The Duchess of Malfi Essays & Research Papers

Theme of Control and Authority in John Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’

Paradise Lost The Duchess of Malfi

The instinct to control others is indeed natural for characters in John Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’. Both Webster and Milton explore the control one exerts over women through Ferdinand and Adam’s desire to control the females, the control of those at a lower status illustrated through the religious figureheads of both works, the Cardinal and God. However, it can be argued that the instinct to control is not a natural inclination especially for women,...

4 Pages 1988 Words

Villains in Williams Shakespeare's 'Othello' and John Webster's ‘The Duchess of Malfi’

The concept of tragedy within plays is to highlight the dramatic style of humanity, through our encounters with sorrow and terrible events. Specifically, in Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies, this approach to tragedy was filled with dynamics based upon the characters of the plays actions. Often, the source of such tragedies stemmed from the conspiring roles of villains. The existence of villains is a term that has constantly become defined through labels in literary, historical and movie groups throughout history. Often...

4 Pages 1922 Words

Misogyny in William Shakespeare's Hamlet' and John Webster’s ‘The Duchess of Malfi’

Hamlet Misogyny The Duchess of Malfi

R. Howard Bloch argues misogyny is “a discourse visible across a broad spectrum of poetic types”. A pervading mindset which has permeated society since time immemorial, “so persistent is the discourse of misogyny” Bloch states “that the uniformity of its terms furnishes an important link between the Middle Ages and the present”. At the same time, while he allows that there have been changes within the discourse, he maintains that this “suggests that the very tenacity of the topoi of...

6 Pages 2879 Words

Theme of Female Sexuality in Rossetti's and Webster's Texts

Christina Rossetti Human Sexuality The Duchess of Malfi

In ‘Maude Clare’, Rossetti shows a powerful alternative type of woman – Maude Clare. The name is significant as ‘Maude’ derives from the word ‘warrior’ and connotes extreme strength and power, thus presenting women and their female sexuality as a powerful weapon that only warriors like Maude Clare and women possess. However, there are similarities between this poem and ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ as Rossetti uses the noun ‘queen’ to describe Maude Clare at the end of the first stanza...

5 Pages 2065 Words