Saturday, January 31, 2015

Comparing John Donne's "Songs and Sonnets" with John Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi", what are some main similarities and differences ?

Although detailed comparisons and contrasts between
Donne’s Songs and Sonets [sic] and Webster’s The Duchess
of Malfi
would take far more space than is available here, a few suggestions
can nevertheless be offered.  Consider, for instance, the episode in the play in which
the Duchess indicates her desire to marry Antonio (Act I, Scene 3).  Aspects of this
episode resemble aspects of Donne’s poetry in a number of ways, including the
following:


  • Antonio’s admiring reference to "the
    sacrament of marriage" (1.3.93) resembles the celebration of married love found in
    various poems by Donne, such as “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning.” To the extent that
    this scene in Webster’s play celebrates true love, it resembles similar celebrations in
    many of Donne’s poems, such as “The Good Morrow.”

  • The
    dialogue between Antonio and the Duchess is often laced with witty sexual innuendo, as
    in Antonio’s clever references to coupling in sheets (1.3.96). Neither Donne nor Webster
    shies away from sexual wit.

  • Webster, like Donne, enjoys
    paradoxical language, as when the Duchess gives Antonio her ring to help his bloodshot
    eye and thus restore his eyesight. He then paradoxically replies, “You have made me
    stark blind” (1.3.114). Consider, too, the Duchess’s later paradoxical words to
    Antonio:

readability="5">

. . . Go, go
brag


You have left me heartless; mine [my heart] is in your
bosom . . .
(1.3.151-52)



  • The
    lines just quoted exemplify another trait that this scene from Webster's play shares
    with many poems written by Donne: a penchant for general witty cleverness, not just
    sexual wit.

  • Webster employs clever metaphors, as Donne
    also does.  One example occurs when the Duchess refers to the top of Antonio’s head as
    his “goodly roof” (1.3.120).

  • All in all, the scene
    between the Duchess and Antonio is witty, humorous, and unconventional, traits also
    often found in Donne’s poetry.

However, several
key differences between Donne’s poems and this scene of Webster’s play are also worth
mentioning.  They include the following:


  • In the
    play, the Duchess has a great deal to say.  In Donne’s poems, however, almost all the
    talking is done by males.

  • In the play, it is the Duchess
    who courts Antonio, rather than vice versa; in Donne’s poems,
    however, it is almost always men who court women.

  • Few of
    the women presented in Donne’s poems are as open as the Duchess is in expressing what
    she calls “violent passions” (1.3.148).  Usually, in Donne’s poems, such passions are
    almost always expressed by men.

Many other
similarities and differences between Donne's poems and Webster's play might be explored,
but there is insufficient space to do so here.

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