not have to be officially blessed by the Church or a priest, only a witness was suggested and this is the role that Cariola plays for the Duchess and Antonio

(Dramatic context) Revenge tragedy

A form of tragic drama - someone (usually hero or villain) rights a wrong

Elizabethan dramatists took Seneca (a Roman playwright) as a model - sensational, melodramatic, emphasising bloodshed and vengeance

The Elizabethan audience had a taste for blood, melodrama and rhetoric

Common elements - ghosts, graveyards, incest, insanity, adultery, murder, suicide, poisoning, treachery, moral and political corruption showed in lurid detail

(Dramatic context) The Avenger

Not a person of of noble/eminent social standing

Could be a highly flawed individual

Complex plotting results from avenger doubting how retribution can be best achieved

Madness, real or feigned is a typical motif

Deception is a key strategy effective is gaining vengeance but furthers the avenger’s isolation

(Dramatic context) Moral decline in Revenge tragedy

Injustice predominates in immoral social contexts foregrounding issues of social values

The avenger morally degenerates as a result of his actions

(Dramatic context) Restoration of social justice and instability in Revenge tragedy

Stable order is restored but at the cost of the avengers life

A level of insight is reached when the avenger acknowledges personal flaws

The new order is more just than the deposed old order