Suffering of women Malfi

Point

Furthermore - Webster explores how women suffer at hands of men and how this is not limited to the protagonists in the play, as various female characters endure oppression, betrayal, and violence, reflecting the broader societal issues of misogyny and power dynamics.

Cariola’s death

Represents how the loyalty of women is met with betrayal and violence from men, ultimately leading to their tragic downfall.

Innocent suffer - desperation that is drawn from them as a result - “I will not die!” “She bites and Scratches” “ I am quick with child”

Presented as a foil to the duchess in death as fearful of it and yet still suffers - showing indiscriminatory nature to the punishment of women

Julia’s death

See how women are constantly punished for defying patriarchal conventions - women who express sexuality like Duchess

“(Holds out a book” “Kiss it” “she dies” - immoral suffering of women is through the cardinal’s corrupt behaviour through his blasphemous perversion of religious authority

ao3 context - women patriarchal suffering

This reinforces the idea that misogyny is systemic, not personal — women suffer not because of what they do, but because of who they are in the eyes of the men around them.

ao3 - religion

• sacrilegious murder using a Bible.

  • This act reflects Webster’s critique of institutional corruption, particularly the idea that religion can be used to mask and justify evil.

  • Julia’s death is not only physical but symbolic — her sexuality is being 'cleansed' through death.

Link this to wider concerns in Jacobean society about the corruption of religious and political institutions, especially in light of the Reformation and anti-Catholic sentiment in England.

ao5 quotes - Julias death

Dympna Callaghan (feminist critic):
“The Duchess of Malfi shows that female sexuality is not just feared but systematically destroyed.”

🔗 Use for Julia’s death — her punishment for sexual autonomy, and how even expressing desire leads to destruction in a male-dominated world.

comparison

See how the women in both plays suffer as a result to the patriarchal society the worlds of the play exist in. IN SND we see how the women that try to conform to patriarchal society still are punished through abuse of Stella and Eunice “You hit me” Eunice