Women in The Duchess of Malfi and The Changeling Essay -- John Webster

The Duchess in hindquarters Websters tragic make up, The Duchess of Malfi, and Beatrice Joanna in Thomas Middleton and William Rowleys The Changeling, are some(prenominal) strong wo men living in a male-dominated corporation. The two women attempt to disengage themselves from this subordination by choosing to dear that they desire. both(prenominal)(prenominal) pay with their give outs for this chance at freedom, but differ in their moral decisions about how they attempt it. Beatrice Joannas plan involves murder, whereas the widow Duchess merely lives the life she chooses, then plots to leave Malfi. Both women are forced into their actions, but, whereas Beatrice Joanna is Machiavellian in her actions, the Duchess is morally superior. Webster based his play on a real-life 16th Century scandal where a widowed Duchess remarried for write out and did so beneath her class. The widowed Duchess had certain advantages and freedoms that the younger and mateless Beatrice in The Changeling did not. The Duchess had significant wealth and independence, and she need not serve well to a father or a husband. She no longer had the payload of protecting her virginity and the stigma attached if it was lost. Beatrice, on the other hand, had little intimate freedom, and she had to answer to her father and to the man to whom she was engaged. However a the Duchess, and Beatrice were doomed to area to a patriarchal and male-dominated society. Upon her capture the Duchess declares I am Duchess of Malfi still (4.2.141). She is a duchess only in name. In the end in both tragedies, it is the men fathers, brothers, suitors, and the Churchwho rule by physical force and by law. Moreover, both women are driven by their passions and further choose to defy society by attempting to love who... ...d such harm and destruction. In the end it is Beatrice herself who says it was love that forced her to kill. She ultimately made that moral decision. She c onfessed to Alsemero at the plays conclusion, To your bed scandal, I stand up innocent, Which even the guilt of angiotensin-converting enzyme black other deed Will stand for proof of your love has made me A cruel murdress (5.3.63). Therefore, our sympathies lie with the Duchess, who only desired to live the life she chose. She does her best to protect those she loves, hiding Antonio and caring for the safety of her children to the actually end. She murders no one, and before her death forgives all. She is a most noble duchess and a true heroine.