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1. Consider "The Duchess of Malfi' as a Revenge Tragedy. [05, 151/The moral problem supersedes the revenge theme in "The Duchess of Malfi' [95/07]/Webster shows us melodrama lifted into poetry. Discuss with reference to the 'The Duchess of Malfi' [97]/Discuss 'The Duchess of Malfi' as a dark tragedy. [94] Ans: A revenge tragedy is a tragedy in which the tragedy is brought about by the pursuit and accomplishment of revenge taken, for some wrong or wrongs, by either the person wronged himself or by someone else on his behalf. "The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster is a revenge tragedy modeled on Seneca, the Latin playwright of 1st century A.D. It is considered as one of the best tragedies containing almost all the characteristics of a revenge tragedy. This play contains extreme violence, plotting and mostly revenge which are the chief elements of a revenge tragedy. The revenge tragedy was very popular during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The characteristics of Revenge Tragedy are: 1. The story should centre on characters of noble birth. 2. The narrative should describe complex plotting. 3. There should be murders. 4. There should obviously be a desire for revenge. 5. The plot should involve physical horrors such as poisoning and torture. 6. Order should be restored at the end of the play. 7. There should be the presence of supernatural elements and real or feigned madness. 8. The play should be set into five acts as laid down by Seneca in his original rules of tragedy. If we consider 'The Duchess of Malfi' as a revenge tragedy in the light of the characteristics of revenge tragedy, we will find almost all the elements of a revenge tragedy in 'The Duchess of Malfi'. Horrors in The Duchess of Malfi: The play portrays the result of a young widow's refusal to obey her brothers' command never to remarry. This drama contains so many elements of horrors that it can be classified as a melodrama. From the beginning to the end of this drama, there are a lot of elements of horrors. The last two acts of the play have an abundance of them. The Duke gives a dead man's hand to the Duchess in order to horrify her and she kisses it as she thinks it to be the Duke's hand. The spectacle of waxen images of the dead bodies of Antonio and the children presented before the Duchess is another horrid scene. This was done to shatter the psychological balance of the Duchess. Then cavorting mad men come, followed by Bosola in the guise of a tomb-maker. He keeps talking of sepulchres and putrefying human flesh and creates a chilly atmosphere. The executioner with coffin and rope indicates that the end is close. Lastly, the Duchess is strangulated with a big rope. The innocent children are also strangulated. Cariola, who is pregnant, is also caught and murdered. Even in the fifth act the horrors continue. Ferdinand gets insane and digs up the graves and brings dead bodies into the town. The last horror comes when Julia is poisoned in a most cold-blooded manner. Antonio is killed and Ferdinand, Cardinal and Bosola- all meet their death at the end. So, there are ten murders in the play. Revenge and murders: Revenge taking and murder are the integral part of a revenge tragedy. The Duchess of Malfi differs in a number of ways from the traditional revenge play. It doesn't become clear why revenge is taken on the Duchess. Her only fault is that she has married below her rank and status and thus the two brothers think that she has disgraced the family. She has certainly not committed any heinous crime. Ferdinand is informed of her marriage as soon as her first baby is born and she has two other children before Ferdinand acts to have his revenge. For more than two years, Ferdinand and the Cardinal do nothing to punish the Duchess. A strong revenge motif appears late in the play when Bosola avenges himself on the Cardinal and Ferdinand for their ingratitude to him and also because he has been touched by the murder of the Duchess and decides to avenge it. Supernatural elements: In presenting the supernatural too, Webster deviates from the tradition. He does not present any of the conventional portents found in typical revenge plays. There is absolutely nothing unrealistically supernatural in the play. The sorrowful answers which the echo makes to Antonio's words are the result of a natural phenomenon. Antonio's words: "and on the sudden a clear light/presented of a face folded in sorrow"(Act V Scene III) come only from his fancy. No ghost appears on the scene. Madness shown on the stage: It is a tradition of Elizabethan revenge tragedies to show madness on the stage. In this play we see madness of mad people. The Duke devises the scheme to torture the Duchess with the intention of turning her mad. But ironically he, not the Duchess, becomes mad. This madness of the Duke is still of greater significance. In summing up, we can say that "The Duchess of Malfi" is a revenge tragedy. Although Webster wrote this drama following the tradition of revenge tragedy, he has modified some of its aspects to make it unique. 2. Comment on the theme of unequal marriage in The Duchess of Malfi. [13]/Comment on the theme of marriage in The Duchess of Malfi. Ans: Marriage is often a theme in The Duchess of Malfi in disguise. In her first appearance, the Duchess tells her brothers, "I'll never marry". But before the scene is even over, she has proposed to and married Antonio, a commoner and her steward. Clearly, she has disguised her true intentions from them. She then manages to have three children with Antonio without ever revealing their marriage. But the marriage brings the Duchess herself to ill fame, even before it is known to be a marriage. At the beginning of Act III Antonio puts it bluntly: 'The common rabble do directly say she is a strumpet". The Duchess admits to Ferdinand that 'a scandalous report" is abroad concerning her. When the marriage is threatened through Ferdinand's confrontation of her, she at once thinks of saving the marriage by flight. Webster makes it plain that in this marriage there is harm to public order, there is public disapproval, there is neglect of duty. In the opening scene, the Cardinal and Ferdinand are opposed to the idea of their widowed sister's remarrying. Both brothers seem to be worried that their widowed sister will succumb to temptation and undertake a marriage that will damage the family honour. The Cardinal warns his sister not to 'take your own choice'. The Duchess's position as a female ruler is also responsible for her brothers' concerns about her capacity to act independently of their wishes. We find the Cardinal telling his sister that widows vows never to remarry commonly last 'no longer/Than the turning of an hourglass'. Ferdinand discusses this theme with particular urgency and declares that to marry twice is "luxurious' (lascivious), that those who do so have 'spotted' livers the liver was seen as the seat of passion. Neither Ferdinand nor the Cardinal says outright that what they fear is that their sister will marry 'beneath her', but this uneasiness about rank is strongly implied in the advice they give her. The Cardinal's reference t the Duchess's 'high blood' in particular indicates class insecurity: he is afraid that she will fall into the arms of a lower-class man. Later in the play, when the brothers learn that their sister has indeed remarried, they leap to the conclusion that her second husband is of humble birth. So the Cardinal cries 'Shall our blood/The royal blood of Aragon and Castile,/Be thus attainted?'. He believes that a cross-class marriage causes a tainting of the family's pure noble blood. Both Ferdinand and the Cardinal make thinly veiled threats to their sister. Their language suggests that a secret, unauthorised second marriage will be met with severe punishment. So Ferdinand declares: 'Such weddings may more properly be said/To be executed than celebrated'. The Cardinal added: 'The marriage night/Is the entrance into some prison'. The Duchess certainly violates norms of femininity in the final episode of Act 1. She adopts the active role in the marriage, courting and effectively proposing marriage to Antonio. The Duchess not only instigates the wooing but also places the ring on Antonio's finger. When he kneels in response, she raises him up again. This underlines her powerful position. The Duchess may marry the steward, but she remains very much an aristocrat. In The Duchess of Malfi, Webster signals that the play's dominant aristocracy is in a state of crisis. They are threatened by men like Antonio, an able administrator who captures the heart of a high-born woman more impressed by merit than rank. So the brothers' attitude to the Duchess's marrying again is determined not just by their ideas about family honour but also by their ideas about class consciousness. Their attitudes are linked with their belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman which should be chosen not for reasons of love but with a view to enhancing family power and maintaining aristocracy. Lastly, we cannot and should not say that in The Duchess of Malfi Webster condemns unequal marriages. Rather, he shows what the world thinks of them. More importantly, he shows the price one pays if one disregards the world's prejudice.