Duchess Of Malf Open Learn

John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

Introduction 3
Learning outcomes 3
Background 3
Description 4
Act 1: setting the scene 5
Courts ideal and real 5
Discussion 5
Description 8
Bosola the malcontent 8
Discussion 9
Marriage for love: family opposition 10
Discussion 10
Love and marriage: Antonio the steward 13
Discussion 14
Love and marriage: the Duchess 15
Description 16
Description 17
Discussion 19
Act 2: discovery 21
Ferdinand 21
Discussion 22
Conclusion 24
References 24
Further reading 25
Next steps 25
Acknowledgements 26
Figures 26
Don’t miss out 26

Introduction
This unit, on the first two acts of John Webster’s Renaissance tragedy The Duchess of Malfi, focuses on the representation of the theme of love and marriage in the Malfi court, and the social conflicts to which it gives rise. The unit guides you through the first part of the play and will help you to develop your skills of textual analysis.
This unit focuses mainly on Acts 1 and 2 of the play. You should make sure that you have read these two acts of the play before you read the unit.
The edition of the play that is used in this unit is the Pearson Longman (2009) edition, edited by Monica Kendall. However, there are free versions available online that you may prefer to use.
This unit is an adapted extract from the Open University course A230 Reading and studying literature. It can also be found in the publication Anita Pacheco and David Johnson (eds) (2012) The Renaissance and Long Eighteenth Century, published by The Open University and Bloomsbury Academic.
Learning outcomes
After studying this unit you should be able to: understand the treatment of the themes of love and death in Acts 1 and 2 of John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi examine other related themes and concerns of Acts 1 and 2 carry out textual analysis recognise some of the historical contexts of the play.
Background
John Webster (c.1580–c.1634) was Shakespeare’s contemporary, though sixteen years younger. He makes a brief appearance

References: Evans, M. (ed.) (1977) Elizabethan Sonnets, London, J.M. Dent and Sons. Henderson, K.U. and MacManus, B. (1985) Half Humankind: Contexts and Texts of the Controversy about Women in England 1540–1640, Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press. James I (1599) Basilikon Doron Devided into Three Bookes, Edinburgh. Keeble, N.H Marcus, L.S. (ed.) (2009) The Duchess of Malfi, Arden Early Modern Drama, London, Methuen. Rabkin, N. (ed.) (1968) Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Duchess of Malfi, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall. Shakespeare, W. (2008 [1622]) Othello (ed. M. Neill), Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Webster, J. (2009 [1623]) The Duchess of Malfi (ed. M. Kendall), Harlow, Pearson Longman. Whigham, F. (1985) ‘Sexual and social mobility in The Duchess of Malfi’, Publications of the Modern Language Association, vol. 100, no. 2, pp. 167–86. Belsey, C. (1980) ‘Emblem and antithesis in The Duchess of Malfi’, Renaissance Drama, vol. 11, pp. 115–34. Ekeblad, I.S. (1958) ‘The impure art of John Webster’, Review of English Studies, vol. 9, pp. 253–67. Maus, K.E. (ed.) (1995) Four Revenge Tragedies, Oxford World’s Classics, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Neill, M. (1997) Issues of Death: Mortality and Identity in English Renaissance Tragedy, Oxford, Clarendon Press.