4. THE MODERNITY OF THE PLAYS
4.2. FEMINIST PLAYS
2.3.3. WOMEN CAUSE MALE MISFORTUNES AND DESTRUCTION
As the seventeenth century was a very religious period, through the theatre – which is the representation of society – women seem to be described in two ways: devils or angels.
Moreover, they mostly are described causing the destruction of social order and more precisely the male misfortunes. By getting out of their predefined roles, the women provoke a disruption in the patriarchal established social order. Through their sexuality, the female characters may be seen as sexual predators: the Duchess is asking for sexual intercourse with her new husband Antonio "I would have you lead your fortune by that hand/ Unto you marriage bed" (1.1.123), Angelo accuses Isabella to awake a desire that he does not have before, letting him be the victim of the female figure175:
"Is that temptation that doth goad us on
173 D. TISCHLER MILLSTEIN "Gender and Sexuality in Measure for measure's Confession scene" in D. LEMONNIER-TEXIER, and G. WINTER, op.cit., p.221.
174 F. FOUASSIER, ‘Figures de la prostituée dans Measure for Measure de Shakespeare (1604)’. Le Journal de la Renaissance, vol. 5, Jan. 2007, p.360.
175 B. CORRELL, « Malvolio at Malfi: Managing Desire in Shakespeare and Webster ».
Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 58, no 1, 2007, p.70.
To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet With all her double vigour, art and nature, Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid Subdues me quite. Ever till now
When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how" (2.3.133)
In this monologue, Angelo compares the virtuous maid to a temptress. The virginity – and so the inaccessible – is more appealing than than the "strumpet" and accessible whores.
Annabella does not prevent or even warn her brother to the consequences of their intercourse. She encourages their passion in this scene:
"I durst not say I loved; nor scarcely think it […]
On my knees,
Brother, even by our mother's dust, I charge you, Do not betray me to your mirth or hate;
Love me, or kill me, brother" (1.2.178)
Thus, the female characters challenge the view that Jacobean society has about female body and sexuality176. The Duchess remarries without the consent of her kin and this can be seen as a threat to men, a threat consecrated by Ferdinand handing the Duchess a poniard, which is seen as a phallic symbol that symbolises the patriarchal power177. Furthermore, as a tragic character, the Duchess "intensifies and magnifies pressing Jacobean cultural contradictions specifically about widowhood, but also about sexuality and power more generally"178.
Delphine Lemonnier-Texier asserts that some female characters in the play have no sexual role, such as Isabella who wants to become a nun and will not procreate. This is something that cannot be accepted by male characters179. Kate Keepdown is the representation of decadence, she is a prostitute who has Lucio's child outside marriage, and who has an exacerbated sexuality, this exacerbated sexuality is not accepted by the male characters. Even though they represent the two extreme sides of sexuality (one is a virgin, the other a prostitute) they both define the threat to sexual heterosexual norms and patriarchal authority before being compelled to toe the line by the means of marriage. Isabella, by refusing to accomplish the sexual act, also refuses to become a woman in a society in which
176 T.A. JANKOWSKI, op. cit., p.222.
177 M. NEILL, « Introduction » in J. WEBSTER, The Duchess of Malfi, W. W. Norton &
Company, 2015, p.30.
178 G.A. SULLIVAN, P. CHENEY, A. HADFIELD, op.cit., p.273.
179 D. LEMONNIER-TEXIER, G. WINTER, op.cit, p.12.
a woman's identity is defined by her status of wife and mother180. In 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Annabella decides to offer her virginity to her brother. Thus, she concretely refuses to enter the roles of wife and mother. However, this decision backfires on her when Soranzo discovers that she is pregnant and when Giovanni kills her and their unborn child.
Other women also have a clear disdain concerning the sacrament, for instance Hippolita does not hesitate to betray her husband and sends him to death to soothe her sexual passions:
"Didst thou not swear, whilst yet my husband lived, That thou wouldst wish no happiness on earth More than call me wife? Didst thou not vow When he should die to marry me? For which The devil in my blood, and thy protests, Caused me to counsel him to undertake A voyage to Leghorn" (2.2.186)
She admits that Soranzo has promised her marriage, thus, she admits that she has betrayed her husband. As for Putana, it is rather complicated to conceive her a housewife or even a traditional mother for instance when she speaks to Annabella about her sexual intercourse with Giovanni "Nay, what a paradise of joy you have passed under!" (2.1.183).
Thus, women are the triggers that ignite rebellion from the social order.
Additionally, because women get out of their roles, they also cause male misfortunes.
When it comes to that, all fault is rejected onto them. Angelo is submitted to temptation by Isabella; the remarriage of the Duchess exacerbates Ferdinand's madness and worsens the Cardinal's corruption due to the presence of Julia, because even though he is represented as a "vicious Catholic hypocrite" he is the one who becomes the "instrument of God's justice"181. The passion that Giovanni gradually experiences for his sister, and that appears as the purest of the play's relationship at the beginning, relentlessly pushes him to commit an irredeemable act, and thus presents him as a crook182. Therefore, Annabella becomes the means of Giovanni's act of sin. Angelo, for his part, has been swindled by the Duke, Mariana and Isabella into the bed-trick to force him into marrying Mariana. Even though the Duke organised it, men held women responsible for it.
180 Ibid, p.89.
181 M. NEILL, op. cit., p.27.
182 M. ABITEBOUL, Théâtre et spiritualité au temps de Shakespeare. éd. de l’Association de recherches internationales sur les arts du spectacle, 1995, p.64.
3. AN AMBIGUOUS FEMALE SEXUALITY.
In the introduction to her book Entre Affirmation et Répression, Aleksandra Kowalska studies the place of sexuality in women's lives as well as the different levels in which female sexuality can be questioned. Thus, she questions the moral level by wondering how sexuality influences moral norms in women's lives but also on the social level. She also examines the social implications which are inherent to women's open sexuality or, on the contrary, to the inhibition of their sexuality183.
3.1. WOMEN'S BODIES.
An important point when it comes to female sexuality concerns the representation of women's bodies. Onstage, bodies are essential as the actors make the play alive. Knowing that female characters were played by male actors during the seventeenth century, it is interesting to study how female bodies are represented in the theatrical art.