Despite the different contexts in which they wrote their works, as well as the very different tone and content, both Chaucer in 'The Merchants Tale' that Webster through "The Duchess of Malfi" explores the theme of forbidden love - or forbidden lust - and its attractions and implications. While Chaucer's humorous fabliau of adultery and grotesque mismatches certainly contrasts with the twisted tale of status and gender imbalance in Webster's tragedy, both writers seem to point to the contradictory forces of the negative consequences of forbidden relationships in their respective texts, as well as their intense magnetism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayChaucer, through the relationship between May and Damyan, explores the concept that the main attraction of a romance could be its forbidden nature. Damyan's "love" for May is often described in the pain he feels from not being with her, such as his "langwissheth for love" and attraction. Although May's character appears to be predominantly motivated by lust, at the first opportunity she and Damyan "dressed/in a different way may not have been expressed," implying that their romance is driven by impulse sexual rather than romantic love. Chaucer's poem being a fabliaux, the characters are not fully realized and rather stock characters are needed to serve the story, and at the point of Damyan's love letter to May she had not been given any dialogue. This also implies that their mutual attraction does not extend beyond lust. Furthermore, the concept that May's only interest is in Damyan's forbidden and unattainable status is underlined by their sexual engagement on the tree: Eve had the choice of all the fruits in the Garden of Eden but sought the fruit of tree of knowledge. due to its forbidden nature. Similarly, in Duchess of Malfi, the duchess's love for Antonio appears to have been originally inspired by the containment of her sexual feelings by her brothers, the Cardinal and Ferdinand. The juxtaposition of the scene in which her brother declares her a "lustful widow" and begs to let "not youth, high promotion, eloquence... influence your high blood," immediately followed by her statement that "it will the wink and will choose a husband" seem to imply that her initial attraction to Antonio emerges not because of his personal merits or qualities, but rather his magnetism towards the forbidden. Her choice of Antonio as a partner only solidifies this argument. Marrying any man would anger her brother Ferdinand, who opposes the idea of ​​the Duchess remarrying despite the ideas of the time: a widow, who had much more power and authority than an unmarried woman, was encouraged to marry as soon as possible . she was seen as a threat to the patriarchal order. However, her marriage to a man far below her status presents a more conventional forbidden romance than just the brothers telling her not to. Social mobility was a much-feared concept, and the Duchess's disdain for social norms, represented by her telling Antonio to "raise/... (his) hand to help you", could signify a specific attraction that she cites in Antonio- his forbidden nature as someone beneath his status. That said, Webster describes the Duchess's love for Antonio as a much less amoral romance than that between May and Damyan in the Merchants tale. Despite his arguably stronger moral compass than the Cardinal and his statusMentally healthier than Ferdinand, the Duchess is naturally inferior to her brothers due to the patriarchal ideals of the 16th and 17th centuries. Her decision to marry Antonio is forbidden only because the duchess's will is repressed by her brothers, and her marriage to Antonio seems to partly justify their love story as sacred and moral, the duchess wonders "what can force the Church aMore?". Cariola's presence makes the marriage between the Duchess and Antonio legally and morally bound to the religious context of Webster's time, and the Duchess' defiance of what her brothers deem forbidden, rather than what the Church does, likely puts the Duchess on a moral level. high ground and makes her seem like a more sympathetic character. This is in direct contrast to the forbidden nature of May and Damyan's romance, in which the two directly violate the sanctity of the marriage bond by committing infidelity. Rather than explore Damyan's moral turmoil in pursuing a married woman, or elicit sympathy for May through her marriage to the lusty old January, Chaucer presents both as morally weak. This is evidenced by the mating between May and Damyan that occurred in “a tree… laden with fruit,” a play on the image of original sin that begins at the tree of knowledge, in the Garden of Eden. Chaucer's comparison of May to Eve in this way is quite unsparing, and his growing calculation, inviting Damyan to climb the tree while telling January that "(she) is no slut" contributes to the idea that his Searching for the forbidden Damyan is immoral and calculated. Although both the Duchess and May's pursuit of forbidden tastes result, initially, in satisfaction (emotionally or sexually), somehow both Chaucer and Webster present the manifestation of forbidden tastes as disturbing, rather than "sweet." Ferdinand's obsession with his sister's sexual actions is increasingly disconcerting over the course of the show, and the audience's view of his character is greatly influenced by his desire for the forbidden. While the Cardinal certainly shows disgust at the idea of ​​the Duchess having sex (to his knowledge) outside of marriage in Act II Scene 5, he remains relatively impersonal and simply shows aversion to the idea of ​​the Duchess "sleeping under her ", contemptuously expressing "will our blood... be thus reached?". In contrast, Ferdinand shows extreme and unfiltered anger at the idea, raging "I will tear her to pieces", and his anger towards the man who put pregnant his sister implies a jealousy that is very disturbing in a brother His references to the Duchess' "milk" and "blood" show an unpleasant obsession with her body and his generally unpleasant behavior may be Webster's way of conveying. to the audience that what is forbidden and immoral should not be ventured. Similarly, Chaucer presents January's legal, but arguably transgressive, marriage to May as unpleasant and grotesque. Even though January's marriage to May is not immoral in the sense religious - he ironically goes out of his way to make sure he is married before having sex with May so he can have a "leve procreacioun" - and the context of the time made this not an unusual situation for a much older man marrying a young woman, Chaucer nevertheless creates the image of January's affair with May as repugnant, if not entertaining to the audience. Chaucer's description of January as having a beard "like the skin of a hound fish" and "shiny skin round her nekke shaketh" is repellent, and juxtaposing her desire to have sex with May sitting "still as stoon" creates almost the idea that January violated her, and that the age difference between them,.