The Duchess's desire to beget herself a shiny new family with the man of her choice directly clashes with her brothers' desire that she remain their single, obedient sister. In Renaissance times, the family hierarchy was such that an unmarried woman was almost always under the control of her male relatives, and it drives her brothers (Ferdinand in particular) nuts that, as the widow of a nobleman, the Duchess isn't just a free agent, she's a free agent with her own court.
In addition to defying her brothers, the Duchess is also nontraditional in the family she creates: she chooses her husband, and then does all of the heavy lifting in the courting and marriage proposal process. She and Antonio have what looks like a happy, relatively equal marriage, but whether or not a noble woman of this era can have a truly power-balanced marriage with a man who's both her social inferior and her employee is a question that hovers over every part of The Duchess of Malfi.
Questions About Family
- How seriously does the Duchess take her brothers' warnings that she not remarry without their say-so?
- Why does Ferdinand freak out when he learns that the Duchess has given birth?
- What do you make of the fact that Ferdinand and the Duchess are twins?
- The brothers primarily want to punish the Duchess—why do they have her kids killed, too? Is it just another way to hurt her, or is something else going on there? Hint: There's something else going on there.
Chew on This
The Duchess ultimately conquers her brothers because at the end of the play her eldest son, the product of her marriage with Antonio, is left to rule the duchy and carry on their collective bloodline.
The main tragedy of this play isn't "Two super evil guys go on a warpath to destroy their sister," it's "A woman tries and fails to conduct her private family life in the way she chooses in the face of corruption and social norms." That's the real bummer.