1. Jacobean Revenge Tragedy
Lesson 5
LO: To explore the male perception of the Duchess’ sexuality and our own perception of it.

2. Images of The Duchess
Gemma Arterton – Sam Wannamaker Theatre, 2015

3. Eve Best

4. Quick Task
In pairs, discuss your opinions of how the Duchess is introduced to the play.
Is she what you would expect?
Does she conform to the stereotypes of the time? How?
What can be said about her silence as she enters? And the silence of the women generally?

5. Love and Sexuality
Webster’s portrayal of love and sexuality were more frank than those of his contemporaries.
The subjects are hardly ever made bawdy, but treated with a good deal of seriousness. The secret marriage between the Duchess and Antonio in Act 1, Scene 1, and the relationship between the Cardinal and Julia in Act 2, Scene 4, are presented as contrasting aspects of human relationships.

6. Task
An examination of the characterisation of the Duchess and Julia reveals much about the ways in which they might be compared (both are strong-willed women of the court, both conduct clandestine affairs, both will meet their deaths at the hands of Ferdinand and the Cardinal).
Read the extracts on the worksheet and consider what they reveal about the Duchess and Julia in terms of love and sexuality.
Use learner resource 1.9 from OCR

7. Comparing Siblings Antonio on The Cardinal:
Some such flashes superficially hang on him, for form, but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman. The spring in his face is nothing but the engend’ring of toads. Where he is jealous of any man he lays worse plots for them than ever was imposed on Hercules, for he strews in his way flatters, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousands such political monsters. He should have been Pope, but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the Church, he did bestow bribes so largely, and so impudently, as if he would have carried it away without heaven’s knowledge. Some good he hath done.
Act I:I Lines
Identify quotations that illustrate the themes of secrecy and religion.

8. Ferdinand
Now read Delio and Antonio’s exchange about Ferdinand (lines )
What connotations does this quotation have about Ferdinand?

9. The Duchess
“the right noble Duchess,/[…] for her discourse, it is so full of rapture/[…] she throws upon a man so sweet a look,/[…] on that sweet countenance”
Read lines How does the Duchess’ idealised public figure compare to that of the brothers?
Turn to page 366 in ‘Images of femininity in Jacobean tragedy’ for wider reading

10. Renaissance Portraits
The portraiture of women during the Italian Renaissance saw the development of the practice, and the idealisation and profile position of the sitter as they relate to the status of women in Italian Renaissance society. Discuss what you see here.

11. Why in Profile?
The decision to portray female figures in profile may have stemmed from psychological decisions. Women were painted in profile to appear chaste and display modesty. The female profile tended to be rendered with an elongated neck, unsubstantial body, and flattened facial features. The averted eyes and lack of genital region allowed male viewers to avoid the fear of rejection or seduction while viewing her features unchallenged.
The language of the eye could be a sensual and hence feared, even repressed one. The passionless, chaste state of a woman in profile is the product of this burden. The de-eroticized portrayal of women in profile meant female eyes no longer threaten the seeing man with castration. Her eyes cannot ward off his, nor send ‘arrows’ to the lover’s heart. Castration anxieties are also displaced by fetishisation, by the way in which a women’s neck, eye and other features are rendered safe commodities through fragmentation and distancing, excessive idealization. Patricia Simons: “Women in Frames: The Gaze, the Eye, the Profile in Renaissance Portraiture”
For more on this:

12. Homework
How does Webster present the theme of control in The Duchess of Malfi?
Introduction:
The theme of control/authority is present through …/Webster illustrates a very ordered society founded in authority through the use of…./He explores the hierarchal structures in his time period to illustrate ….

13. Suggested approach
The Cardinal/Antonio/Duchess adheres to/challenges this hierarchy when s/he says: “….”
This quotation clearly demonstrates ….
- Link to additional themes/symbolic meanings/parallels
The word …. Is significant because…
Add multiple layers of meaning.
Audience reaction
Add context
Audience at the time reaction
Add critical reading/ comparison to Rossetti
Additionally the word …
Add different contextual point