Love is a most important word in the world. It is the
vital power in the whole world. It can not properly be defined in words. Yet we
can say love is an “emotion explored in philosophy, religion and literature,
often as either romantic love, the fraternal love of others or the love of
God.” In Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, there is a love affair between
two persons of unequal ranks which paves the way for developing a lot of
conflicts and bloodshed and revenge. Hence the nature of love and marriage of
the Duchess towards the steward of the household may be treated as unusual to
many other instances of love affair. A further discussion will clarify the
idea.
In order to survive in the world, the human body requires
to fulfill thirst, hunger and desires. Similarly human mind also needs some emotional
requirements – Love, Compassion, Affection, Pity, Sympathy etc. Therefore
it is very usual that the Duchess of Malfi will seek love from her lover. But
the problem lies elsewhere – there are some social restrictions for her.
è Firstly, she is a widow. And a second marriage
or offering love for a second time of a woman is not approved by her
contemporary social and religious set up. For examples, her brother Ferdinand
discourages her saying –
“Marry! They are most luxurious
Will wed twice.”
è Secondly, the Duchess is a woman of high rank and she
lives in such a period which looks at the social hierarchy as something
God-made. Therefore it is very much unusual and objectionable for the Duchess
to love and marry such a man, the steward of her household who is below her own
social rank.
èMoreover, the lower ranked people dare not offer their
love to upper ranked people. So, if any of upper class people wants to make
love with a lower class one, he or she themselves should be take initiative, as
says the Duchess –
“The misery of us that are born great!
We are forced to woo, because none dare woo us;
However, it has been proved through ages that love does
not obey any difference between nations, age or social ranks, and many
like Helen, Cleopatra have made the examples of unusual love affairs. Hence,
the Duchess of Malfi offers her love to a below ranked steward, disregarding
all restrictions –
“I do here put off all vain ceremony and only do appear
to you a young widow that claims you for
her husband and like a widow, I use but half a blush in it.”
Finally she performs her marriage in an unusual manner
and situation, and keeps it a secret. The result, as Antonio tells
Delis, is that –
“The common rabble do directly say
she is a strumpet.”
Hence, though her love is, in these ways, unusual,
it does not occur whimsically and it is unlike other accidental love affairs.
Actually she has been a widow at her very young age, and being a woman of flesh
and blood she has been in crying need of making a relationship with a male for
the sake of her physical and mental thirst. In the text we can get many
examples providing that the love of the Duchess is un-accidental.
As we mentioned earlier, the Duchess, being a woman of
higher rank and being restricted by her brothers will, cannot directly offer
her love to Antonio. But she has largely felt the importance of a second
marriage in her life, and has decided cold-headed to do that. However, to
motivate Antonio, she makes ‘equivocal’ speeches and activities. She causes
her ‘wedding-ring’, that can only be offered to her second husband, to touch
his eyes which seems to be ‘blood-shot’, in order ‘to help’ his ‘eye-sight’ and
to make him conscious that she wants him to be the second husband. Moreover,
she wants Antonio uplift his position and so she ‘equivocates’-
“This goodly Yoof of yours is too low built;
I can not stand upright in’t nor discourse
Without I raise it higher: raise yourself;
Or you please, my hand to help you:”
Then Antorio, having been convinced and having asked
about her brothers, the Duchess answers practically –
“yet, should they know it, time will easily
scatter the tempest.”
After that, as per decision taken earlier, she makes
cariola a witness of their secret marriage which is justified with her speech –
“I have heard lawyers say, a contract in a chamber
per verba presents is absolute marriage.”
As a result of their secret marriage they fall in such a
situation that they may any time be in horrible condition. Even at that time
she assures –
“whether I am doomed to live or die
I can do both like a prince”
Hence, if she had accidentally loved Antonio, she must
have become broken hearted in such a situation.
When Antonio and his son’s lives fall in danger, even at
that time, the Duchess requests her husband to escape to Milan with her child
and her wealth –
Therefore by all my love I do conjure you
To take your eldest son, and fly towards Milan
Let us not venture all this poor remainder
In one unlucky bottom.
How eagerly she thinks of her husband and the child
without thinking of herself!
Bosola having advised her to forget Antonio by addressing
him ‘one of no birth’, the Duchess confesses “that he was born mean” but
‘man is most happy when’s own actions
be arguments and examples of his virtue.”
That is, the Duchess loves Antonio’s virtue rather than
his identity.
In order to torture the Duchess mentally and change her
view of her husband Antorio, Fardinand her brother, after showing her a dead
man’s want arranges a show before her. There is shown “behind a traverse, the
artificial figures of Antonio, and his children, appearing as if they were
dead”. Seeing such a scene, she becomes mentally weak but her love for Antorio
does not loose. She says that she “would account” it “mercy”, she says,
“if they would bind me to that lifelen trunk
and let me freeze to death.”
Further, Fardinand sends madmen and executioners with a
coffin, cords and a bell to the Duchess with a view to making her frightened.
But at the time of such a fearful moment, the Duchess does not loose the sense
of her dignity. She says,
“I am Duchess of Malfi still”
and
“it affrights not me.”
And even at the time of her worst situation, when people
can not generally think of others, she requests Cariola to bring up her
children –
“I pray thee, look thou giv’st my little boy
some syrup for his cold, and let the girl
say her prayers.
Thus, the Duchess of Malfi reminds us of the mother in
the Riders to the Sea.
Moreover, in stead of having been strangled, the Duchess
does not die fully. She survives again for a few moments, and her first and
last word from her mouth is ‘Antorio’, her love.
Basing on the above discussion, we must say that the love
of the Duchess is unusual to the accidental lovers. Her making love affair,
treatment of love and consequence of it are also unusual. But her love is not
like that of those who love whimsically without thinking much as an accident
happens. She, however, in worst consequences of her love affair, does not
become loose hearted and her love for Antonio does not decrease. Moreover, her
thinking for her children, the fruits of her love, is no doubt praiseworthy.
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