William Shakespeare s The Duchess Of Malfi - 1642 Words

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 violent and tragic scene of the Duchess’s execution and torture. The scene occurs after the Duchess encounters a theatrical spectacle delivered by her brother Ferdinand, as his way of punishing and torturing her (Pacheco, 2012, p169) The dramatic function this serves is that it reveals a violent and painful death to the audience, made all the more shocking and tragic with her welcoming death and believing, ‘to meet such excellent company/In th’ other world.’ (Webster, 2004, p159) Webster employs dramatic irony at this point as she thinks Antonio is dead and the audience know this is an act of torture and so this illustrates the tragedy of the situation. The extract starts with the Duchess calming Cariola after it is revealed that the Duchess will be killed and she says, ‘Peace, it affrights not me.’ (Webster, 2004, p155) Her response is shocking as death does not ‘affright’ (Webster, 2012, p155) her and she is attempting to put Cariola’s mind at ‘peace’(Webster, 2004, p155) rather thanShow MoreRelatedWilliam Shakespeare s The Duchess Of Malfi1005 Words   |  5 PagesAt 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† engende rs this doom? InitiallyRead 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