ABSTRACT
The Duchess of Malfi is John Webster’s most celebrated play. Ahead of its time in its sympathetic portrayal of female strength and courage, it dramatizes the story of Giovanna d’Aragona (c. 1478–1513), a widowed noblewoman who secretly married her household steward. Departing from his primary source for the play—William Painter’s novella, The Palace of Pleasure, an English translation of the French Histoires Tragiques (1565) by Francois de Belleforest—which represents the Duchess’s remarriage as immoral, Webster represents the Duchess’s brothers, Duke Ferdinand and the Cardinal, as vengeful, somewhat psychopathic patriarchs who attempt to control and contain their sister, body and soul. At the time this play was staged, King James I was on the throne and female monarchy was a thing of the recent past (Elizabeth I had died in 1603). In some ways, the question of Elizabethan authority haunts Webster’s play, which meditates upon how powerful female sexuality was perceived to be a threat, particularly when a woman prominent in the state and nobility unapologetically pursues her heart’s desire. By engaging in a secret courtship and marriage with Antonio, the steward of her household, the Duchess risks her reputation and that of the family she represents. Her brothers’ concerns about her sexual behavior reflect this fear about family reputation that was particularly important to the nobility, but Ferdinand, her twin, becomes perversely obsessed with her sexual status; his threats toward her become disturbingly incestuous and tyrannical. This is clearly shown in Act IV, when, with the help of his spy, the malcontent Bosola, he engineers a sequence of psychological tortures designed to punish and weaken the Duchess. These involve a “dead hand” made of wax and the macabre display of the waxen figures of her husband and children, intended to make the Duchess believe that they are dead. Even Bosola, who is commissioned to enact the tortures, struggles with their horrifying nature. Nevertheless, until the very moment of her death, the Duchess maintains her composure and independence. In what is perhaps the play’s most famous line, “I am Duchess of Malfi still,” spoken just before she is killed (IV.ii. 120), the Duchess affirms her sense of self and identity, and insists on her courage and virtue.
