The Domestic Horror and Spatial Resistance in "The Duchess of Malfi"

Author(s): Md. Fahad Hasan, Md. Ripon Ali

Publication Date: December 30, 2025

Abstract

This paper investigates the dual role of the domestic sphere in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi and shows how the house works as a resistance layer and site of horror. The duchess shows her willingness to marry Antonio from an inferior class against her brother's approval, which is exceptional in the Jacobean period, by challenging patriarchal society. Home becomes a protective shell against a male-dominated society. At first, the house was related to security, nurturing, and comfortable places that transform into uncanny, strange, and horrible places of psychological pressure, referring to Sigmund Freud's concept of ‘Uncanny.’ By using Bosola's spying on the female protagonist, the sanctuary becomes a prison. In this case, the horror is associated with psychological disturbance, which makes it possible to establish a reference to suppressed fear. Consequently, once a noble place becomes the place of psychological torment that evokes feelings of uneasiness. This paper examines how the domestic realm can be a site of private resistance and horror from a psychological perspective.