The Duchess of Malfi: What To Compare It To (OCR A Level English Literature)

Topic sentence

Both Webster and Chaucer consider the impact of secrecy and revelations by presenting female characters whose true nature is hidden due to patriarchal standards regarding marriage 

Evidence and analysis

The Duchess of Malfi

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

Webster’s protagonist, the Duchess, is duplicitous to her brothers by marrying in secret: 

• They forbid her from marrying again although she a is a young widow

• Her brother calls her a “lusty widow”, referring to her desire to remarry

• This contrasts to Antonio’s description of her “noble virtue” in Act I, Scene II

• The Merchant (on a pilgrimage to Canterbury) tells a story about an affair

• He describes a female character, May, whose secret affair “proves” women’s hedonistic and indulgent deceit:

  • However, May fools many of the characters (including her “lecherous” husband), who view her as virtuous and “fresshe” 

Webster shows how the Duchess maintains two versions of her identity in order to maintain autonomy:

• She speaks little when with her brothers but protests to her maid after what she oxymoronically calls her brothers’ “terrible good counsel”

In the tale, the Merchant shows how May presents an image to male characters that reflects their own desires, behaving as a submissive woman in order to manipulate men:

• However, in private she complains about her husband and declares he does not satisfy her at all

The Duchess's secret marriage, which defies her strict societal duties, must be hidden from her brothers:

• She hides her pregnancy and her son’s birth

• When Ferdinand finds out she has three children she tells him she is married to protest his accusation that they are illegitimate

May’s deceit (an affair outside her contractual marriage) is kept hidden from her husband by a trick played by the god Pluto:

• When Januarie’s sight is restored and he sees May and Damian together, May convinces him he is wrong, aware of the repercussions

• She is aided by the goddess Proserpina, who sees Januarie as “lecherous”

Webster conveys the futility of her struggle to live according to her desires:

• The Duchess's family is exposed by Bosola who betrays her trust 

• When she is exposed her brothers torture and kill her

• Antonio is killed in his bid to save her

Chaucer shows, through the Merchant, that the imbalanced marriage between May and Januarie continues:

• May’s affair with Damyan is exposed when Januarie’s “sighte” is restored by Pluto

• May returns to her husband and unhappy marriage 

• The Merchant suggests that Januarie is also imprisoning himself in such a marriage

Webster explores patriarchal control regarding marriage by presenting Ferdinand’s outrage at his sister’s secret marriage:

• Her brother calls her sinful and describes her “rank blood”

• Her brothers refer to her, and other women, as fickle and easily led (“turning on an hour glass”)

Similarly, Chaucer’s tale presents the way May defies social expectations by exhibiting her resistance to standards of behaviour for women:

• The “typically female trait of deceit” is a theme throughout the poem

• The Merchant uses her character to convey cynical ideas about marriage 

Both female characters highlight the way gender stereotypes and imbalanced marital constructs can result in repressed desire that manifests in socially unacceptable acts

Topic sentence

Both Webster and Chaucer explore hypocrisies within social constructs, which result in oppressive and controlling yet internally blind leaders

Evidence and analysis

The Duchess of Malfi

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

• The Duchess's brothers, Duke Ferdinand and the Cardinal, represent powerful leaders 

• They suggest the control they exert over the Duchess's sexuality and marriage is based on respectability and purity of the bloodline

Januarie, the male character of the Merchant’s tale, is a “Knyght” who holds a position of power:

• He is business-driven, and shows a desire to sustain a respectable and powerful position in society through his marriage to May, a younger woman

The brothers are shown to be demeaning in their attitude to the Duchess and women: 

• The Cardinal suggests remarriage would lead to her funeral

• Ferdinand believes women who do not tell the truth are “witches ere they arrive at twenty years”

Januarie, an older man, marries May, a much younger woman:

• He wishes to mould her like “wax” so that she provides him with an heir

• He has visions of all the young women he could choose for his wife

• He declares his wife “shal nat passe twenty yeer” 

Ferdinand’s reasons for not wanting the Duchess to remarry are presented as superficial:

• He alludes to an incestious love for his twin sister 

• He tells Bosola he wants her ful inheritance

Januarie makes clear his attraction towards May is due to her youthful beauty:

• He remarks on “hir fresshe beautee and hir age tender, hir middle small, hir armes longe and sklendre”

The Cardinal is exposed as hypocritical:

• He conducts an affair with Julia, wife of Lord Castruccio, a friend

Throughout the poem the heroic and virile image of the “Knyght” is exposed as superficial, something that May reveals to the reader when she says his sexual prowess was “not worth a bene”

• Ferdinand’s diseased mind shows some sense of remorse for his actions towards the Duchess before he dies

• Daniel de Bosola grieves for the Duchess when she is killed and realises his mistakes 

• Although Januarie is physically turned “blynd” by Pluto, which increases his control over May, this is when he loses her to Damyan

• Januarie begins to realise his flaws, noting that he is “jalos”

• But May easily convinces her husband that he has no “parfit sighte”, and that he who “misconcyveth, he misdemeth”, suggesting he is still blind despite the return of his sight

Both texts explore the male stereotype through the lens of prideful superiority, presenting flaws and fallibilities which, if not understood, leave the characters paranoid

Topic sentence

While both Webster and Chaucer present characters who defy the system and are shamed for their misdeeds, Webster presents clear punishments for his heroes in the resolution while Chaucer leaves his ending ambiguous

Evidence and analysis

The Duchess of Malfi

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

The Duchess of Malfi can be considered a political satire as it exposes violent abuse within established social constructs and shows the attempts of those who battle under its restraints as futile

While the poem is satirical, it can be considered a warning or a fable in its comparison to a folk tale, leaving readers with an ambiguous ending 

• The play ends with the deaths of Antonio and the Duchess

• Her son and heir is left with Antonio’s friend, Delio

Whereas in The Merchant’s Tale, the unhappy and deceitful marriage between Januarie and May continues: 

• Januarie strokes May’s stomach and takes her back to the castle

• The play’s ending suggests that marriage that defies societal standards and codes of conduct within Renaissance nobility cannot survive

• The Duchess believes that the part she plays in life is not of her choosing

• However, The Merchant’s Tale seems to end with a confirmation that imbalanced marriage is inevitable

• In the Prologue, marriage is described comically as “purgatory”

While Webster’s satirical play ends pessimistically with death and tragedy, Chaucer’s fable, told by a merchant as an allegory about marital tensions, ends with the continuation of an unhappy marriage, perhaps as a warning to men to avoid imbalanced marriages or to present the inevitability of unhappy marriage

Topic sentence

While Webster mocks hypocrisies within a patriarchal Italian Renaissance court, Chaucer satirises courtly love in a Romantic mediaeval England 

Evidence and analysis

The Duchess of Malfi

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale

Webster’s setting, an Italian court, highlights themes of corruption within religious institutions and the political sphere

Chaucer’s poem uses a fantastical and romantic setting, drawing on comparisons with the Garden of Eden

The Duchess is forced to leave her Amalfi home, is banished from Ancona and is imprisoned in Duke Ferdinand’s palace

In The Merchant’s Tale, May goes to a garden (which perhaps alludes to the Garden of Eden) inhabited by the gods Pluto and Prosepina

• Webster shows intimate scenes between the Duchess and Antonio in her room, suggesting she has freedom in her own territory

• However, outside of her chambers she is vulnerable to the powerful influence of her brothers and their spies and allies across Italy

• May’s sexual encounters with Damyan by a pear tree (which may symbolise the Tree of Knowledge) are vividly presented

• They are seen as “maken melodye” in the heavenly paradise

Webster’s dark revenge tragedy explores corruption and violence, while Chaucer’s comedic fable explores marriage as an inevitable and relentless problem

Text

Summary

Key comparisons with The Duchess of Malfi

"Paradise Lost: Books IX and X" by John Milton (1667) – set text list

The epic poem examines the Biblical tale of Adam and Eve and focuses on how the control exerted on Eve leads her to defy instructions and confront the “truth”

• The poem explores the way controlling figures can lead to dissatisfaction and rebellion 

• The female character faces a moral dilemma as an external force applies pressure

• The poem explores ideas relating to masculinity and power

• The male character is exposed to truths he attempts to conceal 

• The poem alludes to religious ideals of morality 

"Maud" by Alfred Tennyson (1855) – set text list

The poem explores challenges within relationships due to dichotomies between love and marriage as a form of social mobility 

• The poem presents an emotionally unstable character

• The speaker, a male character, is confused about love

• External pressures cause conflict for the narrator 

• The speaker’s future relies on marriage

• The theme of wealth as a vehicle for happiness is presented 

• The poem presents madness as a result of unrequited love

Selected Poems by Christina Rossetti (1840–1850) – set text list

The poems explore the nature of love, especially in relation to marriage and the changing role of women in the 19th century

• “Goblinmarket” considers the idea of temptation, of women straying from convention and expectation

• “Remember” explores the nature of love as pragmatic, displayed by selfless acts

• “Maude Clare” depicts a woman rejecting the convention of marriage 

• “Winter: my secret” presents a flirtatious woman, defying stereotypes

• “Sacrifice” explores the theme of sacrifice within love

• “Soeur Louise” depicts a woman’s search for autonomy in a restrictive environment

Selected Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1830–1890)

The poems explore the notion of masculinity and power 

• “Kubla Khan” describes a powerful male figure who, suspended in an imaginary world, attempts to mould a young girl

• “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” explores ideas relating to man’s power and morality

• “Christabel” describes a seductive and wild woman who seduces the narrator

• “The Eolian Harp” speaks of a “coy” instrument that blows as the wind moves it, suggesting its fickle and wild nature

• “This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison” explores themes relating to personal agency and fate

• “Fears in Solitude” is a reflective poem that questions humility and morality