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Women Duchess of Malfi and Merchant's tale - Coggle Diagram
Women
Duchess of Malfi and Merchant's tale
Deceitful
Duchess lying to brothers to escape oppression
May lies to her husband to escape his oppression
Victims/Oppressed
sexuality used against women
narration of Chaucer, male influences
body natural is persecuted
oppressed through genre, revenge tragedy condemns duchess from beginning, similarly fabliau and romance grants men autonomy over women immediately
May fulfils Chaucer's exemplum of women being awful, as interpreted by hoost who condemns May at end of Tale
Duchess is just a victim of her genre
Body natural is so palpable it is impossible to overlook, overwhelms her status
"glories like glow worms afar off shine bright/but , look'd to near, have neither heat nor light"
Powerful
Duchess as a martyr, defies death also defies death for other
"raise one to a galliard" "i am Duchess of Malfi still"
Female power comes from defiance, honesty is not valued
thus have to be immoral to be powerful men in positions of power, Cardinal Ferdinand, January are all immoral and corrupt
body politic allows for female power
Duchess breaks out of corrupt system through heavenly imagery that is true power, returning from death as echo
Promiscuous/Carnal
May and Julia equip their sexuality as a means of control
Body natural Marie Axton
thwarted by male perspective