Losing, Collecting, and Assuming Identities The Relationships between the Ring and the Characters in The Duchess of Malfi.pdf

Chapter 3:

Losing, Collecting, and Assuming Identities: The Relationships between the Ring and the

Characters in The Duchess of Malfi

Critics writing about John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi tend to focus on a very

consistent set of themes and characters, including particularly the play’s moral issues and the

complicated relationship between the Duchess and Ferdinand. Unlike Othello , which has an

extensive amount of criticism concerning Desdemona’s handkerchief, it is only within the past

fifteen years that the materialist criticism of this play has increased. Instead of looking at a love

token, such as the handkerchief, scholars such as Theodora A. Jankowski, Judith Haber, and Lori

Schroeder Haslem often focus on the Duchess’s body as a prop or a means to understanding

larger issues that the play challenges or represents, particularly those concerning marriage and

the power of the noble woman in the midst of powerful men trying to control her. 1 These critics’

explorations of the Duchess’s body have led to insights into the relationship between subjects

and objects, but only in terms of actual characters, not in terms of characters and props/inanimate

objects. For example, Jankowski discusses how the Duchess is objectified as her brothers try to

control her body that may act as a political tool or pawn 2 and Haber argues that because the

1 See also Wendy Wall for an important account of the relationship between the female body and domesticity:

Wendy Wall, “Just a Spoonful of Sugar: Syrup and Domesticity in Early Modern England,” Modern Philology 106

(2006): pp. 149-172.

2 Theodora A. Jankowski, “Defining/Confining the Duchess: Negotiating the Female Body in John Webster’s The

Duchess of Malfi, ” in The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster, ed. Dympna Callaghan (New York: St. Martin’s Press,

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Duchess is both a subject and an object, the men around her are objectified instead of simply

being subjects. 3 Other materialist critics look at props such as the wax effigies that Ferdinand

creates for his dungeon spectacle or the disembodied hand that Ferdinand presents to the

Duchess in the dungeon. Albert H. Tricomi discusses the significance of the dead ringed hand in

terms of the Duchess and Ferdinand’s relationship; 4 however, he sees only monovalent meanings

as he looks at the hand and ring as one thing rather than two objects that should be treated

separately.

This chapter will argue that the ring itself plays a vital role in The Duchess of Malfi ,

particularly in the shaping of identity, as it passes from hand to hand. The physical movement of

the wedding ring given to Antonio (or rather, a wedding ring) from character to character is as

follows: to the Duchess after her first husband’s death, from the Duchess to Antonio in the

proposal scene, supposedly from Antonio to Ferdinand, and finally from Ferdinand to the

Duchess in the dungeon scene. There is the Duchess’s own wedding ring that the Cardinal takes

violently from her during the dumb show when he revokes her power and banishes her and there

is also the Cardinal’s ring that he removes from his hand when he assumes the identity of a

soldier rather than a Cardinal in the same scene. Throughout the play rings also appear in the

dialogue, including a ring used in a jousting tournament, the embrace shared by the Duchess and

Antonio (their bodies forming a ring), a ring-shaped arena used for bear-baiting, and a noose

equated to a wedding ring.

2000), pp. 80-103. See also Lori Schroeder Haslem, “’Troubled with the Mother’: Longings, Purgings, and the

Maternal Body in Bartholomew Fair and The Duchess of Malfi, ” Modern Philology 92 (1995): pp. 438-459.

3 Judith Haber, “’My Body Bestow Upon My Women’: The Space of the Feminine in The Duchess of Malfi, ”

Renaissance Drama 28 (1997): pp. 133-159.

4 Alfred H, Tricomi, “The Severed Hand in Webster’s Duchess of Malfi, ” SEL 44 (2004): pp. 348-357.

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The wedding ring in The Duchess of Malfi accumulates various physical meanings as it

passes from character to character and textual meanings as it is mentioned in dialogue. As the

rings move throughout the play, characters interpret their movements and what those movements

mean to them symbolically overall. Or, the characters associate the love token with a particular

person or thing; in either case, the characters begin to consider all of the rings together.

Throughout the play, the wedding ring is used as a medicinal aid, a means of wooing someone, a

token of love, a means of revoking or adopting power or an identity, a tool for trickery, and a

token of death. With such perceptions and interpretations of this love token, it continually

affects the characters. The ring begins to shape them in terms of their identities and actions as it

acquires myriad meanings infused with the emotions and desires of the characters over the

course of the play. What meanings and associations can such a small object possibly possess

that it can affect the characters so greatly? Also, what are the greater implications concerning

the ring’s ability to have such an effect on the characters in terms of the relationship between

subjects and objects?

Interestingly enough, the identities of the Duchess, Antonio, Ferdinand, the Cardinal, and

even Cariola are changed by the ring at some point over the course of the play. These effects of

the ring call into question the relationship between subjects and objects throughout the play

between not only props and characters, but also between various characters themselves. For

example, there is an incredible relationship between identity and the dynamic movements of the

ring between the Duchess, her new husband Antonio, and her twin brother Ferdinand. The ring

begins as a wedding ringa gift from the Duchess to Antoniothat creates an identity between

the two lovers as it acts as their emotional and marital contract. However, the ring then becomes

an incestuous love token from Ferdinand to the Duchess that carries with it all of the other

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aforementioned physical and textual meanings. As this movement occurs, Ferdinand’s identity

as a brother changes to that of a fiancé or husband, while Antonio’s identity is stripped away.

The Cardinal takes the Duchess’s wedding ring from her earlier, in the dumb show,

symbolically stripping her of her marriage and granting Ferdinand the opportunity to take

Antonio’s place, and yet the Duchess’s identity never changes because, to her, identity is

intrinsic and cannot be so easily removed. In the dumb show, the ring represents powers and

relationships held and lost, which are then relevant in the dungeon scene when Ferdinand asserts

power over his sister. As the ring moves and develops meanings and these three characters’

identities shift and transform over the course of the play, there exists an incredible power

struggle between these characters, particularly the twins, and the ring plays the role of

representing these battles while simultaneously being a part of them. It is also this fight for

power that instigates the more philosophical struggle of the objectification of the characters and

subject formation of the ring.

The ring begins with its own identity that develops over the course of the play as it is

passed around and collects layers of meaning. The ring is first and foremost a wedding ringa

love token that in modern Western culture represents the bond between two people and the

power that they share, whether it is over a household or a kingdom. In the Duchess’s case, the

wedding ring is also a reminder of death and a receptacle for memory since her ring once

belonged to her first husband, giving the ring the identity of a memento from her previous

marriage. The ring also develops the identity of a tool for proposing to a lover, controlling

someone, taking vengeance, and wooing and tormenting a sibling, especially when the Duchess’s

brothers are concerned. As the ring moves throughout the play, these identities and the

aforementioned meanings and associations are all layered upon it, each building on another until

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the ring becomes as dynamic and influential as a character. The ring becomes the center of

interpretive conflict between the Duchess and her brothers. Her brothers equate the ring with

personal identity, whereas the Duchess sees the ring as simply a symbol of identity. The ring

itself has agency as it exerts power and influence over the characters simply by being important

to them because of what it is and what it represents. This conflict of the ring’s legibility allows

the ring to become akin to a character since it becomes as complex and opaque as the characters

who attempt to read it. As a result of this conflict, the identities of the characters and the ring

change and the relationships between subjects and objects become more fluid.

 • 

The struggles in The Duchess of Malfi begin with the exchange of a wedding ring

between the Duchess and Antonio when she proposes to him in the secrecy of her bedchamber

with only her attendant Cariola as a witness. The wedding ring is from the Duchess’s previous

marriage, but she uses it here as a tool to ask Antonio to marry her and to legitimize their

clandestine wedding. Martin Ingram explains that, culturally, “in legal theory and popular

estimation, symbols, ritual actions and various forms of circumstantial evidence could partially

support the allegation that a contract [of marriage] existed. Plaintiffs appealed to rings and other

gifts exchanged as ‘tokens of marriage’ at the time of contract and beforehand during

courtship.” 5 The exchange of such love tokens as rings was recognized as a lawful means to

cement a marriage even outside of the Church, though the couple was expected to eventually

have their marriage sanctioned by it. 6 The ring in this proposal scene is a sign of the Duchess’s

and Antonio’s emotional commitment to each other and their marriage sanctioned by the law.

5 Ingram, p. 197.

6 Ibid .

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