Earticle

초록

영어

John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi addresses issues of corruption, female sexuality, marriage and social mobility by dramatizing a confrontation of values between the Duchess and her brothers, Ferdinand and the Cardinal. The play reflects Jacobean anxieties surrounding shifting economic, social and religious institutions during the transitional period of the early seventeenth England. Conflicts of this play come from the Duchess’s decision to disobey her brothers and to marry Antonio not her social equal. The Duchess acts according to her own desires, trespassing social norms of the period. Throughout the play the Duchess questions stereotypical views of women and the importance of class within patriarchal society. She defies traditional social and sexual hierarchies, challenging Jacobean society’s views regarding the representation of the female sexuality. The Duchess’s marriage with Antonio is presented in terms of harmony and mutuality, evoking Protestant companionate ideas of marriage. Much of the scholarly debate about the Duchess has centered on her sexuality. She is blamed for being irresponsible, overly passionate and too bold. However, Webster’s Duchess is neither lascivious, as her brothers have blamed, nor the paragon of chastity. She expresses her own sexuality in a healthy and natural manner. For his dramatic purpose Webster significantly modified his source, William Painter’s The Palace of Pleasure, where the Duchess is portrayed as a lusty widow, to show sympathy toward the Duchess. The Duchess is presented as a powerful woman with a dominant will and is portrayed as strong and independent to the moment of her death. But she ultimately fails to transcend any true boundaries created by the patriarchal society in which she lives. It’s important to note that Webster does not make the Duchess just a victim of male-dominated corrupt society. The play explores the possibility of societal change to overcome the oppression of ideologies within patriarchal society.

목차

I
 II
 III
 인용문헌
 Abstract

키워드

저자

• 정해룡 [ Hae Ryoog Jung | 부경대학교 ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  영어영문학21 [English21]

• 간기

  계간

• pISSN

  1738-4052

• 수록기간

  1967~2025

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 840 DDC 820