According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of ‘villain’ is “a character in a story, movie, etc., who does bad things” (Merriam-Webster). In John Webster’s play, The Duchess of Malfi, the plot line revolves around a duchess and her two brothers. The Duchess of Malfi is a very twisted and complicated story where the characters are not as they seem. One of the most significant parts of the story line is that the characters that appear to be the villains are not actually the villains. This makes the story complex, but eventually ties it together in unexpected ways. When first reading the play, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the duchess’s two brothers, The Cardinal and Ferdinand, are the villains. However, the Duchess lies and manipulates those closest to her for her own selfish gain. The Duchess is deceitful when she hides her marriage and hides her children even though she knows the drama it will cause in her family, which makes her the true villain in The Duchess of Malfi.
The story begins with the duchess getting married secretively. The Duchess asks Cariola to watch a secret engagement between her and Antonio. She then states, “Good dear soul, Leave me, but place thy self behind the arras, For I am going into the wilderness, Where I shall find nor path nor friendly clue to be my guide (Webster 1.3.64-68). So, why did the Duchess marry secretively? Why would such a powerful woman want to hide her marriage from the rest of her people? It is easy to assume that she did this to keep Antonio, her love, safe. Her brothers made many threats to her and her husband if she was to remarry, so it is plausible that she would want to hide her marriage. The power difference between her and Antonio was also something to conside...
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...thers as well. Her manipulative ways can be seen throughout the novel, specifically when she hides her marriage and pregnancy and when she seeks revenge on others. Therefore, she is undoubtedly evil. Ultimately, because it is the Duchess’s own personal decisions that result in everyone in the story being killed, she is the true villain of this story.
Works Cited
"Act III. Scene V. Webster, John. 1909-14. The Duchess of Malfi. The Harvard Classics." Act III. Scene V. Webster, John. 1909-14. The Duchess of Malfi. The Harvard Classics. N.p. , n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
"The Duchess of Malfi Summary and Analysis." The Duchess of Malfi Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of Act 3. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
"villian." Merriam-Webster.com. 2011. http://www.merriam-webster.com (14 November 2013).
Webster, John. The Duchess of Malfi. Hoboken, N.J: BiblioBytes, 1990.
Jokinen, Anniina. "Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature." Luminarium: Anthology of English Literature. N.p., 1996. Web. 9 Nov. 2013. http://www.luminarium.org/
6.2 (1995): 145-158. JSTOR. Web. 20 March 2014. Shakespeare.
Meanwhile, the definition of a villain is a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime. There can be so much
In every good novel known to man, there is a hero and also a villain. The villain tortures the world, the hero saves the day, and the hero lives happily ever after with the woman or man they fell in love with during their journey. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, it does not follow the original guidelines of the other novels. It is different. The reader has their own perspective of which Hamlet is ethical or evil for his actions throughout the play. The question all readers ask themselves is if Hamlet is considered evil because he murders evil people, or if he is considered a hero, although he is a murderer? This is a worldwide question for every reader. Although Hamlet chooses broad decisions based on impulse, he is ethical in his actions
The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 5th edition. Boston & New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 1999. http://www.martinspress 1564 - 1612 -.
...le to comedies, when considering A Midsummer's Night Dream, As You Like It, and Measure for Measure, in which the heroes are mostly virtuous ("innocent"), and the villains are devious ("cunning"); however, since the Duke and Iago are both cunning villains, Steinbeck's notion of villains is also appropriate for tragedy. More importantly, though, as previously noted, these “heroes” are directly responsible for their fall, and therefore challenge readers to consider the roles of heroes and villains in tragedy less traditionally; Othello is not cunning, nor is he innocent, and so Steinbeck's parameters exclude him. Thus, a more encompassing generalization would be that tragic heroes are responsible, and "villains are cunning" (Steinbeck).
Double Knaves as the Worst Villains in Society Shakespeare believed the worst villain was the two faced person. Not the person who outright showed they were a villain. The underhanded villain the villain that hides in the shadows and doesn't show their true colors were the worst rogue of all. Shakespeare created characters that were realistic. To do this he received insight from the world around him.
3. Shipley, Joseph T. The Crown Guide to the World's Great Plays. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1984. 332 - 333.
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WORKS CITED Shakespeare, W. 7th Ed., 1966 ‘Othello, the Moor of Venice’, Plain Label Books.
The Speaker in ‘My Last Duchess’ is conversing with the servant of a count whose daughter he is proposing to marry. He treats t...
According to wordrefernce.com a tragic villain is defined as a character usually an antagonist that does not truly intend to be a villain. In Shakespeare’s Othello and Hamlet the villains of the play certainly meet most of the criteria. However, there are times when Claudius, and Iago waver from the traditional path. In Shakespeare’s writing as it turns out the villains are not just tragic villains, and have characteristics that differ from the classic definitions.
The Bedford Introduction to Literature 4th ed. of the book. Boston: St. Louis St. Martin’s Press, 1996. 883-89.
The. Ed. W. Moelwyn Merchant, b. 1875. The New Penguin Shakespeare. London: Penguin Books, 1996. - - -.
English literature is continuously developing into a more complex, and interwoven network of shared, or argued ideas. Proof of this goes back into all of the varieties of literature that we have discovered from times past, as well as anything new that is written today. One example of these works of art that has been studied intensely over the years includes the story of The Duchess of Malfi written by John Webster somewhere between 1580 and 1625. This is a story of tragic loss, desperate love, and vicious vengeance which all comes together to form one of the greatest tragedies of all time.