Jealousy, Cuckoldry, and Pregnancy in The Duchess of Malfi (Acts 1,2, & 3)

The Maus article, though not specifically focused on The Duchess of Malfi, inspired me to do a close reading of the play with Ferdinand as the jealous husband and cuckold. As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, Ferdinand has some rather unpalatable incestuous feelings for his sister, and his anger at her seeming promiscuity/infidelity has a decidedly jealous tinge to it. I intend to push those observations even further, however, by arguing that Ferdinand is an exemplar of the jealous husband and cuckold described by Maus.

1. The jealous man wants proof of his wife’s infidelity – “ocular proof” (Maus 564). Consider Ferdinand’s obsessive musings about the men with whom the Duchess may be sleeping:

Happily with some strong-thied bargeman,

Or one o’th’ wood yard that can quoit the sledge

Or toss the bar, or else some lovely squire

That carries coals up to her privy lodgings.

(2.5.42-5)

I’ll also discuss the apricot “pregnancy test” (2.1) as a means of revealing the truth of the Duchess’s body, just as virginity tests have been used by so many men in other plays we've read (The Changeling, The Knight of the Burning Pestle) to determine the chastity of their wives and potential wives.

2. The cuckold observes, or imagines observing, his wife’s betrayal from a hidden space and unnoticed by her or her lover (Maus 566). I’ll tie this to Ferdinand’s many sneaky and unbidden entrances into the Duchess’s chamber, as well as his use of Bosola as a spy.

3. Maus also draws upon Freud to make the point that the person suffering jealousy identifies not only with the rival, but also with the wife/beloved (Maus 569). Consider Ferdinand’s reaction to what he sees as the Duchess’s infidelity: “I could kill her now/ In you or in myself” (2.5.63-4).

4. The jealous husband’s reaction to his wife’s betrayal is to want to cut her up into many pieces (Maus 572). Consider Ferdinand imagining giving his handkerchief to the Duchess’s bastard after he “[has] hewed her to pieces” (2.5.31).

Maus, of course, develops an analogy between the voyeuristic gaze of jealous husbands and the voyeurism of spectators, which ties to my interest in the representation of a pregnant body onstage. It will – I hope – be useful for our discussion to think about how Ferdiand’s obsession with the Duchess’s body relates to our spectatorial affection for her, as well as how her affective marriage is illegible to her brothers, and how it forces them to read her pregnant body as illegitimate and immoral.