ABSTRACT
The Duchess of Malfi is permeated with narratives and images of torture, and, like many other Jacobean revenge tragedies, with the threat to bodily integrity displayed in the dismembered body. The Duchess of Malfi explores the salvific possibilities of a violent aesthetic. In the case of Measure for Measure and The Duchess of Malfi, Isabella and the Duchess use blazonic language themselves, appropriating Petrarchan tropes to defend themselves against their would-be suitors or masters. What distinguishes these moments of rhetorical dismemberment from the collections' lyric blazons is the centrality of the female body, not as an object to be conquered but as an integral component of each character's subjectivity. Both Isabella and the Duchess take seriously the consequences of Petrarchan, specifically blazonic, rhetoric, and their engagement with the torturous possibilities of the blazon temporarily protects them, not by shielding their bodies but rather by drawing attention to their own embodiment.
