Q.
6) Thematic concerns in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’
In order to establish Webster’s themes in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, one needs to
study the images and repeated words (e.g., animals, witches, storm and tempest,
blood, fortune), the characters, their philosophic utterances, the action &
structure of the play. Critic Ralph Berry believed that the play’s main concern
was the resolution of the tension between human evil (including disease,
appearance & reality, and ‘great men’) and the Law (including justice, revenge
and reward).
a) True fame or worldly greatness :
In death, the “great” Cardinal ends in “a little point, a kind of nothing”; the
dying Antonio compares “our quest of greatness” to a child blowing bubbles;
when she is about to be killed, the great Duchess is told she is merely “a box of
worm-seed”. The major question which the play poses is what leads to true,
everlasting fame. The last speech of the play sums up Webster’s message, that
“wretched eminent things” leave no fame behind them, whereas “fame’s best
friend” is “Integrity of life”.
b) Apperance and reality :
Apperances in this play deceives in many ways. Bosola’s melancholy is seen as
affectation; he is accused of counterfeiting; but in Act IV he deliberately puts
on disguises. The Duchess is warned to avoid hypocrisy but leaves “the path/
Of simple virtue”. Bosola misunderstands her as does Ferdinand. Hereward T.
Price comments that “Webster twists the idea of appearance and reality to
show that Ferdinand….cannot recognise virtue when it stands before himin its
most beautiful form….Ferdinand sees her whiteness and imagines it is evil. He
cannot see the reality and misjudges appearance.” But having lied about her
marriage, the Duchess has to pretend to accuse Antonio of a “feigned crime”
and feigns a pilgrimage, just as Julia the “strumpet” does.
In Act IV, sc. i, Ferdinand’s hand turns out to be a dead man’s
hand, while the dead bodies of Antonio and the children turn out to be wax
models. In Act V, the Cardinal says he might pretend to “feign myself in
danger”, so when the danger is real, his followers donot believe his real cries for
help. There are references to deceit by tradesmen and tyrants; by hiding the
rotten body with rich clothes; spying or eavesdropping; and “poisoned pills” are
disguised within “gold and sugar”. There are frequent references to masques
and masks, visors and disguises, as well as acting and the theatre – some of
which seem intended deliberately to jolt the audience into an awareness that
they are watching a play: it is not reality.
c) Love and Death :
Critic Michael Neill argues that, at its core, Renaissance tragic drama is about
“the discovery of death”. But what is particularly central to Webster’s work is
what critic Charles Forker calls “the ironic juxtaposition of love with death”.
Monica Kendall finds parallel between Desdemona in ‘Othello’ and the Duchess :
“both defy male relatives to marry a man of their own choosing; both are killed
for supposedly sexual crimes.” Love sustained in adversity is a theme that
emerges strongly from the play. It is particularly contained in the enduring love
which the Duchess shows for Antonio and her children, a devotion which upholds
her in the face of the most frightful and undeserved antagonism.
d) Madness :
There are two deegres of madness : the clinical insanity of Ferdinand (in Act V)
and the Bedlam dancers, and the temporary loss of rational control and
judgement suffered by those swayed by strong passion, whether wrath or
sexual desire or ambition.
e) Marriage :
There is no doubt that the Duchess’ marriage is at the heart of the play.
Clifford Leech points out three of its hazards – inequality, secrecy and the fact
that it is a second marriage. In making this marriage a central theme of the
play, Webster sets the conventional, unorthodox and legal against the
unconventional and unorthodox without suggesting any illegality. The secret
marriage is seen as an act of defiance against the accepted orthodoxy of the
church. The Duke and the Cardinal proclaim their general antipathy towards the
marriage of widows, suggesting that such unions mean loss of virtue and giving
way to baser instincts. “Prejudice, private obsession and narrow orthodoxy
combine to shatter the glorious dream-world of the secret marriage.
f) Blood and Lust :
A critic, Robert Hewison, noted the theme of “blood and lust, indeed lust after
someone of one’s own blood”. This stark appraisal of the play is confirmed by
Ferdinand’s dying couplet :
“Whether we fall by Ambition, blood or lust.
Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust.” (V, v, 72-73)
Stirred blood releases intense emotion which issues in love or lust. In each case
it is self-destructive. Cardinal’s lust is satisfied by his mistress Julia, but his
cooling desire and her sudden passion for Bosola’s “lively sparks of roughness”
lead to her poisoning, and Cardinal’s death when he attempts to cover up the
murder by disposing of the body. When Ferdinand learns of the Duchess’ child,
his violent response is couched in terrifying burning images. His mind and body
seem to be on fire with lust. In a maddened outburst of disgust, Ferdinand
describes his sister’s heart as a “hollow bullet / Filled with unquenchable
wild-fire”. (Act III, ii, 115-116)
