Status of women

Key events

  • The brothers’ interjection into the Duchess’ agency - forbidden to remarry - use stereotypical language to box women of certain marital statuses into categories - the emphasis of widows and their independence clearly shows the fear from men of female sexual liberation

  • The Duchess defies this rhetoric by remarrying - goes beyond and marries a lower class man - she initiates proposal too - subverts gender roles - directly contradicts her brothers - is active in her involvement in relationship , not passive

  • Bosola’s test using apricots - surveillance on female bodies - she begins to physically feel the control of the brothers through Bosola

  • Julia is introduced as lustful yet her male counterparts show extreme lust that leads to violence (Ferdinand) - contrasts the Duchess’ purity yet both meet the same end - every woman falls short of freedom

Characters

  • The Duchess

> she is a ruler yet subject to subservience to her brothers

> takes ownership of her desires and proposes to Antonio

> even at death she asserts her title , showing that her identity and strength cannot be dismantled by her torture - contrast the brothers who when faced with death are cowardice and weak

  • Julia

> wife of Castruccio and mistress of the Cardinals , symbolises the fallen woman , uses her sexuality publicly for pleasure and power

> seduces Bosola - demands love - flips gender expectations - is punished for her lust and freedom

> she strays from marriage and is murdered by a religious symbol - disposed of easily

  • Cariola

> no hand in any of the brothers or the Duchess decisions - she lacks the noble title so is punished for her dependence on the Duchess - she witnesses marriage
> her desperate death shows the cruelty she is about to experience - she fears death unlike the Duchess which emphasises the immobility of women as a whole

Quotes

  • "The marriage night / Is the entrance into some prison." — The Cardinal

  • "They are most luxurious will wed twice." — Ferdinand

  • So most widows say; / But commonly that motion lasts no longer / Than the turning of an hour-glass." — The Cardinal

  • "Diamonds are of most value, they say, that have passed through most jewellers' hands." — The Duchess

  • "I observe our Duchess / Is sick a-days... and contrary to our Italian fashion / Wears a loose-bodied gown." — Bosola

  • "Why should I / Of all the other princes of the world / Be cased up like a holy relic?" — The Duchess

  • "I have taken you off your melancholy perch / And fed you from my fist, and trained you up / To all my purposes." — The Cardinal (to Julia)

  • "The misery of us that are born great / We are forced to woo, because none dare woo us." — The Duchess

  • "I am Duchess of Malfi still." — The Duchess

Critical comments

  • "Webster’s characters are not just people; they are the forces of a disordered world." — T.S. Eliot

  • "Ferdinand’s obsession with the Duchess is a form of social incestuous corruption." — Frank Whigham

  • "The Duchess’s private desires are placed above her public responsibilities, leading to a commonwealth tragedy." — Joyce E. Peterson

  • "The radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed." — P.B. Murray

  • "The Duchess’s marriage is a calculated act of defiance against the patriarchal hierarchy." — Theodora Jankowski

  • "Webster’s play is a study of the ways in which a woman of spirit and intelligence is trapped by the conventions of a male-dominated society." — Kathleen McLuskie

  • "Julia is a foil to the Duchess; her death suggests that all female rebellion, whether virtuous or not, is punished by the state." — D.C. Gunby

  • The Duchess’s struggle is the struggle of any woman seeking to own her own heart in a world that treats it as property." — P.B. Murray

  • "The brothers use the language of religion and law to mask a purely misogynistic hatred of female independence." — Lee Bliss