VIOLENCE AS A SOCIETY CATHARSIS

We can differentiate different violence which are shown in these plays and that happen also in the real life. We can mention the interpersonal violence which is the most important violence that appears in the three plays. Interpersonal violence happens when a member of family or an intimate partner is abusing the person in any ways, for instance this can be seen with the character of Annabella in 'Tis Pity she's a whore, when she is killed by her own brother (5.5.234). This is not the final infringement that she is a victim of, but it is such a violence, her heart extracted from her chest with a poniard, which is a horrifying vision. Then, there is the collective violence which is an abuse committed by a larger number of individuals or state, as the one the Duchess in The Duchess of Malfi is victim of with the mad people who enter her room announcing her near death in Act IV scene 2 "we sing like swans, to welcome death". Though she did welcome them unwillingly "for I am chained to endure your tyranny" (4.2.186). In addition, these acts of violence can be linked with physical or non-physical violence that exist in the three works, non-physical violence is what can be pictured which is the violent speeches and words pronounced by the characters.

Furthermore, "people were used to seeing (fake blood)", violencestill exists in the Early Modern society society, sometimes even towards the theatrical art itself. For instance, Puritans' hatred of the theatrical art, because of the representation playwrights and actors made of what Puritans considered as sins, such as sexuality. They campaigned for the closure of the theatres in the early seventeenth century as they understood the importance that this art had over the people, but also as Colin MacCabe states "how important sexuality was to

Shakespearean theatre"¹²⁷. If Puritans were so willing to close theatres it was because of the success it had over the people, and the particular appeal of the Jacobean audience for the sexual deviances and violence¹²⁸. It is maybe linked with the notion of catharsis because it is true that theatre is known for people to "drain away" their drives and fierceness. Because of that, theatre might be the place for people to express their emotions and free themselves from their inhibitions, for them to act less violently in society.

As such, violence is a link to social order, it restrains sins and lust. Colin MacCabe notes that the plays of the seventeenth century playwright Stephen Gosson show that "any fear of sexuality is immediately linked to a similar uncertainty about social order"¹²⁹. The threat of the female sexuality is understandable as a threat to the patriarchal social order and the fear of emasculation of men. The later reformers and anti-theatricalists tended to show this threat by using the metaphor of whoredom in order to discredit the theatrical art¹³⁰. This is the reason why the violence that the Duchess in The Duchess of Malfi endured is not actually sexual abuse but surely is violence against her "own sexual choices"¹³¹. The counterpoint for the sexual deviances is the presence of social-order keepers who prevent deviant behaviours, in the case of Measure for Measure it is Angelo who plays this role as he forbids brothels in the city of Vienna. However, he is not the most ardent defender of the wholesomeness of the city, as other men use crude and violent expressions to describe brothels, these same persons are also designed to enforce the law, such as Elbow who condemns brothels calling them "hot-house[s] which [he thinks are] very ill house too."

(2.1.113).

Although, in the three plays, violence is always turned towards women and little against men. Thus, it reflects the common violent acts towards women that happened in the Renaissance society, in her essay Mary E. Spurlock mentions the conditions of raped women in the Jacobean era and how they were blame for the act, they were as severely punished as the rapist because of the possible pregnancy that resulted of this abuse¹³².

127 C. MACCABE ‘Abusing Self and Others: Puritan Accounts of the Shakespearian Stage’.

Critical Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 3, Sept. 1988, p.3.

128 Quote from Bamford taken in the essay by M.E. SPURLOCK, op. cit., p.1.

129 C. MACCABE, op.cit., p.14.

130 H. DIEHL, op. cit., p.132.

131 M.E SPURLOCK, op.cit., p.6.

132 Ibid., p.2.

2.2. MORAL UNDERSTANDING OF WOMEN'S SEXUALITY.

According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionaries, the word "moral" has four definitions, all linked with people's behaviours, and the dichotomy of right and wrong/good and bad. Two of those are that moral is what "follow[s] the standards of behaviour considered acceptable and right by most people" and that it is based "on your own sense of what is right and fair, not on legal rights or duties". With this in mind we will try to understand how male characters understand and present the female sexuality in a moral way.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the plays known as Morality plays (or Interludes) were famous and the characters of these plays personified moral and social types¹³³, but also struggles that moralities had popularised through vice and virtue¹³⁴. If Tis Pity she's a whore, Measure for Measure and The Duchess of Malfi are not part of the morality plays they have certainly been influenced by them¹³⁵ as they deal with the human and social morality. These old moralities represented allegorical characters which personify moral qualities, among which vice and virtue. The characters of the three plays are not specifically allegorical, but they tend to deal with moral qualities into the society.

2.2.1. "FOR I DO THINK; IT IS SOME SIN IN US": A CORRUPTED SOCIETY.

The characters that appear in the three plays are developing into a corrupted society, however, it is male figures which emphasise corruption. When the playwrights deal with corruption, they must be careful about not incriminating the crown. Nonetheless, censorship concerns more some cases than precise guidelines¹³⁶. The male characters seem to be more corrupted than women, even if men blame women for being corrupted. In The Duchess of Malfi, the Duchy of Malfi in its whole is corrupted and because of that, numerous characters condemn the Duchess' actions¹³⁷. Antonio confirms the corruption of the court in Act I, scene

133 R.J. KAUFMANN, op. cit., p.209.

134 M. ABITEBOUL, Théâtre et spiritualité au temps de Shakespeare. éd. de l’Association de recherches internationales sur les arts du spectacle, 1995, p.44.

135 "[Shakespeare's] plays are as 'moral' as the old moralities" from R.J KAUFMANN, op.cit., p.11, and "Like many other Elizabethan plays, Measure for Measure, has an obvious relation to the old moralities" from C.K STEAD, Shakespeare, Measure for Measure: A Casebook. Macmillan [then] Palgrave, 1971, p.138.

136 M.E SPURLOCK, op.cit., p.1.

137 C. SUKIC, " 'Such a mistake as I have often seen / In a play': The Duchess of malfi, A tragedy of errors" in ‘Comptes Rendus’. Études Anglaises, vol. 71, no. 3, 2018, p.295.

1 by contrasting the court of Malfi to the court of France:

"In seeking to reduce both state and people To a fixed order, their judicious king Begins at home: quits first his royal palace Of flattering sycophants, of dissolute

And infamous persons, which he sweetly terms His Master's masterpiece, the work of heaven, Considering duly that a prince's court

Is like a common fountain, whence should flow Pure silver drops in general; but if't chance Some cursed example poison't near the head,

Death and diseases through the whole land spread." (1.1.109)

This scene acts like a prediction. The corruption makes the society gangrenous and death spreads into the plays. In Tis pity she's a whore some characters are also compromised, mostly by revenge. For instance, Richardetto who seeks revenge against his wife's ex-lover Soranzo, or the Cardinal who do nothing but takes the goods of the dead, as if he waits for them to die to retrieve them, he still judges Annabella at the end of the play. Christine Sukic asserts that "Moral condemnation of the Duchess in particular suggests that morality dominates the play alongside corruption"¹³⁸.

Morality dominates the plays alongside hypocrisy which appears in the three plays and constitutes a moral corruption. For instance, in Measure for Measure, Angelo is the most corrupted character, and this corruption is seen through his hypocrisy. Angelo is evil and amoral even if he tries to have others believe that he is moral with the laws that he passes against the brothels and the prostitution. William Hazlitt even says that [Angelo] seems to have a much greater passion for hypocrisy than for [Isabella]"¹³⁹. He does not even realise his deceitfulness until the end of the play where his duplicity is punished by marriage. In 'Tis pity she's a whore, Soranzo is one of the most hypocrite characters as Ginny Randall declares that: "Soranzo's overdramatic and excessive response to Annabella's pregnancy emphasizes his ironic use of the word "adulterous", for technically, Annabella had not committed adultery prior to her marriage, while Soranzo had wooed a married women"¹⁴⁰. She notes the irony of such situation: "Ford emphasizes the hypocrisy of men while subtly criticizing

the double standard held for women"¹⁴¹, thus, he highlights the difference of treatment between men and women in the Early Modern society. In The Duchess of Malfi, many characters seem to be hypocritical, the first of them is unquestionably the Cardinal, who is the Duchess' older brother. Antonio even talks about him, in Act I, scene 1:

"The spring in his face is nothing but the engend'ring of toads; where he is jealous of any man, he lays worse plot for them than ever was impos'd on Hercules, for he strews in his way flatterers, panders, intelligencers, atheists, and a thousand such political monsters. He should have been Pope; but instead of coming to it by the primitive decency of the church, he did bestow bribes so largely and so impudently as if he would have carried it away without heaven's knowledge. Some good he hath done." (1.1.113)

Even if he is a man of church and has to be dedicated to his faith he has a mistress who happens to be married: "Pescara – Here's the Cardinal's mistress" (5.1.178). Also, he secretly hires a spy to watch his sister: "Bosola – I fell into the galleys in your service"

(1.1.110). Therefore, Bosola becomes a corrupted man and at the end he appears as a hypocritical character because after the death of the Duchess he suddenly has regrets.

Ferdinand is also morally hypocritical because of the disapproval he had over his sister's sexuality even though he has incestuous desire for her. When Isabella Schwartz-Gastine discusses with Adel Hakim about the hypocrisy of powerful men in the play Measure for Measure, Adel Hakim affirms that non-conformists are much less likely to be hypocritical than people who have the power¹⁴². These people are the true criminals but also the ones who are responsible for criminality in society¹⁴³. Because of their power, churchmen in these plays can represent the society and because of the corrupted society, their words seem less real. For instance, in 'Tis pity she's a whore, the last sentence pronounced by the Cardinal:

"And who could not say/'Tis pity she's a whore?" (5.6.239) has less impact because it is pronounced by a corrupted man¹⁴⁴. The Cardinal is hypocrite: through the church protection of Grimaldi who kills Bergetto "if you seek / For justice, know, as nuncio from the Pope, / For this offence I here receive Grimaldi / Into His Holiness' protection" (3.9.212), he is protecting a murderer who has acted only by revenge. C.S Abate even asserts that "The

141 Ibid.

142 I. SCHWARTZ-GASTINE, "Entretien avec Adel Hakim: l'hypocrisie des hommes de pouvoir" in D. LEMONNIER-TEXIER, and G. WINTER, op.cit., p.287.

143 I. SCHWARTZ-GASTINE, op.cit., p.287.

144 G. RANDALL, op.cit.

cardinal is a morally compromised man amid this morally compromised society"¹⁴⁵, thus the entire society is corrupted.

Furthermore, the society is perverted, as the characters feed from the desperation of others. In The Duchess of Malfi, the Duchess' family has to evolve in a world of sexual perversion¹⁴⁶, for instance, her brother Ferdinand is describing her using words related to her sexuality such as "strumpet" or "whore". Angelo (Measure for Measure) is perverted by his own desires, he wants to force a young woman to have sexual intercourse with him. As for Giovanni and Annabella, they are not specifically amoral but their relationship is certainly perverted and decadent.

2.2.2. "KNOW NOW, MISTRESS SHE-DEVIL, YOUR OWN MISCHIEVOUS TREACHERY HATH KILL'D YOU": WOMEN AS DEVILS AND MORAL CONDEMNATION OF WOMEN.

The male discourses on women's sexual morals are one of the most important issues of the three plays, as well as the criticism of social norms concerning women's sexuality¹⁴⁷. Madeline Gootman raises an interesting point concerning 'Tis pity she's a whore which can be applied to the two other plays: "This description of feminine sexuality contrasts that of many other Elizabethan female roles that emphasize piety and purity"¹⁴⁸. The plays introduce feminine sexuality as different than what it could have been in other plays in the same era, mainly through the criticism that male characters made of female characters.

The judgement made by male characters is shown by the presence of the notion of whoredom. In the plays, there is the presence of the sinner-women, prostitution and brothel:

in The Duchess of Malfi, sinner-women are obviously the Duchess, but also Julia the mistress (one can notice that neither Bosola or the Cardinal are accused of being sexually amoral, unlike her) and Cariola who does not prevent the Duchess from marrying. According to Angelo who expresses: "Let's write good angel on the devil's horn" (2.3.137), women are devils in disguise¹⁴⁹. This sentence, firstly about the desire that Isabella inspired to him, is a

145 C.S ABATE, "New Directions: Identifying the Real Whore of Parma" in L. HOPKINS,

’Tis Pity She’s A Whore: A Critical Guide. A&C Black, 2010, p.96.

146 R. WEIS, "Introduction" in John Webster The Duchess of Malfi and Other Plays. Reissue, OUP Oxford, 2009, p.23.

147 A. KOWALSKA, op.cit., p.25.

148 M. GOOTMAN, Alternative Morality in Tis Pity | Women and Power in Shakespearean Drama. 7 Feb. 2014, https://my.vanderbilt.edu/womenandpowerspring14/2014/02/alternative-morality-in-tis-pity/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2019.

149 C. DESMET, op. cit., p.71.

sentence that can be applied to other women of the play. In Measure for measure, Mistress Overdone and Kate Keepdown are the representation of the prostitution that Angelo tries to contain. Mariana who is at first the one who is used, finds herself to be the manipulator by participating to the bed-trick. In Tis pity she's a whore, Hippolita is represented as a woman who seeks vengeance at any cost and Annabella is a sinner in the same way as her brother but she is the only one called "a whore", and who is blamed for the incestuous relationship they had.

Furthermore, for the anti-theatricalists, the theatre is the place of whoredom¹⁵⁰, even though women were not accepted onstage, "critics still warned that ‘‘Playes rehearsed . . . are the bellowes to blowe the codes of lust, soften the minde, and make it flexible to evil inclinations," and they claim that “the lustful theaters” seduce their audiences into whoredom, using their “Sirens charme” to “turne a modest audience/To brazen- fac’et profession of a whore"¹⁵¹.

If we focus on the character of Putana, we see how women are badly viewed through the men's eyes. In 'Tis pity she's a whore, Putana is the example of the sinner-woman as her name literally means "whore"¹⁵² in Italian and she does not prevent Annabella and Giovanni relationship:

"PUTANA – Nay, what a paradise of joy have you passed under! why, now I commend thee, charge. Fear nothing, sweetheart;

what though he be your brother? your brother's a man, I hope; and I say still, if a young wench feel the fit upon her, let her take

anybody, father or brother, all is one." (2.1.183)

Putana evokes "a paradise of joy" to talk about sexual intercourses. After Annabella and Giovanni have had a sexual relation, she does not judge Annabella's behaviour, and she encourages Annabella to carnal passions.

Thus, she ends up appearing such as a harlot and immoral woman¹⁵³ because of her affirmations about women's free sexual desire¹⁵⁴. Her actions balanced between her own benefit and the desire to free Annabella from the corrupted society she would enter and offers Annabella the only corrupt-free relationship she could have, the one with her own brother.

She finally betrays Annabella and Giovanni at the last moment. She surely represents the

150 H. DIEHL, op. cit., p.132.

151 Ibid, p.132.

152 M.GOOTMAN, op. cit.

153 Ibid.

154 Ibid.

free-speech of sexuality and a suitable alternative for the view over Annabella and Giovanni relationship¹⁵⁵, she does not accuse them at first but tries to understand.

2.2.3. "SOME RISE BY SIN, AND SOME BY VIRTUE FALL": SEXUAL AND MORAL AMBIGUITY UNDER THE GUISE OF INJUSTICE.

Nowadays, when people see or read the plays, they can feel as if there was a great injustice, especially towards women. In the Renaissance period, spectators did not think the same way. However, Robert Ornstein states that "we should expect a Renaissance tragedy to display 'a depth of vision that penetrates the surface violence or anarchy of life to illumine the underlying pattern and meaning of man's fate'"¹⁵⁶. The playwrights might want to show the simple human nature. Webster has even been accused of "moral ambiguity" because of his picture of human condition¹⁵⁷ through the treatment of the Duchess by her brothers, he seems to condemn it, and even if the first role of this play is not about morality, it certainly establishes moral indeterminacy¹⁵⁸:

"FIRST PILGRIM – Here’s a strange turn of state: who would have thought

so great a lady would have matched herself
 unto so mean a person? Yet the cardinal
 bears himself much too cruel. (3.4.156)

The pilgrim talks about Antonio as the "mean a person", he states that the Duchess should have marry a man of a higher social condition, but he also approves that the Cardinal is too cruel, this character shows the moral indeterminacy of the play. According to him the Duchess has not chosen her husband wisely but her brothers do not behave in a moral way with her.

Injustice is part of the idea of a corrupted society linked with an indeterminate, sometimes contradictory, incoherent, and unclear sense of morality¹⁵⁹. For instance, Bosola's behaviour towards the Duchess avenging the crime he has participated in. The male

155 M.GOOTMAN, op. cit.

156 Quoted from T.FOX, A Discussion of Morality and Horror in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ and

‘Edward II’. on the web page created by Anniina Jokinen on March 31, 2002, http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/foxwebster.htm. Accessed 13 Apr. 2019.

157 M.ABITEBOUL, Théâtre et spiritualité au temps de Shakespeare. éd. de l’Association de recherches internationales sur les arts du spectacle, 1995, p.257.

158 C.SUKIC, op. cit., p.297.

159 C.SUKIC, op. cit., p.295.

characters possess all the power, including the truth about sexual morality as they think. And

characters possess all the power, including the truth about sexual morality as they think. And