THE DUCHESS OF MALFI-JOHN
WEBSTER (1580-1632)
John Webster's date of birth and death is unknown. Similarly, no idea about his education. Most probably he might have born in 1580 and
died in 1632. His life seems to have
been hidden in mystery. We can
understand from the plays that he had written in collaboration in collaboration with Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton earlier. But from the plays of his own, it is evident that Webster was an excellent writer. Webster’s fame
rests almost entirely on his two masterpieces, ‘The White Devil’ and ‘The
Duchess of Malfi’. He is said to have
occupied a place next to Shakespeare among his contemporaries as a writer of
tragedies. Moreover, Seneca, the great ancient Roman tragic dramatist of the first century AD, who introduced the elements of horror in the revenge play, influenced him much. Webster follows the
Senecan model of tragedy in his plays. Painter’s
‘Palace of Pleasure’ is the source that helped Webster to come out with ‘The
Duchess of Malfi’. The theme of the
story of Painter was a warning to women against pursuing sensual desire. But Webster enriched the story with
considerable additions and transformed the play as a psychological study of
human characters in abnormal circumstances.
While
Antonio, who has returned from France is talking with his friend Delio, Bosola
and the Cardinal come there. Bosola says
that he has been in galleys for the murder he did for the Cardinal. However, he is later appointed as a spy in
the court by Ferdinand, Duke of
Calabria, the brother of the Cardinal and the Duchess of Malfi. Ferdinand asks Bosola to work as a spy upon
his sister. He wants Bosola watch the
suitors of his sister. He and his
brother the Cardinal don’t want their sister marrying again. But the Duchess falls in love with her
Steward Antonio and secretly marries him.
However, a child is born to them.
Bosola, the spy gets the horoscope of the newborn son of Antonio and the
Duchess. But he doesn’t know it was
Antonio who married the Duchess. Bosola
sends Castruccio with the message to the Cardinal and Ferdinand that the
Duchess has given birth to a child.
The
Cardinal and Ferdinand get angry on knowing the childbirth of their
sister. Ferdinand wants to burn the
bodies of the Duchess and her lover in coalpit.
But the Cardinal controls him.
However, the brothers don’t do anything for some time. During that period the Duchess gives birth to
two more children. So, the people of
Malfi begin to whisper that the Duchess is a strumpet. Though Antonio gets richer day by day, no one
suspects Antonio to be the husband of the Duchess. However, Ferdinand meets his sister and asks
her to marry Count Malatesti. But she
refuses. Ferdinand enters the chamber of
the Duchess with the help of Bosola who provides him the false keys of the
chamber. He overhears the words of the
Duchess when she talks to herself. As
Ferdinand doesn’t know who her husband is, the Duchess wants to save Antonio by
banishing him for the dishonesty. So she
sends Antonio to Ancona and says that soon she will join him there.
Bosola
by praising Antonio, makes the Duchess open her heart. She tells Bosola that Antonio is her husband
and also reveals her further plan to him.
Bosola suggests her to go to a pilgrimage to Loretto, which is very near
to Ancona. Then Bosola goes to Rome and
informs the plan of the Duchess to Ferdinand and the Cardinal. The Cardinal, who is also a distinguished
soldier exchanges his robes of church dignitary with those of a soldier in the
shrine of our lady of Loretto, on the demand of the Emperor Charles V, to take
part in the military operations. The
Duchess and Antonio are banished from Ancona and their properties have been
confiscated by the influence of the Cardinal.
The Duchess sends Antonio, to Milan with the eldest son. But the Duchess becomes a prisoner in her own
place then.
Ferdinand
wants to be reconciled with the Duchess.
He asks her to meet in her room without any lights. She begs pardon in the darkness. As a token of his sentiments, he offers her a
dead man’s hand. Then says, it is the
hand to which she had vowed her love and which bears the ring she gave. The Duchess calls for lights and discovers
that it is a dead man’s hand. He
convinces the Duchess that Antonio is dead and shows a few waxen figures behind
the curtain and says that they are the dead bodies of Antonio and the children. The Duchess is so agonized at the sight and
decides to end her life by fasting.
Ferdinand enjoys his tormenting the Duchess. He plans further torments by sending a troop
of mad people near her lodgings. They
make nerve shattering noise. But the
Duchess tolerates everything and shows wonderful nobility. Then Bosola comes disguised as an old man and
says that he has come to make her tomb.
The Duchess talks to him without having any fear. Then executioners enter with a coffin chord
and a bell. Bosola tells the Duchess
that she is to die by strangling. She
prays upon her knees and is strangled.
Then Cariola, her maid servant and the children of the Duchess are also strangled. However, on looking at the dead face of the Duchess, Ferdinand intolerably says,
‘Cover her face: mine eyes dazzle; she died young’.
Duke
Ferdinand develops a fit of madness, then. The
doctor calls it as Lycanthropia, a kind of insanity, where the patient thinks
that he has been transformed into a wolf.
Though the Cardinal knows about the death of the Duchess, he pretends to
be unknown of it. He promises Bosola
fortune and honour if he kills Antonio.
But Bosola overhears the Cardinal’s plan of killing Bosola after the
death of Antonio. So, Bosola decides to
kill the Cardinal and save Antonio. But
unfortunately, he mistakes Antonio for the Cardinal, and he thrusts his sword
at Antonio. The Cardinal tells the
courtiers not to come for help, even if they happen to hear the shriek of
Ferdinand, on his entering into the place where actually Bosola is waiting to take his life. So, no one comes to his help
when the Cardinal shrieks for help on his getting attacked by Bosola. Then Ferdinand comes there with a sword and
attacks Bosola. Bosola kills both the
Cardinal and Ferdinand. He tells the
courtiers everything and that it is his revenge for their murder of the
Duchess. Thus, Bosola becomes the executioner of divine vengeance upon the
Cardinal and Ferdinand. It is really a
strange transformation of Bosola at the end.
Then Delio comes with Antonio’s son and establishes him in his mother’s right. Thus, the Duchess of Malfi stands
so different from the average revenge play.
DUCHESS OF
MALFI – A TYPICAL REVENGE PLAY
A revenge
play is characterized by the pursuit of revenge. Revenge of a wrong, real or supposed, is the
dominant motif of a revenge play. It is
executed almost ruthlessly and often involves a series of murders in a revenge
play. The revenge plays owe its influence
to Seneca. Seneca’s ‘Ten Tragedies’ were
translated into English in between 1559 and 1581. Gorboduc, by Sackville and Norton was first
written on the Senecan model. Then came
Kyd’s ‘Spanish Tragedy’ and Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. Though Webster does not strictly follow the
techniques of a revenge play and brings no ghost in his play, the action of
‘The Duchess of Malfi’ has a strong revenge motive in it.
The Duchess
marries secretly and bears children while her husband Antonio remains
undiscovered for some time. Her brothers
the Cardinal and Ferdinand feel that their widowed sister has brought a bad
name to the distinguished family of the Duke.
Therefore, they must have revenge.
However, they wait for two years during which period the Duchess gives
birth to two more children. But still,
they won’t get any idea about her husband.
Ferdinand begins to be active now.
He carries out the sinister plan of persecution and torture of his
sister with the help of Bosola. The
Duchess’s patience and endurance stir the conscience of Bosola who even
protests against the cruelty.
Unexpectedly a slow but a sure change comes over him after the death of
the Duchess and children. the Duchess,
the heroine of the play dies as per the rule of tragedy. The Duchess is a unique character. And it is Webster’s supreme art which has
created the character.
Webster
creates effective melodramatic effects in the scenes of the strangling of the
Duchess and her children, the chorus of maniacs, the murder of Cariola in the
fourth act. They produce all the
necessary sensation, which is an important element in a revenge play. Moreover, Webster has a strange power of
evoking shudders. When the Duchess talks
to her husband Antonio, he leaves her without her knowledge. Unfortunately, she continues her speech,
thinking that Antonio hears her. But it
is actually, Ferdinand who hears there.
Whoever watches the play has an immediate impulse here to shout to her
‘Beware’. Similarly, the scene where
Ferdinand makes his sister kiss the severed hand and see the waxen dead bodies
of Antonio and children are also very effective and powerful enough to evoke
shudders.
Ferdinand has
no individuality of his own and he acts according to the bidding of his brother
the Cardinal. The persecution and terror
to which their sister is subjected must have been designed by the Cardinal and
are executed by Ferdinand through Bosola.
The tragedy that Ferdinand suffers is more appalling than his sister’s. It begins as soon as he looks at the face of the
strangled Duchess. The face henceforth
ever haunts him and finally makes him a Lycanthrope, who imagines himself as a
wild beast. His outraged conscience at
the strangling of the Duchess revenges itself upon him in madness. Moreover, in the fifth act the retribution
for the crime committed by the two brothers is brought about. As Antonio too has been killed mistakenly by
Bosola, Webster uses Bosola, the villain for this purpose. He becomes the hero of the fifth act. The two brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal
are killed by Bosola. Thus, Bosola
becomes the instrument of Nemeses and the executer of diving vengeance upon the
culprits. These all make ‘The Duchess of
Malfi’ a different and better revenge play.
------Thulasidharan V
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