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Walter Porter
ENGL 4864
K. Cleland
The Empowered Female in Jacobean Revenge Drama
Part I: Introduction
In Renaissance revenge dramas written during the Jacobean period, female characters
emerged as empowered individuals in a male-dominant society which so often oppressed them.
My paper will focus on two major plays of the period: John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and
Francis Beaumont’s and John Fletcher’s The Maid’s Tragedy. I will provide an in-depth analysis
of particular women from these two plays and supplement my findings with a series of scholarly
writings and historical evidence to support my claim. My intention isn’t to suggest that the
women in these Renaissance-era dramas or the men who wrote them sparked a reformative
movement that screamed “down with the patriarchy!” in the way that modern feminist theorists
did. I’m basely arguing that these women are presented in ways which invoke the sense of a
strong character. The women in Renaissance drama become empowered by inverting their
gender roles and taking control over their bodies; they are thrust into a playing field within
Renaissance Revenge dramas that allows them to counteract the gender hierarchy set in place
during the early modern period.
Part II: Women and Society During the Early Modern Period
Expectations/generalization of women in a hegemonic society ~ established that Jacobean
period is masculine-dominant, but in what way? Suggest that this is a element of literary
criticism, ongoing even in modern times. Add historical context about women in the early
modern period.
Comment [W1]: Broaden thesis!
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Critical reception  historical context  thesis following introductory paragraphs and
then follow up with the texts that support my claims. \Don’t be afraid to explain how I’m going
to explain my case. Breaking up with section headings if I need be. I’m the master of my paper.
Present scenario and tell the reader how I’m going to approach it with a certain text.
Make sections for each play and then a conclusion which puts them in conversation with one
another. In the various sections, make sure I’m using the language of my thesis for each play, i.e.
female characters take control over their bodies or reverse gender roles.
Audiences who flocked to Renaissance dramas were, as Alison Fidlay so fittingly puts it,
“admitted to a hall of mirrors in which appearances, gender identities and forms of behaviour
could be grotesquely distorted” (49). In this setting, those who were often marginalized as
“lesser” or “inferior” to the ruling class are able to supersede their roles in society and pursue the
empowering act of revenge. Renaissance revenge actually inverts the roles beset for characters,
officially granting women who are often powerless, with maternal power and female agency.
Part III: Evidence of the Empowered Female in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi
In The Duchess of Malfi, John Webster casts the female lead, the Duchess, as a woman
who is already in a position of power, but is an innocent victim of patriarchal control. Her
regality sets her above others in a hierarchical society, but it also serves to govern her romantic
endeavors; she is bound by the preceding obligations of office but enticed by the conflicting
desires in her private life. Her restrictions as a lady of nobility are mostly governed by the Duke
of Calabria, Ferdinand, her obsessive brother who demands unconditional jurisdiction over her
marital affairs. Ferdinand is guided by the presumption that if his widowed sister were to remarry
it would blemish her chastity. In his paranoid stupor, Ferdinand elects the ruthless mercenary
Comment [W2]: Set-up to presenting the nature
of Renaissance drama.
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Bosola to keep a keen eye on his sister’s every romantic endeavor: “I give you that / To live
i’th’court here and observe the Duchess, / To note all the particulars of her havior – / What
suitors do solicit her for marriage, / And whom she best effects. She’s a young widow; / I would
not have her marry again” (1.1.253-258). In summation, it can be firmly asserted that the
Duchess is a woman with a humanistic desire for freedom encroached upon by a villainous tyrant
and the high-brow aristocratic system he perpetuates.
Ferdinand is a patriarchal ruler who is trying to control the Duchess
Ferdinand’s attempt at control is tyrannical and based upon Machiavellian principles, the
Duchess is justified in defying him
Despite the restrictions set before her, the Duchess oversteps these boundaries and weds
the man she wants in secrecy. She marries the steward of her household Antonio, a person who is
on a far lower step of the hierarchical ladder than the Duke and Duchess of Calabria. In doing so,
the Duchess establishes herself as a powerful individual in a number of regards. Firstly, the
Duchess acts as a retaliator against a powerful figurehead whom operates with an unjust agency.
In The Duchess of Malfi, Duke Ferdinand of Calabria fits the spitting image of a very specific
sort of tyrannical oppressor. Ferdinand overlooks her sister’s marital affairs with cruelty and
threatening supervision; in regards to Machiavelli’s how-to guide on ruling, The Prince,
Ferdinand fails in a plethora a of ways. Ferdinand’s obsession over his sister’s body breaks a key
principle of supreme leadership which implores one not to “rob the great majority of [his
subjects’] property or their honor” (Machiavelli, 58). In hegemonic society, property and honor
often go hand-in-hand for women whose sole possession may very well be her physical body.
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Ferdinand robs the Duchess of her body. Ferdinand is obviously characterized as an evil, powerhungry monarch who acts with his own personal agency despite the obligation beset by a
Machiavellian ruler who would appease his subjects’ betterment. His cruelty is intentional and
undoubtedly unjust which violates another stipulation of the Machiavellian ruler:
“…the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is wide that a
man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done moves towards
self-destruction rather than self-preservation” (Machiavelli, 49).
If the Duchess’s marriage to Antonio is viewed as a matter of disregarding her hierarchical
obligation as a politically-involved figure, it must be acknowledge that she operates in an already
broken society. Queen Elizabeth I of England reigned as “The Virgin Queen,” whose courtships
were inhibited by her office and image in the public realm. While considering her choice of a
Comment [W3]: Contrast between Queen
Elizabeth I and the Duchess of Malfi – women in
power. The political realm of powerful women.
husband, Elizabeth was torn between fulfilling her private desire and the demands of her office.
Whomever she chose to wed might provoke political instability or even insurrection (from
Wikipedia, needs rewording and a viable source). To protect her image of chastity and political
security, Queen Elizabeth stayed quiet about her marital negotiations. She lived and died as the
“The Virgin Queen” and remains as an icon for women rulers. John Webster lived through the
Elizabethan period and as a writer, likely considered Queen Elizabeth I while creating the
Duchess of Malfi. The secrecy of the Duchess’s relationship with Antonio serves to escape
prosecution from the tyrannical Ferdinand, but also to preserve her image in the public realm.
In addition to acting against a tyrannical oppressor, the Duchess of Malfi emerges as a
powerful figure by inverting the gender role of a typical romantic relationship. The Duchess
Comment [W4]: The significance of this next
argument is that the Duchess takes control of her
desires and willfully pursues them.
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holds the power of electing her husband and proposes to Antonio – an act typically expected of
the man. She voices her tragic role as an aristocratic woman:
The misery of us that are born great! / We are forced to woo, because none dare to
woo us; And as a tyrant doubles with his words, / And fearfully equivocates, so
we / Are forced to express our violent passions / In riddles and in dreams, and
leave the path / Of simple virtue, which was never made / To seem the thing it is
not (Webster, 1.1.443-449).
The Duchess marries a man based on his virtues rather than his hierarchical standing. Neglecting
her brother’s stern dominance in her personal matters, the Duchess is a woman of aristocracy
who could easily raise herself on the pedestal of royal smugness. Her ability to see an individual
for who they are and not of superficial merit make her a progressively empathetic individual, an
individual who shirks the conceited, self-righteous conduct so typically found in nobility and
levels herself among others. Perhaps because the Duchess is so familiar with oppression, it
inspires an empathetic sentiment for those locked in a system of tyrannical monarchy. The
Duchess uses her tongue as a weapon against male oppressors and she’s able to convince Bosola
that it is wrong to “examine men’s pedigrees than virtues” (3.2.262). Her examination of an
individual’s virtues renders her the ability to pursue her desires, fostered by her own will. Alison
Findlay observes that for women like the Duchess “who were surrounded by cultural
prohibitions on their behavior were probably sharply attuned to a sense of self-destruction
attendant on the audacity of [her] self-determination” (102).The Duchess is wary of the
transgression against her brother’s rule and the possible destructive outcome, but she pursues her
desires with a brave sense of agency to fulfill her pleasures.
The Duchess’s empathy could arguably render her a more just ruler than Ferdinand – her
personal inflection serves as a means of conducting herself politically. The Duchess may not
conduct her political affairs with fiery vehemence like Ferdinand, but she upholds a responsible
Comment [W5]: Can I format the quote like this,
or do I need to take it line-by-line?
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sense of duty and perceptive slyness that helps her evade the Duke. Her agency to help others
emerges when she prioritizes the safety of her husband and children when Ferdinand comes after
them. The Duchess quickly devises a plan to save her family, instructing Antonio to take exodus
in Ancona: “Hire a house there. I’ll send after you / My treasure and my jewel…short syllables /
Must stand for periods. I must now accuse you / Of such a feignéd crime as Tasso calls . . . a
noble lie, / ‘Cause it must shield our honors” (3.2.178-184). Her cunning reflects the intelligence,
intuitive ability to orchestrate plans, and even bravery often seen in good rulers. She operates as
a protectorate for the ones she loves, reversing the gender identity of males in chivalric roles.
When Ferdinand offers her poniard with the suggestion to use it to cut out her own tongue in
order to protect the identity of her hidden lover, the Duchess accepts it instead with the sense that
it offers physical protection. Even Antonio suggests that she must protect him: “This hath a
handle to’t / As well as a point. Turn it toward him / And so fasten the keen edge in his rank
gall” (3.2.156-158).
The Duchess has virtuous characteristics she upholds by personal volition, rather than the
superseding jurisdiction of Ferdinand. She makes it her prerogative to retain her sense of identity
throughout the play. She dies with a sense of dignity, fully accepting the fate that befalls her
when Ferdinand’s cronies – namely Bosola – catch up with her. Faced with Bosola in disguise,
the Duchess urges, “I am the Duchess of Malfi still” (4.2.138) when he offers his opinion of her.
Although the Duchess’s passive feelings may evoke a sense of frailty on her behalf – it’s the
complete opposite. Even as the executioner approaches to wring her neck, the Duchess
honorably awaits the inevitable. This would often be a trait exhibited in male characters that die
with a sense of honor, rather than begging for mercy. The Duchess’s sense of honor in the face of
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death is typically a masculine characteristic we’d expect to see in the roles of princes, kings, and
soldiers, but in this instance a woman exhibits her ability to act on the same plane as men do.
Part IV: The Empowered Female in The Maid’s Tragedy
While in the The Duchess of Malfi the Duchess may exemplify her power through
virtuous and righteous deeds, not all women must be good to be powerful. Beaumont and
Fletcher’s femme fatale in The Maid’s Tragedy, Avadne, takes power in the physical sense.
Part V: Harmonization of Personal Thoughts and the Findings in my Research
Part IV: Conclusion
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Works Cited
Hansen, Carol. Woman as Individual in English Renaissance Drama: A Defiance of the
Masculine Code. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1993. Print
Findlay, Alison. A Feminist Perspective on Renaissance Drama. Massachucets: Blackwell
Publishers Ltd., 1999. Print
Shepherd, Simon. The Women’s Sharp Revenge: Five Women’s Pamphlets from the
Renaissance. New York: St. Martin’s Press Inc., 1985. Print.