The Duchess of Malfi

While they seem to be three distinct phenomena, corruption, deceit, and betrayal all have to do with the early modern anxiety that someone’s outside appearance or behavior is disguising or misrepresenting what is inside them. This anxiety particularly manifests in the nature of the court and the male characters’ suspicions about women. As such, this theme is tied to Transcending Societal Expectations.

At various points, Bosola, the Cardinal, and Ferdinand all invoke the deceitful nature of women. Bosola uses this misconception to fuel his misogynist attack on the Old Lady: he tells a story of a woman who “flayed the skin off her face” to flatten her smallpox scars (II.1.30) and uses this to extrapolate the idea that all women will try to appear as something they are not. The Cardinal similarly insults his mistress, Julia: though he is breaking his religious vows by having a sexual relationship with her, he weaponizes her infidelity to her husband to characterize all women as deceitful. Finally, Ferdinand does the same with the Duchess: He interprets the hiding of her marriage as deceitful and believes she has betrayed her promise not to remarry.

These generalized misogynistic accusations are not founded. They are largely a projection by the brothers, who are characterized by their penchant for actual corruption and deceit. This characterization sets the tone for the rest of the court. Antonio says that “flashes superficially hang” on the Cardinal (I.1.156), deceiving the court’s flatterers. Likewise, he says that what appears in Ferdinand as “mirth is merely outside” (I.1.170, emphasis added), disguising a dishonest and corrupted internal character. The corrupt and deceptive nature of Ferdinand and the Cardinal then extends to the court at large. As Antonio explains to Delio, “if ‘t chance / Some cursed example poison ‘t near the head, / Death and diseases through the whole land spread” (I.1.14-15). This metaphor of the “head” of a fountain is used to describe the nature of the court, which takes its corrupt nature from the nobles who run it.

Even the protagonists of the play, the Duchess and Antonio, exhibit deceitful behavior. What distinguishes them from the play’s antagonists is that their deceit is not born from a corrupt personality but rather, out of necessity amid the ethos of the court. If they want to follow their hearts and live as husband and wife, they must engage in deceit by hiding their marriage and family. Since the corruption of the court follows from two of its most prominent nobles, Ferdinand and the Cardinal, their biases come to dictate that of the environment that surrounds them. The Duchess references this when she tells Cariola that she is “going into a wilderness / Where I shall find nor path nor friendly clew / To be my guide” (I.1.359-61). In the wilderness of the deceitful court, she must paradoxically engage in deceit herself in order to live her most honest life.

Notably, every character who engages in deceitful behavior—be they protagonist or antagonist—dies before the end of the play. A corrupt nature, which leads to deceit, eventually leads to a series of betrayals that result in a litany of deaths. In a tragedy, the final soliloquy given after the last flurry of character deaths often summarizes the lesson of the play. Delio’s soliloquy is about truth, the opposite of deceit. He says, “Nature doth nothing so great, for great men / As when she’s pleased to make them lords of truth” (V.5.118-19, emphasis added). Because the characters of a court’s “great men” determine the character of the court at large, whether someone is truthful or deceitful determines the fate of an array of people. At its core, corruption, deceit, and the betrayals that follow are what make this play a tragedy.