The next text on which I will focus is John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi. In today's post, I would like to briefly address one question that occurred to me while reading through the first two acts + one scene of the play: why, of all the characters in the play, is the Duchess simply "Duchess" and the Cardinal simply "Cardinal" while Ferdinand, Antonio, Bosola, and even the somewhat insignificant Duchess's lady Cariola are all named characters?
In response to this, I would argue that the Duchess and the Cardinal are named simply as such because any other role they might become during the course of the play is viewed in relation to their role as the Duchess or the Cardinal. For instance, the first time we encounter the Duchess, her role as a widow is being discussed by Ferdinand and the Cardinal. Yet this role is only being discussed because if she decides to remarry, it could reflect poorly on her position as the Duchess of Malfi. Her brother Ferdinand reminds her that she is a person of court, where there are those who would take advantage of her and where another marriage may taint her status (1.3.15-17). Even when Ferdinand tells the Duchess that his concern is so strong because she is his sister (1.3.37), the greater is concern is that she will be courted not because she is his sister, but rather because she is a duchess. In another instance, when the Duchess proposes to Antonio, Antonio states that he feels unworthy of the status which the Duchess is raising him up to. Even at the level of reading the text, the Duchess' status as "duchess" precedes all else; the tag "Duchess" comes before any line she speaks. The predicament which the Duchess winds up in is the result of her status as a duchess, and Webster is not going to let us forget that. We, the audience, cannot truly connect to the Duchess as a widow, or as a wife, or as a sister, or even as just a woman because she will always be, first and foremost, the Duchess of Malfi.
The Cardinal is in a similar position. In the opening scene, Delio asks about the Cardinal, asking whether he is brave, whether he likes to bet, whether he courts ladies, and whether he partakes in combat. Yet Antonio, in his answer to Delio, says, "Some such flashes superficially hang on him for form; but observe his inward character: he is a melancholy churchman" (1.2.66-67). He may seem to be many things, but the core identity of the Cardinal is his position as a cardinal. Antonio describes him in more detail following, but, like the Duchess, everything that follows is a merely secondary to the Cardinal's position as a churchman.
Whether or not this trend will remain as the play progresses, I am not sure. However, prior to act 3, scene 2, this seems to be the case. It may be said the Duchess is a strong and independent character and also a strong and independent woman since she refuses to be governed by anything but her own desires and refuses to be held back by social constraints and taboos. I would agree with this, and even more so when I consider that she is operating out the undefined identity of "Duchess." Whereas Ferdinand becomes the man Ferdinand with all his unique characterization, the Duchess will forever remain just "the Duchess."
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