The Significance of Madness in Webster's The Duchess of Malfi The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster is a Jacobean play which comments on a multitude of themes like the distinction between reality and unreality, identity, presence, deception and dementia. The following essay is going to approach the matter of madness from a deeper angle, focusing on the traits of characters and hidden signs they represent. One of the themes that is touched upon in the play is undoubtedly madness, which is commonly used in three ways in dramas – as a material for comedy, as a supreme trial for mankind, and finally as an image of unrelieved and terrible chaos. An author who uses madness in the latter way might have problems with faith in divine goodness, believing that there are certain humiliations which not even the promise of heaven can atone for. Furthermore a …show more content…
The dance in The Duchess of Malfi can be seen as an embodiment of the discord and the incoherence of the world of the Duchess. We can also observe the increasingly aberrant state of mind of Ferdinand. Namely it is he who has conceived this grotesque scheme to unsettle the Duchess. To Elizabethan-Jacobean audience, the display of madmen would have seemed horrifying and unsettling in a play that detailed revenge and murder. Surprisingly, the dreadful spectacle gets related to the new professional middle classes in England. The state of women is also represented through the episode of madmen as it is well known that opposition to second marriages were still steadfast in the 17th century. The general demeanor to the remarriage of a widow was to see the deed as a form of ‘lawful adultery’. While it was permitted by the law, society was unsettled by it. It was said that ‘to wed a second time was no better than to cuckold the
Essentially, marriage in the 1700’s was seen merely as a means of birthing heirs and finding a way to financially support yourself, so it resulted in both men and women being devalued. It is universally known that women were often treated as inept and helpless rather than sophisticated people with autonomy and capabilities. In fact, during this time, “married women were consistently compared with minor children and the insane-- both categories of people considered incapable of caring for themselves. To marry a woman was, in one sense, to ‘adopt’ her-- or at least to adopt responsibility for all the circumstances of life with which she entered the marriage” (Teachman 39). Furthermore, when women got married, they would legally cease to exist.
The Guilt in Pride Have you ever killed someone because your pride was hurt? The narrator in the short story "The Scarlet Ibis," by James Hurst, has always wanted a brother so bad. He finally gets a brother that everyone expects to die before being born. By some miracle the little brother didn’t die, so they decided to name him Doodle. At the end Doodle does die and this essay is to say if the narrator is guilty or not.
While the events taking place throughout the play are outlandish, but the actions aroused by the conflicting loyalties are comprehendible. The audience can still analyze the character’s actions and thoughts and recognize that they are genuine and understandable human encounters. From this, a sense of humanity—that we all have certain concerns and duties and we must respond to them
Revenge: A Narrative and Scientific Perspective Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” and Browning’s “My Last Duchess” both revolve around revenge. We are introduced to men who swear vengeance on other characters. Yet, the mindsets of these men are, in some aspects, very different. To truly comprehend a story, we have to understand why authors make their characters behave the way they do in addition to the message being presented. In the case of “The Cask of Amontillado” and “My Last Duchess,” why do both narrators believe murder is totally necessary?
Finally, many of these women during that time period thought that as they once said in their vows till death did them apart that death was one of the options they have to get out of the unhappy matrimony without being deemed by society as the two main character point
We can tell from other Greek play writers, one famous one being Sophocles, that the mind and madness has been a central theme. However, the way it was portrayed back in that era differs now. Greek tragedy focusses on the supernatural aspect of this madness, blaming it either on the gods or an evil possessing them . This could mainly be down to a lack of understanding of psychology in this time but also as it certainly makes for a good tragedy. However, Freudian theories such as the Electra and Oedipus complex show us that from these themes of madness in Greek tragedy, we have derived a more psychological viewpoint which we now use to help diagnose and treat people with similar traits as the characters in these plays.
In Branagh’s film, the director uses the techniques to create madness directly. For example, from the moment Ophelia asks that “Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?” (4.5.21) until she leaves her room after saying “good night, good night” (4.5.73), she is in the straitjacket clothes which are for mentally ill people. Also the audience can observe that she is trapped in the compact room with protection surrounding when Gertrude says that she “[…][would] not speak with her.” The film is using the symbols directly related to madness to persuade the audience that she is in the state of mental illness.
In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet assumes the disguise of a man that has lost his mind. Hamlet uses this madness to masquerade around in such a way as to not draw attention to his true plan, to avenge his murdered father. Many readers debate as to whether Hamlet is truly mad, or whether he is fully aware of his actions and what he is doing. However, both sides of the debate can agree that Hamlet’s apparent madness is a key element of the play, Hamlet. There are many reasons as to why readers debate Hamlet’s madness.
Throughout her essay Brady used sarcasm and outlandish claims to incite a strong emotional reaction from her readers. I too was shocked by her requirements for a wife and the fact that women in that time period were expected to follow these requirements. Brady has done an excellent job of appealing to the readers using pathos while explaining how absurd the expectations of wives
Malvolio’s delusional dream of Olivia falling in love with him is not a romantic one but a beneficial one. Malvolio sees Olivia as a vehicle to carry him towards power and privilege and thus move up the social ladder. He yearns to transcend and transgress through the boundaries that are in place. Malvolio, in turn, collides with the social limits, ‘from his transgression of sumptuary codes to class intermarriage’ (Selden, 1989, 168). Shakespeare is evidently elaborating what could happen if one tried to transgress in society.
Claire Standish is labeled “The Princess” of the group as she is rich, beautiful, and possibly the most popular female at her school. Many people assume her life is perfect and a dream when in reality her parents are on the verge of a divorce. They use, pamper, and indulge her in order to spite each other and Claire is painfully aware of this. The group initially see Claire as a “snobby stuck up bitch” assuming she is solely shallow and materialistic.
An overwhelming amount of evidence shows that Hamlet faked his insanity to confuse the king and his accomplices. Often revered for their emotional complexities, William Shakespeare’s tragic characters display various signs of mental illness. Sylvia Morris notes “Hamlet contains Shakespeare’s most fully-developed study of mental illness, and has always intrigued commentators on the play.” (“Shakespeare’s Minds Diseased: Mental Illness and its Treatment”). When looking at the play, one can infer that Shakespeare makes the relationship between sanity and insanity undistinguishable from one another.
In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare reflects the common early modern beliefs and perspectives about madness by using the character development of the protagonist who feigns madness throughout the play. Given Hamlet 's status as a prince, current knowledge of madness during the time period, and the contrast of the different types of madness of other characters in the play, Elizabethan audiences would have found it plausible that Hamlet feigns madness as part of his plot to avenge his father 's death. This new historicist perspective steers the modern reader away from anachronistic psychological interpretations of the play. Hamlet’s status as a prince gives the character certain roles and expectations to fulfill, such as avenging his father’s
It is the first goal of our essay to understand how marriage and courtship in Shakespeare´s plays are an important exciting theme because it was something real during XVI century. The objective of the essay is to examine how courtship and marriage affects the issues and formation of the play named A Midsummer Night´s Dream (The Malone Society, 1996) focusing on the social and emotional relationships between men and women. Consequently, the aims are: first, to show the importance of the female character in the play according to virginity, chastity and sexuality; second, to explain how love is treated in the play; and lastly, to illustrate how courtship and marriage are depicted through the characters. It is crucial to understand that all of
In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, there are a series of events that causes Hamlet to act abnormally. He has to deal with his father’s death, mother’s remarriage, and his lover Ophelia. However, it is often argued whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Throughout the tragedy, he is over-exaggerating his madness for his plan of revenge.