The Duchess of Malfi

The antagonists of the play believe in the maintenance of a strict social hierarchy in which they—rich, noble Italian males—have absolute power and everyone else is arranged below them. However, the play is sympathetic to the characters who transcend the societal expectations laid out for their class and gender.

Under the rule of King James I, women’s roles in society were even more tightly monitored than they had been in Elizabeth’s time. This was partially due to a backlash instigated by James against this long-ruled and popular female monarch. James imagined that England would relish the return of a king, when in fact they had accrued a national identity under Elizabeth and distrusted his Scottishness. He developed a reputation for dismissing the queen’s memory as well as general misogyny. Whereas Elizabeth had used accessible discourse to appeal to the middle and lower classes, James was raised in the more feudalistic Scotland and maintained strict social stratification under his rule.

Thus, matters of gender and class are bound up together, as are matters of transcending the traditional expectations for these roles. It is the Duchess’s transgression of traditional gender roles—like Elizabeth’s queenly model of accessibility—that facilitates Antonio’s transgression of class barriers.