This play contains so many elements of horrors or which it
can be classified as a melodrama. From the beginning to the end of this drama,
there are a lot of elements of horrors. The last two acts of the play have an abundance
of them. However melodramatic episodes are seen earlier too. The Duke in order
to horrify the Duchess gives a dead man’s hand to her and she kisses it taking
it to be the Duke's hand. The spectacle of waxen images of the dead bodies of
Antonio and children presented before the Duchess is another horrid scene. The unruly
dance of the mad men before the Duchess, the appearance of Bosola as a tomb
makes and a bell man and the appearance of the executioners with bell and core
in procession too are intended to create horror. The next horror is mentioned
in the series of murders committee by Bosola. The last horror comes when Julia
is poisoned in a most cold-blooded manner. Antonio is killed and Ferdinand, Cardinal
and Bosola all meet their death at the end. So, there are the ten murders.
Taking revenge and murdering people are the integral part of revenge tragedy. In this drama, we find people taking revenge and are murdering others. But Webster sets his play in a different manner, the revenge and murders are committed in a different manner from the traditional manner. The revengeful brothers are both villains. They are the victims of an insensate fury that blinds the eyes, maddens the drain, and poisons the springs of pity. The piteous sufferings of their victim from the hard heart of Bosola who says: You may discern the share of loveliness,"/ More perfect in her tears than in the smile."
We have seen that there was a love affair between the Duchess
and Antonio and at last they marry and they produce three children. On hearing
the news of their secret marriage and their children, the cardinal and The Duke
Ferdinand react angrily. And from the beginning to the end of Act two, scene
five, we seed the reaction of the two brothers for the action of their sister.
They think that the Duchess has destroyed the reputation and status of their
family. The Cardinal says, "Shall our blood/ The royal blood of Aragon and
Castile, Be thus attained?” So, they don't want to destroy the family reputation
and wants to kill her. Here Ferdinand says, “I’ll find scorpions to string my
whips/And fix her in a general eclipse". Hence their deeds of revenge are
not a wild kind of justice but monstrous wrong.
The Duchess of Malfi
differs in a number of ways from the traditional revenge play. It doesn't
become clear why revenge is taken on the Duchess. Her only fault is that she
has married below her rank and status and thus the two brothers think, she has
disgraced the family. She has certainly not committer any heinous crime for
which she is subjected unjustified. That the weak revenge motives is clearly brought
out by the fact that for more than two years her two brothers do nothing to
punish the Duchess.
In presenting the supernatural too, Webster deviates from
the tradition or modifies the tradition. He doesn't present and of the
conventional hosts and objectives portents found in typical revenge plays.
There is absolutely nothing unrealistically supernatural in the play. The sorrowful
answers which the echo makes to Antonio's words are the result of a natural
phenomenon. No ghost appears on the scene. In this Webster has shown vital
concern for an artistic atmosphere of supernatural.
The Duchess of Malfi is a
revenge tragedy. Although Webster wrote this drama following the tradition of
revenge tragedy, he has modified some of its aspects to make it unique. And he
is perfect enough drawing the art in his own style that makes it more acceptable
to the readers to accept it as a true revenge tragedy. So, in a word we can say
that it is a perfect revenge tragedy.
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