SOURCE: Oakes, Elizabeth. “The Duchess of Malfi as a Tragedy of Identity.” Studies in Philology 96, no. 1 (1999): 51-67.

In this essay, Oakes interprets the Duchess's struggles with identity as a function of the role of the hero, who must not have a private life. Oakes places the Duchess's behavior as a widow in the context of contemporary strictures on proper widowhood to suggest that her actions after the death of her husband are not the cause of her downfall, but instead heighten the impact of her tragedy.

In the criticism on The Duchess of Malfi, there is one major point of debate: how is one to react to and judge the Duchess' behavior as a widow? In exploring this question, scholars disagree: some argue that she causes, even deserves, her degradation and death; others maintain that she transgresses none of the rules of decorum for a widow of the...