In a story of friendship, marriage, betrayal, and revenge, The Duchess of Malfi follows the recently widowed Duchess as she defies the social norms of the Early Modern era for love. After marrying the steward of her household, Antonio, the Duchess is met with disgust and anger, especially from her power-hungry and greedy brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal. Bosola, the agent of the brothers’ greedy revenge, wreaks havoc on the Duchess’ life. This results in…
… the untimely end of her and two of her three children. Bosola then enacts his own revenge for being used by the Duchess’ brothers in their grisly scheme. In this gruesome tragedy, Webster provokes his audience to re-examine what they know about power, love, marriage, friendship, betrayal, and revenge.
(HIGHLIGHT FOR SPOILER)
For a more detailed synopsis, please visit the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Duchess_of_Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi was written by John Webster in 1612-13 and published in 1623, twenty years after Queen Elizabeth I’s death, when England had a new king, James I. This is why The Duchess of Malfi is a “Jacobean” play, rather than an “Elizabethan” play. This whole period of drama (from Elizabeth I’s rule from 1558 to 1603 and James I’s rule from 1603 to 1625) can be called “the English Renaissance” or “the Early Modern period.”
Webster’s tragedy is part of a long line of “revenge tragedies” (like Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth). “Revenge tragedies” were a very popular genre of dramatic plays that involve plotting, madness, secrets, disguises, escalation of violence, and a final catastrophic scene that decimates the characters.
Scholars believe that this play is based on historical events. Duchess Giovanna d’Aragona’s life and death had already been dramatized in the 1560s by other authors whom Webster used for source material. It was not uncommon in this period for playwrights to lift stories from history or even from their peers.
The Duchess was performed at the outdoor Globe theater and an indoor theater called the Blackfriars. During that time period, theater was highly interactive and actors used the entire space — not just the stage. Stages at the Globe and the Blackfriars were relatively bare, and costumes were hand-me-downs from nobility. There were sumptuary laws about clothing at the time which regulated who was allowed to wear certain types of clothes. All female characters would be played by young men. Women were generally not accepted on stage until the 1660s.
Did you know?
- During this time period, going to the theater was on the same level as going to watch animals fight. This can be seen in the architecture of the time — the arenas for bear/dog fights are similar to the layout of some theaters.
- Actors had a roll on which only their lines (and the lines directly preceding theirs) were written, hence an actor having a “role”. They did not have a full script with all of the characters’ lines like actors have today.
- Rehearsal times were often short, roles were often doubled, and acting troupes had huge repertoires. This often led to stock characters.
- It was more acceptable to have The Duchess of Malfi be set in Italy than in England because that meant that the transgressions depicted in the play were happening in a safe, foreign place (i.e., not at home).
- The status of women at the time was by no means black and white. While there were no female actors, and unmarried women were like currency, women were not always submissive. After all, the most powerful person in the country for the past 45 years had been a woman.
- The average age for women to marry was 27, and the average age for men to marry was 28. Rich people often married when they were younger. At that time, one could get married by simply holding hands and having a witness.
- At the time, lycanthropy was connected to being in love — if a person were so much in love, they might turn into a wolf.