Malfi and Merchant Comparison: Women

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Women

Similarities

  • Both May and the Duchess have affairs/marriages without the input of their male authority figure
  • Both May and the Duchess use legal means to secure their futures (scrit and bond for May and a clandestine marriage for the Duchess)
  • Both women are eventually caught in the act
  • Women are presented in both texts as simultaneously the Madonna and the Whore, May is a "masculine fantasy" (Tollover) however she cheats for her own sexual satisfaction and the Duchess is presented as christ-like and a lusty widow with a "spotted liver". Other women include Cariola and Julia, Julia is a 'whore' and adultress, Cariola pleads her belly prior to her execution - sin of "despair" in contrast to the Duchess
  • All the women have direct power over their husbands actions

Differences

  • While both women are caught, only the Duchess is punished for her indiscretion, May maintains her control over Januarie
  • While all the women appear to have control over their husbands, the Duchess can't control her brothers, who ultimately have complete power over her
  • The Duchess is celebrated after her death as saint like, with some interpretations showing her and Antonio meeting again in heaven, May is left as a manipulative adulteress, as is Julia
  • The intervention of a God betrays May, while the Duchess betrays herself

Overall comparison

Overall, women are presented as duplicitous, operating freely under the control of male authority figures, while both protagonists are caught, the Duchess dies for her indiscretion and May goes unpunished as she talks her way out of her situation. The audience is left with a favourable impression of the Duchess, who is hailed as a martyr after her death, unlike May who the Chaucer's pilgrims take as proof of religious auctoritee (a debate Chaucer engages with through his marriage group). 

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