DefinitionA critical analysis (also critique or critical response) is a written work that analyzes and evaluates data from a source. A critical analysis considers all aspects of the source, both positive and negative, and assesses the source against a certain framework (theoretical, philosophical, visual, rhetorical, etc.). |
Many students new to this genre might approach it the same way they have been taught to write a persuasive/argumentative essay. However, the fundamental difference between a critical analysis and a persuasive essay is the subject of discussion:
Note: Adapted from Other Essay Forms [Infographic], by Tara Karhoff, 2021, BCcampus Open Publishing, (https://opentextbc.ca/writingforsuccessh5p/chapter/what-makes-a-critique-a-critique/), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Note: Adapted from Critical Analysis [Infographic], by Tara Karhoff, 2021, BCcampus Open Publishing, (https://opentextbc.ca/writingforsuccessh5p/chapter/what-makes-a-critique-a-critique/), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Any critique, no matter if it is of a book, an article, or a movie, needs to contain the following elements:
Below are four common forms of critique ranked by complexity, all of which you will be asked to deliver at some point during your study:
In John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, homosexuality may not be the first theme that jumps out of the play’s dark and mysterious depths. Perhaps due to the play’s classification as a revenge tragedy, criticism has conventionally centred around themes of power, revenge, desire, and violence. More modern critical work, specifically feminist readings, have attempted to destabilize conventional notions of gender through interpreting the Duchess as a strong and sexually liberated heroine, moving away from what Lesel Dawson describes in early modern literature as “a polarized view of women (which constructs them as either chaste angels or whorish devils)” (312). One of the most familiar of these critical works is Theodora A. Jankowski’s “Defining/Confining the Duchess: Negotiating the Female Body in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi,” published in 1990. Unfortunately, this relatively new area of feminist critical discourse surrounding the Duchess conforms strictly to heterosexual readings. [Thesis] This essay thus argues that The Duchess of Malfi deserves a place amongst a growing number of Renaissance works being reconsidered by queer theory by seeking to deconstruct previous criticism that has presumed heterosexuality in its readings of the Duchess.
Ismail, K. (2021, December 10). Queering the duchess: Exploring the body of the female homosexual in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Retrieved from https://d1oemxqau9vshd.cloudfront.net/app/uploads/sites/6/2022/09/Ismail_final.pdf
Below is a sample outline that you can use to start writing. Once more familiar with the genre, you may find yourself developing a different or more complex outline.
1. Introduction
2. Body
3. Conclusion
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Queering the Duchess: Exploring the Body of the Female Homosexual in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi
In John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, homosexuality may not be the first theme that jumps out of the play’s dark and mysterious depths. Perhaps due to the play’s classification as a revenge tragedy, criticism has conventionally centred around themes of power, revenge, desire, and violence. More modern critical work, specifically feminist readings, have attempted to destabilize conventional notions of gender through interpreting the Duchess as a strong and sexually liberated heroine, moving away from what Lesel Dawson describes in early modern literature as “a polarized view of women (which constructs them as either chaste angels or whorish devils)” (312). One of the most familiar of these critical works is Theodora A. Jankowski’s “Defining/Confining the Duchess: Negotiating the Female Body in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi,” published in 1990. Unfortunately, this relatively new area of feminist critical discourse surrounding the Duchess conforms strictly to heterosexual readings. This essay thus argues that The Duchess of Malfi deserves a place amongst a growing number of Renaissance works being reconsidered by queer theory by seeking to deconstruct previous criticism that has presumed heterosexuality in its readings of the Duchess.
Although queer theory didn’t gain serious consideration and popularity in the critical sphere until the early 1990s, hardly any scholarly work since then has focused on the potential homosexual tendencies of the Duchess, despite her explicitly identified gender nonconformity and her quasi-sexual relationship with Cariola. Through the lens of a queer reading, Webster portrays the Duchess’s rejection of heteronormative ideals as a way to explore the boundaries of heterosexuality and play with ideas of what a powerful aristocratic homosexual woman looks and acts like. Jonathan Goldberg is keen to characterize the Renaissance era as a culture that did “not operate under the aegis of the homo/hetero divide” (2), thus allowing for broader readings of homosexuality in relation to character representations. Indeed, accounts of aristocratic women in the early modern period engaging in homoerotic activities were not uncommon and, more importantly, not suppressed by their male reporters (Drouin 88-89).
Moreover, the femininity of the Duchess’s body is often fixated on by male characters, and her masculine characteristics such as ambition, drive, and leadership are ignored. Bosola observes that during her pregnancy—an undisguisable signifier of the female body—the Duchess “pukes, her stomach seethes, / The fins of her eyelids look most teeming blue, / She wanes I’ th’ cheek, and waxes flat I’ th’ flank” (Webster 2.1.58-60). Interestingly, in this same scene, the Duchess is concurrently depicted with such masculine traits as she directs her ladies imperatively: “Come hither, mend my ruff; / . . . Thou art such a tedious lady (2.1.102-03). The emphases on “eyelids,” “cheek,” and “flank” reinforce how Bosola is solely interested in identifying the corporeal feminine features of the Duchess’s body and disregards the masculine characteristics she performs..
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There are a number of scholarly works on queering the Renaissance era; however, these queer studies have generally focused on male homosociality and homosexuality of Renaissance literature. 2 Of the few recently published works specifically on lesbianism in the Renaissance era, such as Valerie Traub’s The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England, none include The Duchess of Malfi in their pages.3 Webster portrays the Duchess as falling outside of heteronormative conventions in the Renaissance period. This is achieved mainly through her masculine traits, the feminization of Antonio, and the Duchess’s quasi-sexual relationship with Cariola. Considering the play as a whole, male characters desire to constrain the Duchess in a static femininity by either ignoring her masculine characteristics or accentuating her physical feminine features. The Duchess’s body as biologically feminine thus leads to constraints over the representation of her masculine self, which is anxiety-provoking to the biologically male characters around her who wish to impose a feminine self onto her. Further, a queer reading of the Duchess opens up a more nuanced interpretation of her masculine self as a way for Webster to rationalize her homoerotic desires toward Cariola. In this sense, Webster uses a disconnect between the femininity of her body and the masculinity of her perceived self to explore an intimate same-sex relationship that falls outside of heteronormative ideals.
Ismail, K. (2021, December 10). Queering the duchess: Exploring the body of the female homosexual in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Retrieved from https://d1oemxqau9vshd.cloudfront.net/app/uploads/sites/6/2022/09/Ismail_final.pdf
This guide was adapted from Chapter 8: Being Critical in Writing for Success - 1st Canadian H5P Edition by Tara Horkoff and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
