William Shakespeare s The Duchess Of Malfi - 1005 Words

At the beginning of the The Duchess of Malfi, Antonio presents a terrible prophecy to his friend Delio, telling him that â€Å"a prince’s court/Is like a common fountain whence should flow/Pure silver drops in general; but if’t chance/Some cursed example poison’t near the head,/Death and disease through the whole land spread† (Webster 1.1.11-15). Death certainly spreads throughout the play, with the majority of the characters dying by the time curtain drops, but what â€Å"poison† engenders this doom? Initially, the audience might view the Duchess’ deception as the poison in the plot. After all, her secret marriage is the catalyst for her brother’s murderous actions. However, in reality, the poison that flows through the fountain is Ferdinand and†¦show more content†¦When Bosola entreats Ferdinand to cease his torturing of the Duchess, Ferdinand rejects the idea, exclaiming â€Å"damn her! That body of hers† (Webster 4. 1.118). His outburst demonstrates how he equates the Duchess herself with her physical material, her body. Furthermore, it delineates how specifically the Duchess’s body is the object of his anger and obsession. Ferdinand often directs his anger at just the Duchess body rather than her whole being. After receiving news of her pregnancy, he says that â€Å"she’s loose i’th’hilts† (Webster 2.5.3). The phallic metaphor in this exclamation, with a sword operating as a phallic symbol and the hilt (which the sword goes into) functioning as a symbol for female genitalia, demonstrates how Ferdinand’s intense fascination with his sister’s body is intrinsically sexual. He goes on to say â€Å"would I could be one,/That I might toss here palace ‘bout her ears/Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads,/And lay her general territory as waste† (Webster 2.5.17-20). This statement contains language that is both intensely violent and se xual in nature. Moreover, by equating his sister’s body with pieces of land, Ferdinand demonstrates how he views her body as something to possess, just as he possesses land. As he drives himself into more and more of a rage, Ferdinand’s rant about his sister becomes increasingly sexual. He tells his brotherShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s The Duchess Of Malfi1642 Words   |  7 Pages John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi is a Renaissance tragedy. Threats lurk the widowed Duchess and her forbidden husband Antonio. The Duchess’s power greedy brothers, Ferdinand and The Cardinal forbid her sister to remarry. The play is an unconventional Renaissance tragedy as the protagonist focuses on a female character rather than a male. (Pacheco, 2012, p69) This essay focuses on Webster’s use of distinctive features of language. This passage is important because it displays the violentRead MoreThe Duchess Of Malfi And William Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream1035 Words   |  5 PagesWebster’s The Duchess of Malfi and William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream women react to authority in significantly different ways. The authors focus both on women showing acceptance to power and women who shy away from it. In the plays, the Duchess and Hermia defy the abuse of power, while Helena and Cariola submit to it. In John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, Webster uses the Duchess to signify courage and Cariola to signify faintheartedness throughout the play. The Duchess has recentlyRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Hamlet And The Duchess Of Malfi 2029 Words   |  9 PagesShakespeare and Webster represent the female characters in ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The duchess of Malfi’ by using general themes such as the patriarchy and the social control, the female identity and its independence, this institution of marriage, the expressions of sexuality and finally women shown to be either conformist or transgressive. Men were firmly in control in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era, and the expectations for women were to stay home, cook, clean and raise a family. Women’s status and rolesRead MoreComparing Hamlet And The Duchess Of Malfi2373 Words   |  10 PagesCompare the de pictions of Madness in Hamlet and The Duchess of Malfi. What is the significance of madness in each play? During the late sixteenth century, dramas an plays became a big role in entertainment and madness became one of the major themes, as Salkeld recognises that the use of madness as a metaphor for subversion became increasingly marked throughout the first half of the seventeenth century . (Salkeld, 1994, pg.144)This madness created a spark within the Elizabethan era and caused