International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, Volume 3(6), ISSN: 2394-9333

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The Theme and Morality, Ethics of the Duchess of

Malfi‘s Tragedy
1
Dr.A.L.Shangeetha and 2S.Manikandan,
1,2
Assistant Professor, PG & Research Department of English, Joseph Arts and Science College, Thirunavalur,
Villupuram, TamilNadu, India
Abstract— In the Duchess of Malfi the tragic action once important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation,
again appears to conclude with the death of the eponymous struggle, and change. A long line of philosophers—which
protagonist. Repeated prolepses have prepared us for just such includes Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Voltaire, Hume,
a catastrophe, starting with the very first scene, where her Diderot, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud,
brothers' lecture upon the iniquity of remarriage viciously Benjamin, Camus, Lacan, and Deleuze—have analysed,
inverts the familiar conceit of eroticised death-as-wedding to speculated upon, and criticised the genre.
make the widow's marriage a kind of death. This one
In the wake of Aristotle's Poetics (335 BCE), tragedy has been
concludes with a mimesis of tragic closure, as Bosola, who
used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry
earlier in the scene has brought the Duchess her coffin as ‗a
in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric) or at
present from your princely brothers‘, begins the preparations
the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy).
for her funeral. As this chapter intends to show, the full
In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against
significance of the Duchess's death is hardly comprehensible
drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre. Drama, in
outside the context created by the fifth act, and in particular by
the narrow sense, cuts across the traditional division between
the crucial third scene, in which Antonio and Bosola visit the
comedy and tragedy in an anti- or a-generic deterritorialisation
site of her tomb.
from the mid-19th century onwards. Both Bertolt Brecht and
Keywords— Malfi, Tragic Action, Death, Mimesis, Tragic Augusto Boal define their epic theatre projects (non-
Closure, Duchess, Funeral Aristotelian drama and Theatre of the Oppressed, respectively)
against models of tragedy. Taxidou, however, reads epic
I. INTRODUCTION
theatre as an incorporation of tragic functions and its
A novel is a long narrative, normally in prose, which treatments of mourning and speculation.
describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of
B. Origin
a sequential story. The genre has also been described as
possessing "a continuous and comprehensive history of about The word "tragedy" appears to have been used to describe
two thousand years". This view sees the novel's origins different phenomena at different times. It derives from
in Classical Greece and Rome, medieval, Classical Greek τραγῳδία, contracted from trag(o)-aoidiā =
early modern romance, and the tradition of the novella. The "goat song", which comes from tragos = "he-goat" and aeidein
latter, an Italian word used to describe short stories, supplied = "to sing" (cf. "ode"). Scholars suspect this may be traced to a
the present generic English term in the 18th century. Ian Watt, time when a goat was either the prize in a competition of
however, in The Rise of the Novel (1957) suggests that the choral dancing or was that around which a chorus danced prior
novel first came into being in the early 18th century, to the animal's ritual sacrifice. In another view on the
etymology, Athenaeus of Naucratis (2nd–3rd century CE) says
II. CHAPTER-1
that the original form of the word was trygodia from trygos
A. Tragedy (grape harvest) and ode (song), because those events were first
introduced during grape harvest.
Tragedy (from the Greek: tragōidia) is a form of drama based
on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or See also: English Renaissance theatre, Shakespearean tragedy,
pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed Revenge play, and Domestic tragedy
forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy
The common forms are the:
often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a
unique and important role historically in the self-definition of 1. Tragedy of circumstance: people are born into their
Western civilisation. That tradition has been multiple and situations, and do not choose them; such tragedies explore
discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a the consequences of birthrights, particularly for monarchs
powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity— 2. Tragedy of miscalculation: the protagonist's error of
"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; judgment has tragic consequences
Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond 3. Revenge play
Williams puts it.
In English, the most famous and most successful tragedies are
From its origins in the theatre of ancient Greece 2500 years those of William Shakespeare and his Elizabethan
ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of contemporaries. Shakespeare's tragedies include:
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; through its singular
1. Antony and Cleopatra
articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean
Racine, and Friedrich Schiller to the more recent naturalistic 2. Coriolanus
tragedy of August Strindberg; Samuel Beckett's modernist 3. Hamlet
meditations on death, loss and suffering; Müller's 4. Julius Caesar
postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon; and Joshua 5. King Lear
Oppenheimer's incorporation of tragic pathos in his nonfiction 6. Macbeth
film, The Act of Killing (2012), tragedy has remained an 7. Othello

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8. Romeo and Juliet best there was" and mentions his two tragic plays by
9. Timon of Athens name.
10. Titus Andronicus
IV. CHAPTER-III
11. Troilus and Cressida
A. Theme
A contemporary of Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, also
The main themes of the play are: corruption, misuse of power,
wrote examples of tragedy in English, notably:
revenge, deception, the status of women and the consequences
1. The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus of their assertion of authority, the argument of blood v. merit,
2. Tamburlaine the Great the upshot of unequal marriage, cruelty, incest, and class.
John Webster (1580?–1635?), also wrote famous plays of the B. Characters
genre:
1. Antonio Bologna. Antonio has recently returned from
1. The Duchess of Malfi France, full of scorn for the Italian courtiers whom he sees
2. The White Devil as more corrupt than the French. Antonio is the steward of
the Duchess of Malfi's palace. His honesty and good
III. CHAPTER-II judgment of character are characteristics well known to
A. Reputation the other characters. He accepts the Duchess' proposal of
marriage because of her disposition rather than her
Jhon Webster's major plays, The White Devil and The Duchess beauty. Her marrying beneath her status is a problem,
of Malfi, are macabre, disturbing works that seem to prefigure
however, and their marriage has to remain a secret, and
the Gothic literature of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
Antonio shares neither her title nor her money. Bosola
centuries. Intricate, complex, subtle and learned, they are
difficult but rewarding, and are still frequently staged today. accidentally kills him.
2. Delio. A courtier, who tries to woo Julia. Based on Matteo
Webster has received a reputation for being the Elizabethan Bandello's self-depiction under this name, his purpose is
and Jacobean dramatist with the most unsparingly dark vision to be the sounding board for his friend Antonio. Because
of human nature. Even more than John Ford, whose 'Tis Pity he asks so many pertinent questions, he serves as a source
She's a Whore is also very bleak, Webster's tragedies present a of important information to the audience, and is privy to
horrific vision of mankind. In his poem "Whispers of the secrets of Antonio's marriage and children.
Immortality," T. S. Eliot memorably says that Webster always 3. Daniel de Bosola. A former servant of the Cardinal, now
saw "the skull beneath the skin". returned from a sentence in the galleys for murder.
On the other hand, Webster's title character in The Duchess of Publicly rejected by his previous employer the Cardinal,
Malfi is presented as a figure of virtue by comparison to her he is sent by Ferdinand to spy on the Duchess as her
malevolent brothers, and in facing death she exemplifies Provisor of Horse. [Note 1] (Ferdinand hopes to keep her
classical Stoic courage. Her martyr-like death scene has been away from marriage.) Bosola is involved in the murder of
compared to that of the titular king in Christopher Marlowe's the Duchess, her children, Cariola, Antonio, the Cardinal,
play Edward II. Webster's use of a strong, virtuous woman as Ferdinand, and a servant. Witnessing the nobility of the
his central character was rare for his time and represents a Duchess and Antonio facing their deaths, he finally feels
deliberate reworking of some of the original historical event on guilty, and seeks to avenge them. This change of heart
which his play was based. The character of the duchess recalls makes him the play's most complex character. A
the Victorian poet and essayist Algernon Charles Swinburne's malcontent and cynic, he makes numerous critical
comment in A Study of Shakespeare that in tragedies such as comments on the nature of Renaissance society. (He is
King Lear Shakespeare had shown such a bleak world as a foil based on the historical Daniele de Bozolo, about whom
or backdrop for virtuous heroines such as Ophelia and Imogen, little is known.)
so that their characterization would not seem too incredible. 4. The Cardinal. The brother to the Duchess and Ferdinand.
Swinburne describes such heroines as shining in the darkness. A corrupt, icy official in the Roman Catholic Church who
keeps a mistress — not uncharacteristic of churchmen at
B. Webster in other works the time. He has arranged a spy (Bosola) to spy upon his
1. The eighteenth-century play The Fatal Secret by Lewis sister – all this on the quiet, however, leaving others
ignorant of his plotting. Of remorse, love, loyalty, or even
Theobald is a reworking of The Duchess of Malfi,
greed, he knows nothing, and his reasons for hating his
imposing Aristotle's 'unities' and a happy ending on the
sister are a mystery. (Historically, his name was Luigi or
plot. Lodovico.)
2. The short story 'A Christmas in Padua' in F. L. Lucas's 5. Ferdinand. The Duke of Calabria and twin brother of the
The Woman Clothed with the Sun (1937) retells the final Duchess. Unlike his rational brother the Cardinal,
hours in December 1585 of Vittoria Accoramboni (the Ferdinand is given to fits of rage and violent outbursts
original of Webster's White Devil), slanting the narrative disproportionate to the perceived offence. He gradually
from her perspective. loses his sanity—he believes he is a wolf and digs up
3. The 1982 detective novel The Skull Beneath the Skin by graves— (lycanthropia), as a result of his regret for hiring
P. D. James centres on an ageing actress who plans to Bosola to kill her. (In reality, his name was Carlo,
play Webster's drama The Duchess of Malfi in a Victorian Marquis of Gerace.)
castle theatre. The novel takes its title from T.S. Eliot's 6. Castruchio. An old lord. His name plays on the word
famous characterisation of Webster's work in his poem "castrated", suggesting impotence. He's the conventional
'Whispers of Immortality'. elderly man with a young, unfaithful wife (Julia). He is
4. The song 'My White Devil' from Echo & the Bunnymen's genial and easygoing, attempting to stay on good terms
1983 album Porcupine refers to Webster as "one of the with all.
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7. Roderigo. A courtier. has him banished to Ancona. Once he has left, Bosola defends
8. Grisolan. A courtier. his virtue to the Duchess so emphatically that she admits the
9. Silvio. A courtier. secret of their marriage. Bosola pretends to support her, and
10. Pescara. A marquis, possibly Fernando d'Avalos. she sends him after Antonio with money and news that she will
11. The Duchess. The protagonist, sister to Ferdinand and the soon follow him. In Ancona a few days later, the Cardinal
Cardinal. At the beginning, she is a widow in the prime of catches up to them and banishes the Duchess and her family
her life. Though her brothers take every precaution to from there.
keep her from marriage, she secretly marries Antonio. Her
On their way out of town, Bosola brings her an ostensibly
brothers arrange to have her strangled. She is described as
forgiving but actually threatening letter from Ferdinand, and so
having a sweet countenance and noble virtue. Witty and
the Duchess, fearing an ambush, tells Antonio to separate from
clever, she can keep up with her brothers‘ banter. She also
her with their oldest son. Immediately after they part, Bosola
has a tenderness and warmth that they lack. She has three
and a group of soldiers take the Duchess and her two
children, two sons and a daughter by Antonio. (There is
remaining children captive and bring them back to her palace.
an inconsistency surrounding earlier children by her
deceased husband, put down to a careless mistake by In Act Four, Bosola tells Ferdinand that the Duchess is bearing
Webster.) her imprisonment nobly, which angers him. In an effort to
make her insane with despair, he presents her with wax corpses
V. CHAPTER-IV
of her family to convince her they have died. Though Bosola
The Duchess of Malfi takes place in Italy, mostly at the pleas with Ferdinand to cease his torture, he won‘t listen, and
Duchess‘s palace in Malfi, in the sixteenth century. The instead sends a group of madmen to torment her. Bosola
Duchess is a young widow whose two brothers, Ferdinand and returns, disguised as a tomb-maker, and prepares the Duchess
the Cardinal, are visiting her from Rome at the play‘s start. for her impending death. Executioners follow with a cord to
Antonio, the manager of her household, has just returned from strangle her, but the Duchess remains steadfastly calm and
France. Before leaving the Duchess, Ferdinand engages courageous, at peace with the idea of rejoining her family, who
Bosola, previously used by the Cardinal as a hit man, to she still believes are dead. They strangle her.
ostensibly manage the Duchess‘s horses, but in reality to spy
Bosola next orders her children and Cariola killed. Cariola
on her for the brothers so they can be sure she remains chaste
pleads for her life, to no avail. When Ferdinand confronts the
and does not remarry. Bosola is reluctant, but eventually
Duchess‘s body, he is suddenly overtaken with remorse and
agrees.
angry at Bosola for following his orders. He not only betrays
Before they return to Rome, Ferdinand and the Cardinal Bosola by refusing the latter a promised reward, but also
lecture the Duchess about the impropriety of remarriage. She shows signs of insanity before he exits. The Duchess shows a
insists that she has no plans for remarriage, and shows some final sign of life, and before she truly dies, Bosola tells her that
irritation at their attempts to control her. However, as soon as Antonio is still alive. Bosola shows genuine sadness when she
they leave, she sets in motion a plan to propose to Antonio dies.
with the help of her maid, Cariola. Antonio and the Duchess
In Act Five, Antonio, ignorant of his wife and children‘s
marry, and the Duchess reassures Antonio that they will find a
deaths, plans to beg the Cardinal that night for reconciliation.
way to appease her brothers.
Ferdinand has now completely lost his mind and is afflicted
Act Two is set about nine months later. The Duchess is with lycanthropia, or the belief that he is a wolf.
pregnant and Bosola, suspecting her condition, hatches a plan
Bosola arrives and the Cardinal pretends that he has no idea
to prove it to himself by giving her apricots, thought to induce
about the Duchess's death. He offers Bosola a great reward for
labor. She accepts them, and immediately becomes ill, rushing
the murder of Antonio, an offer Bosola accepts even though he
off to her bedroom. Antonio and Delio discuss how to keep her
is plotting revenge. Julia, the Cardinal‘s mistress, approaches
labor secret.
Bosola, declaring her love for him, and Bosola uses her to get
Bosola now assumes his belief is correct, but finds further the Cardinal to admit his involvement in the Duchess's murder.
definitive proof through a horoscope Antonio wrote for the
After the Cardinal kills Julia, Bosola reveals he has overheard
infant. With the information confirmed, Bosola he writes a
the secret and demands his reward killing the Duchess. The
letter to the Duchess‘s brothers to tell them the news. The
Cardinal, once again, promises it will come after he has killed
brothers are both incensed, but the Cardinal maintains a cool
Antonio and helped him get rid of Julia‘s body. Bosola
calm, whereas Ferdinand grows erratically angry. Neither of
pretends to agree, but tells the audience that he will find
them realizes that she is married, and hence assume the baby is
Antonio to either protect him or help him get his vengeance
a bastard. Ferdinand says he won‘t take any action until he
against the Cardinal and Ferdinand.
knows who the baby‘s father is.
The Cardinal tells his courtiers to stay away no matter what
Act Three begins about two years later, with Delio‘s return to
they hear from him or Ferdinand, ostensibly because
the Duchess‘s palace. Antonio and the Duchess have had two
Ferdinand‘s madness gets worse when people are around, but
more children in the meantime. Ferdinand has recently arrived,
actually because he wants privacy with which to dispose of
and both Antonio and Delio suspect that he knows about the
Julia‘s body. Bosola, waiting outside the Cardinal‘s room,
Duchess‘s children. Ferdinand surprises the Duchess in her
accidentally kills Antonio, who has come to see the Cardinal.
bedroom, and when she tells him that she is married, he tells
Distraught, he goes into the Cardinal‘s room and attacks him.
her she should never reveal to him the name of her lover lest
terrible violence then be unleashed on all of them. He further Because of the Cardinal‘s warning, his courtiers at first ignore
banishes her forever from his sight. his cries for help. Ferdinand joins the fray and stabs both the
Cardinal and Bosola. Bosola kills Ferdinand. The courtiers
The Duchess, who wishes to protect Antonio by removing him
finally enter in time to see the Cardinal and Bosola die, but not
from Malfi, falsely claims he has stolen from her and hence
before the latter has confessed the particulars of the situation.

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Delio enters with Antonio and the Duchess‘s oldest son, who is Brecht‘s particular interest in Ferdinand‘s illicit sexual desires
the sole survivor of the family. Delio and the courtiers promise points to one of the reasons for our continued fascination with
to raise the boy as a legacy to his parents, which gives the play this play. The establishment of Freudian psychoanalysis in the
a final glimmer of hope. course of the twentieth century brought with it a model of the
human psyche which sees unruly repressed desires and
―He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over
impulses as exerting a powerful influence on human
standing pools; they are rich, and o‘erladen with fruit, but none
behaviour. Webster‘s characterisation of the Duke of Calabria
but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one
as a man in the grip of unconscious and taboo erotic longings
of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a
meshes with a modern conception of the instability and
horse-leech till I were full, and then drop off.‖ Bosola (1.1.47-
irreducible complexity of the human personality. Having said
51)
that, there is every indication that Webster‘s contemporaries
These lines, spoken by Bosola early in the first act, are the found Ferdinand equally compelling; the role was originally
audience‘s introduction to the characters of the Cardinal and played by Richard Burbage, the great tragic actor of the King‘s
Ferdinand. They also offer significant insight into Bosola's Men who had created the roles of Shakespeare‘s tragic heroes
motivations. Though the metaphor Bosola uses for the brothers Hamlet, King Lear and Othello. That Burbage played
is about trees and fruit, it is clear that these are not life- Ferdinand as well suggests that the character was seen as the
sustaining, sustenance-giving natural objects. Instead, not only principal male role in the first productions of the play.
are the trees themselves ―crooked,‖ or corrupt, but they are
We have looked in this course at how Webster situates his
surrounded by ―standing pools‖--stagnant, putrid water.
forbidden cross-class marriage within a very particular
Because of this, what good they could offer--the fruit that they
dramatic context, thereby stimulating a sympathetic response
are ―o‘erladen with,‖ essentially money and power--is
towards the lovers who flout the dictates of the arbitrary
available only to those comfortable in such foul surroundings.
aristocratic power embodied by the Cardinal and Ferdinand.
I Pray thee, look thou giv‘st my little boy
WORK CITED
Some syrup foe his cold, and let the girl
A. Primary Source
Say her prayers, ere the sleep. (iv. ii. 202-4)
Webster, John, The Duchess of Malfi, 1980, Macmillan
CONCLUSION Publishers, India Ltd.
Webster is interested in exploring the connection between love B. Secondry Source
and violent sexual jealousy by locating the homicidal jealousy
1. "John Webster also attended the school, though probably
in a brother‘s yearning for his sister he compounds our
after Mulcaster's retirement in 1586", Julia Briggs, "This
awareness of the dark side of sexual desire, the potential for
certain species of love to explode into violence. In Ferdinand, Stage Play World – Texts & Contexts 1580–1625", OUP,
Webster presents us with another form of forbidden love and p. 196.
allows us to explore the relationship between love and death 2. www.macmillanpublishersindia.com
from the perspective of the villain.

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