The Duchess of Malfi as a Revenge Tragedy

A revenge tragedy is a tragedy in which the tragic calamity is brought about by the pursuit and accomplishment of revenge. Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi is considered to be a revenge tragedy. It has several features of a revenge tragedy. We need a critical discussion of the play The Duchess of Malfi to find out its fundamental aspects of a revenge tragedy.

The common and fundamental features of a revenge tragedy are (1) The motive of revenge,(2) Heaping of horror upon horror, (3) presence of the supernatural, (4) violent imagery (5) Bestial cruelty, (6) An avenging hero, often a rascally servant. In the Duchess of Malfi we find a beautiful fusion of these elements that give it the rank of a revenge tragedy.

The Cardinal and Ferdinand, the two brothers of the Duchess, are guided by their excessive passion of taking revenge on their sister for violating moral code of life as a widow injuring the family tradition, status and pride through making love with Antonio and marrying him. When Bosola reveals this remarriage below rank , the two brother go mad and crazy for taking revenge on the Duchess.

In a revenge tragedy we find a common character called a revenge hero who is malcontent, corrupt hypocrisy, stupidity of courtly society and immoral and crazy in his goal and Machiavellian in nature. Bosola is such a character. A former servant of the Cardinal and now is engaged by Ferdinand to spy on the Duchess as her Provisory of Horse. Bosola is involved in vulgar activities, violence and killing. Thus Bosola proves himself to be rascally servant of the English revenge plays.

Horror associated with murder is an important aspect of a revenge tragedy. In “The Duchess of Malfi” we find plenty of horror scenes. The Duke, in order to horrify the Duchess, gives a dead man’s hand to her and she kisses it to be the Duke’s hand. The spectacle of the oxen images of the dead bodies of Antonio and his children are presented before the Duchess which is really horrible. The crazy and unruly dance of the madmen before the Duchess, the appearance of Bosola as a tomb maker and a bellman, and the appearance of the executioners with bell and cord are intended to create further horror. At last she is strangled to death.

Avenge is an important aspect of a revenge tragedy. After the death of the Duchess, Ferdinand suddenly experiences an unexpected remorse. He rebukes Bosola for not having opposed his order to murder the Duchess. Bosola accuses him ingratitude and demands the promised reward. But Ferdinand calls him a villain for killing his sister. Now Bosola is able to understand his misdeeds and feels mercy for the Duchess. He wishes that he could undo what he has done and he decides to avenge the death of the Duchess. With an intention to kill the cardinal , he enters his room and kills Antonio by mistaking him for the Cardinal. Bosola then proceeds to meet the cardinal and kill him. When he stabs the Cardinal, he cries for help. On his crying for, Ferdinand enters the room and gives mortal wounds both to Bosola and the Cardinal. Bosola in return stabs Ferdinand. Thus the villains, Ferdinand, the Cardinand and Bosola meet their doom at the end of the play.

To conclude we can say that The Duchess of Malfi is a perfect revenge tragedy. There is no denying the fact that Webster raises the original theme of revenge to a higher plan.