A Close Reading of The Duchess of Malfi - Essay Example

? A Close Reading of The Duchess of Malfi by ID Number Module and number Module A Close Reading of The Duchess of Malfi The given lines have been taken from Act 1, Scene 2 of John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi. The foremost question that one must address in a study of the given lines is why they occur quite late in the play despite being crucially important to the dramatic climax and actions of the play. In fact, one can well assert that it is the Duchess’ wooing of Antonio the steward that engenders the tragic denouement of the play. The chief reason for this dramatic strategy has been evaluated in The Renaissance and Long Eighteenth Century as it is remarked that “Clearly, by the time the marriage unfolds onstage, we are in possession of a good deal of information about the dramatic world in which it is taking place. Webster, it seems, is providing us with a dramatic context against which to respond to his representation of love” (Pacheco and Johnson, 2011).The scene thus endorses and subverts the idea of courtship simultaneously since the sentimentality of love is constantly destabilized by the ever present themes of death and violence. At numerous levels it is quite evident that Webster’s play is intensely performance oriented. It is mentioned that “The Duchess of Malfi was first performed in 1613 or 1614 by the King’s Men, the acting company to which Shakespeare belonged. The play was not printed until ten years later in 1623...” (ibid). The vivid imagery and the element of the hyperbole in the play may be viewed bear evidence to its dramatic appeal. Furthermore it has been observed that “We have no way of knowing what The Duchess of Malfi looked like in its first performances, beyond assuming that it was shorter than the text that has descended to us. What is interesting is that the title page of the 1623 quarto draws such a clear distinction between the play in performance and the play as a text to be read and savoured in the study” (ibid). Thus as readers of the play we must continuously bear in mind its performance possibilities in order to understand it in its entirety. Peter Ure and James Coutts Maxwell’s work, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama: critical essays, notes that the abundant use of macabre imagery in the text is quite typical of Elizabethan tragedy and the influence of the philosophy of the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca. Stage violence was characteristic of Jacobean drama, and violence and bloodshed increase steadily through the course of the five acts of The Duchess of Malfi (Ure and Maxwell, 1974). The lines 351-352 spoken by the Duchess are preceded by Antonio’s vision of ‘ambition’ as a ‘great man’s madness’ (Webster, 2000) which ironically prefigures not only Ferdinand’s insanity but also the Duchess’ eventual imprisonment and the Masque of the Madmen. It also constructs the idea of transgression from normative social roles as both morally and socially wrong. This too has prophetic undertones since it is the Duchess’ and Antonio’s transgression which leads to their eventual downfall. The words “And progress through yourself” spoken by the Duchess in line 359 evokes the idea of Antonio as a ruler which began perhaps with the Duchess giving him the sovereign wedding ring (330) and continued when she made him “Lord” of “a wealthy mine” (352-3). It is ironically reversed by his sense of “unworthiness” (354) as her social inferior. Antonio’s words “O my unworthiness!” (353) can be said to indicate the significance of the ideas of class and social stature in the play as is observed in The Renaissance and Long Eighteenth Century- “While Shakespeare’s focus in his tragedy of love is race, Webster’s is class, or rank, to use a more authentically early modern term.”(Pacheco and Johnson, 2011) The lines “The misery...woo us” (363-365) points to the fact that though the Duchess’ predicament invites sympathy, her act of wooing Antonio makes her pro-active, and thus partly responsible for her own plight. Her brothers’ opposition to her remarriage may be wholly unreasonable but perhaps the writer also urges the readers to view the Duchess’ recklessness in flouting convention in a critical fashion. It is significant to note that in the line “We are forc’d to woo, because none dare woo us...” (364) the words ‘woo’ and ‘woe’ are used interchangeably by means of humorous word play. This pun is introduced by the word ‘misery’ in the preceding line if ‘woo’ and ‘woe’ which mean starkly different things, were pronounced similarly during a performance of the play. This word play also helps us to reiterate the intrinsic connection between the Duchess’ tragic predicament and her relationship with Antonio. Lines 375-377 (“...This is flesh, and blood, sir, ‘Tis not the figure cut in alabaster kneels at my husband’s tomb.”) is an ominous comparison with its suggestions both of death and the Duchess’ forgetfulness of the death of her husband. It is thus an assertion of her individuality which is shown to be independent of the male figures in her life. This is also one of the numerous statements in the latter part of Act 1, Scene 2 prefiguring the tragic consequences of her wooing of Antonio. These words spoken by the Duchess are also evoked in Act 4 of the play as Cariola describes the Duchess in the following words- A deal of words in show, but none in practice ; Or rather like some reverend monument Whose ruins are even pitied. (4.2.32-34) This ironic contradiction in the characterization of the Duchess is can be aptly analysed through Catherine Belsey’s essay “Emblem and Antithesis in The Duchess of Malfi”, as she observes that “The effect of Webster’s technique is to define good and evil by antithesis...and at the same time to show through the sequence of events the processes by which evil reduces good to a semblance of itself” (Belsey, 2000) The Duchess’ words “I sign your Quietus est” (386) it indicates that ‘he is quit, acquitted of his obligations’ (Prakash and Singh, 2000). The editor further remarks that this phrase which was conventionally used to indicate the accuracy of accounts, can easily be used to describe the finality of death, “...as being the final payment of nature’s debt” (ibid). Thus, these words accentuate the environment of melancholia and death which pervade this courtship scene. In line 390, the Duchess’ mention of “...this circumference” could perhaps refer to her arms which encircle him during the course of the conversation in a performance of the scene but there could also be an indirect reference to the wedding ring. The image of the circle which evokes the idea of closure draws one’s attention to the theme of mortality and death which assume centrality in the play. The word “circumference” can also be a predictive allusion to the forceful entrapment to which she is forcefully subjected. In line 394, the words ‘part’ and ‘parts’ used in the same line indicates, yet again, the use of word play wherein they could mean both “parts of speech or matters/particulars” (Prakash and Singh, 2000). In the lines “These words...spoke”, Antonio possibly suggests that during the courtship he should have taken a firmer initiative and a bold stance. This is an allusion once more to the reversal of conventional gender roles in the relationship between the Duchess and Antonio. The active stance taken by the Duchess during the course of the courtship notwithstanding the ominous threat by her brothers Ferdinand and the Cardinal regarding her remarriage is a proof of her rebelliousness, which is quite incongruous with her contemporary times. Her decision to remarry, choose her partner and to play the role of the pursuer in the courtship, all point to her dynamic unconventionality as a sixteenth century woman. Though the centrality that a woman character occupies in the play is unusual for a work of sixteenth century literature, it is necessary to subject this position of apparent importance to scrutiny. It is perhaps noteworthy that throughout the course of the play the Duchess, unlike the other principal characters, is referred to not by her name but by her social rank. This conspicuous, metaphoric ‘namelessness’ of the Duchess can be said to be symbolic the dominant patriarchal world’s attempt to appropriate her liberty and sexuality. In this regard, Lisa Jardine in “A Case Study in the Literary Representation of Women” remarks about the play that “The female hero moves in an exclusively masculine stage-world, in which it is the task of the male characters to read her” (Jardine, 2000) She further remarks that “In The Duchess of Malfi, the first entrance of the Duchess is in an atmosphere fraught with explicitly sexual innuendo, in which she is implicated, and which controls our assessment of her character” (ibid). Thus, an understanding of the courtship scene of John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi is imperative to a larger analysis of the plays thematic concerns since it is the action of the play precipitates, chiefly, through the action of the aforementioned scene. One can also conclude that Webster’s play which can be placed within the tradition of Revenge Tragedy certainly rises above the mere depiction of death and violence. Through its use of poetic language, powerful imagery and complex characters, the play explores the multifarious themes of love, kinship, mortality, social hierarchies and their nuanced ramifications. Works Cited Pacheco, A. & Johnson, D, 2011. The Renaissance and Long Eighteenth Century. London: Bloomsbury Publications. Prakash, A. & Singh, K.M, 2000. The Duchess of Malfi: with an Introduction, Annotated Text and Critical Essays. New Delhi: Book Land Publishing. Ure, P. & Maxwell, J.C. , 1974. Elizabethan and Jacobean drama: critical essays. London: Liverpool U.P. Belsey, C., 2000. “Emblem and Antithesis in The Duchess of Malfi”. The Duchess of Malfi: with an Introduction, Annotated Text and Critical Essays. Eds. Prakash, A. & Singh, K.M. New Delhi: Book Land Publishing. Jardine, L., 2000. “The Duchess of Malfi: A Case Study in the Literary Representation of Women”. The Duchess of Malfi: with an Introduction, Annotated Text and Critical Essays. Eds. Prakash, A. & Singh, K.M. New Delhi: Book Land Publishing. Read More