This is an A Level OCR English Literature Essay comparing 'The Merchant's Tale' and 'The Duchess of Malfi' with regard to the statement ‘Literature has more to say about social structures than about the natural world.’
‘Literature has more to say about social structures than about the natural world.’
Although social structures and the natural world appear to be paradoxical concepts that
cannot coexist, both Chaucer and Webster challenge this argument by utilising nature
and its imagery to shed light on the corruption of their respective societies. In ‘The
Merchant’s Tale’, Chaucer undermines the three estates and analyses the institution of
marriage through satire to expose corruption. Meanwhile, ‘The Duchess of Malfi’
explores the tragic consequences of the human desire to control, ultimately leading to
human disaster and nature’s victory.
Both texts discuss systems of extending human control over nature. One of these
methods is the patriarchal authority that shapes and dictates the institution of marriage
for women. While May experiences this force of control within her matrimony at the
hands of her husband, the Duchess must tolerate its command within widowhood from
her brothers. In ‘The Merchant’s Tale’, Januarie’s later obsessive fixation with May is
foreshadowed in his hunt for a wife when he describes a woman as mouldable as “men
may warm wex with hands plye”. The simile equates women and their intrinsic
behaviour to the natural substance of “wex” that must be altered to satisfy Januarie’s
desires. This idealistic woman is contrasted with “thise olde widwes,../konne so muchel
craft on Wades boot”, denouncing older women, subtly alluding to the Wife of Bath, by
accusing them of trickery with the folkloric reference of “Wades boot”. The authorial
intrusion of the Merchant is evident, however with the metafictional referencing and
collision of different perspectives (the Merchant, Januarie and Chaucer) the narration
becomes postmodern. Dr Turner explains how Chaucer creates a “marketplace of
ideas” to further his marriage debate not only in this tale but across ‘The Canterbury
Tales’, introducing “marginalised voice[s] that speak[] back to power”, such as the Wife
of Bath’s. In ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, rather than “speak[ing] back to power”, the Duchess
acts behind her brother’s backs, stating “I am going into a wilderness” before she
proposes to Antonio, submitting to nature and depicting marriage as a liberating
adventure. This image is in complete contrast to Januarie’s manufactured “gardyn,
walled al with stoon”, where the caesura recreates the suffocating enclosure he has
made to entrap his wife. It is outside of marriage that the Duchess experiences a similar
enclosure, “liv[ing] in rank pasture here, i’th’court”. The metaphor reduces the Duchess
to an animal on a farm, stripping her of any status and reasserting her brothers’
authority and control over her, as well as nature. It is hypocritical that the Cardinal
begins to argue “the marriage night is the entrance into some prison”, deceptively
presenting a protofeminist view to manipulate the Duchess into obeying his and
Ferdinand’s wishes, driven by their desire to protect their inheritance.
Female characters of both literary worlds are persistently demeaned and degraded to
remind them of their position in society through natural imagery. This can be seen in two
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