Comparative Analysis Of Duchess Of Malfi By John Webster And Home Fire By Kamila Shamsie

Abstract

The fate of collateral damage is not contracted for the characters from Webster’s play “Duchess of Malfi” and Kamila Shamsie’s “Home Fire”, by their foes rather from their own end of the binary. Eamonn, character from Shamsie’s play is disowned by his father named Karamat Lone with westernized thoughts. On the other hand Parvaiz Pasha is ordered to be murdered by his colleagues from ISIS, when Pasha attempts to flee from Syria and reach British Consulate in Istanbul so that he may be able to reclaim his British Passport and his national Identity. On the other hand although Duchess persistently challenges the authorities of her brothers but she ultimately faces her fate in the shape of death. In short true love of characters is thwarted due to ambivalence and corruption of their surroundings. This paper traces out that how battle comes to its eventual end in both plays whereby love loses which leads toward the ultimate death of leading characters.

Literature Review

Kamila Shamsie is one among the new wave of Pakistani writers who are based in Britain and is considered as successful writer in both Pakistan and the West. She fascinates her readers into the story not only through her details but also making them feel the emotional, physical and mental needs of the character. Her novels deals with huge themes like war and love zooming on the exaggerated details of her characters. On the other hand John Webster in “The Duchess of Malfi” also explored several themes including love and power. It is difficult to define whether power or love is playing the vital role. However in both the plays it is clearly depicted that ambivalence and love played a key role regarding the collateral damage.

It is obvious in both plays that the fate of collateral damage is not contracted for the characters by their foes rather from their own end of the binary. Although in both plays love never appears to come into its own form however it is always stained with the corruption of the society. In Home Fire the rise of obsessed weternization and fundamentalism pit the Aneeka and Eamon love affair to the terrible destiny of their collateral damage. Karamat Lone due to his westernized thoughts and behavior is a diehard enemy of those who betray or go against English culture and laws. He thought that his son Eamon is betraying his homeland due to which he locks him up. This ambivalent behavior of Karamat Lone also prevents his son from meeting or contacting her lover Aneeka. On the other hand there is main conflict in the play “Duchess of Malfi” between the Duchess and her brothers. The reason of this conflict between Duchess and her brothers is the real love of Duchess with Antonio. Duchess clearly goes against the wishes of her brothers by marrying again she also violates the wishes of her brothers by marrying a man who belongs to class of lower status.

Home Fire of Kamila Shamsie is considered as a fine balancing act: it is a powerful exploration of the clash between society, family and faith in the modern world, while tipping its hat to the same dilemma in the ancient one, one of the reviewers recites Natalie Haynes in The Guardian. Home Fire is one of the best Antigones of this period, and one of Shamsie‘s best novels.

It looks like that Home Fire of Kamila Shamsie is deeply charmed and inspired by the movie “Dill Say” released in 1998 by Director Mani Ratnam. The literal meaning of “Dill Say” is “from heart”. Movie also discusses and explores the problems and complications of love by the characters Amarnath and Meghna. Link of novel with this movie is established when Eamonn listens song “Chal Chaiyyan Chaiyyan” which is from the movie. Another link of novel with this movie establishes when the novel reaches its end, Aneeka runs into the arms of Eamonn in order to hug him as she knows that the suicide jacket is going to kill him. Her obsessed love toward Eamonn is another factor of collateral damage in the novel.

In the play “Duchess of Malfi” Duchess is persistently going against the wishes of her brother only for the sake of her love. She challenged all the authorities of her society. As when the brothers of Duchess try to convince their sister that the idea of marry again is foolish, she disregarded their ideas and defended her own desire. As she says that:

“Diamonds are of most value,

They say, that have past through most jewelers’ hands.

Whores, by that rule, are precious.”

These lines clearly show that how Duchess attempted to convince her brothers. Her love for Antinio leads toward the death of Duchess and Antinio. Here ambivalent behavior by the brothers of Duchess also responsible for such collateral damage because in the play they assume the activities of Duchess as out of wedlock. In both plays when battle between the characters comes to its eventual end only love is the one who loses. Duchess from the play “Duchess of Malfi” and characters from “Home Fire” like Aneeka and Eamonn are killed. However all these characters still manage to maintain their power and dignity even to the end of their life.

Data Analysis

Home Fire, by Kamila Shamsie, although narrates the story of Antigone, however it is different from retellings of other writers. As Antigone for Sophocles is the older sister, however Home Fire tells us that Antigone is something about the story of two diasporic families, family which is basically divided into various directions over the fate of brother, who is rebellion. Novel also gives us the picture of obsessed behaviour of characters showing ambivalence and love. Novel has clearly depicted the problems of Muslims as they want to maintain their own identity as well as going parallel to their “Britishness” and loyalty toward state. Novel narrates the story in various segments, providing an opportunity for readers to look into the matter through the eyes of all characters. In the same way novel also raised various questions about the Politics and Society of British. In short we can say that focus of novel is about the issues of identity of Muslims in Britain.

Home Fire, won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2018, and was also long listed for the Man Booker Prize 2017, due to these reasons it also attracted a large number of scholars. There are five acts of play, set in five locations which include Amherst from London, Massachusetts; Istanbul; Raqqa, city in Syria; and Karachi, city of Pakistan. Every chapter of play has been told from the viewpoint of main character, a dutiful sibling named Isma, the man she has a crush on, Eamonn, younger brother of Isma named Parvaiz, sister of Isma and twin of Pervaiz named Aneeka and the father of Eamonn named Karamat, who is British politician.

After the death of Isma’s mother she was dutifully playing her role regarding the up-bringing of her siblings. Isma still worrying about the future of her sister Aneeka, resumed her study in America for the fulfillment of dreams. Her younger brother, Pervaiz disappeared in order to chase his desires. In Antigone, the play of Sophocles, a young girl is in trouble to choose one from the state law and the law of religion. Aneeka, one of the main characters from the play is also facing the same dilemma. Her brother named Pervaiz wants to work with the militant group ISIS, in media cell of this group because he has discovered that his father died while going to Guantanamo. Isma complained to police about his brother this also left Aneeka shocked as she states:

You betrayed us, both of us. And then you tried to hide it from me. Don‘t call, don‘t text, don‘t send the pictures, don‘t fly across the ocean and expect me to ever agree to see your face again. We have no sister. 

In this way, Kamila Shamsie altered the socio-political situation of Thebes with the socio-political situation of the present day which includes paradoxical inclination towards Islamophobia, Fundamentalism and Terrorism. Home Fire, is considered as a play which represents the nuisance created due to Islamophobic Westernization of Muslims in the shape of character like Kramat. Such views also create critical impacts on various innocents like Aneeka and Eamonn, characters from the play. Kamila Shamsie juxtaposed both the characters, one is Karamat Lone and the other is Pervaiz Pasha. These characters are juxtaposed as the representation of two extreme viewpoints such as the rise of haunted westernization and the fundamentalism respectively, stated by Aamer Shaheen.

Home Fire also represented the aspects of obsessed behaviour towards the culture of west, as with case of Karamat Lone. He used names for his family which are also disguised with the spellings of Irish language such as name of his son Ayman, is actually used as Eamonn, and the name of his daughter Emily, which is an English name. Due to this westernization of Karamat, Muslim community of British started despise him. However Karamat without considering such impacts westernized or westoxified himself so much that he often considered himself as more British than the actual people of British. Aneeka observed that he is always with British community instead of defending his own community as she says: “prove he‘s one of them, not one of us”.

John Webter’s play “The Duchess of Malfi” discussed various themes such as the theme of power and love. There is an inextricable link between both these elements. The characters from the play who appear to be in real love or portraye the real picture of love are Duchess and Antonio. There relation is not maintained for a significant period as their love relation is thwarted by the corrupt behaviour of the society. The play starts with the girl Duchess. She inherited her political position from her husband, who is the former Duke of Malfi. The husband of Duchess dies and she reamarries the Antonio, a steward, who is also low in social status. The situation becomes more complicated with the presence of two brothers of Duchess, Ferdinand and Cardinal, both are corrupt. Both brothers asked Duchess not to remarry. In order to keep an eye on the activities of his sister Ferdinand deploys Bosola, who is Ferdinand’s spy.

On the other hand, Duchess has her own plans and ideas. She likes Antonio as she thinks that he is a good boy, he has good values and also have good looks. She tells her brothers that she is not going to remarry. However she proposed Antonio who readily agreed. Duchess and Antonio decided to keep the marriage as secret due to two main reasons. One reason is that the brothers of Duchess may kill them due to their corrupt nature and the other reason is that during the Renaissance period it was considered unethical for a noblewoman to marry with a man who is inferior in social status.

The secret of Duchess and Antonio is revealed by several attempts of Bosola, who is appointed by Ferdinand to keep an eye on the activities of Duchess. After receiving reports from their spy brothers came to know that Duchess have affair with somebody. Brothers of Duchess are still unaware about the marriage of Duchess and Antonio. This ambivalence on the part of Duchess’s brothers leads collateral damage. They consider that the relation of Duchess with somebody is out of wedlock. Due to this reason they become furious and they planned to punish their sister for her actions. Duchess on the other hand for the sake of love continues to hide her secret until she faced her destiny. We can say that John Webtser used heavy symbolic imagery in this romantic tragedy. The Duchess is the strongest character of the play, due to her passionate behavior and strong determination she rejects the demands of her brothers for the sake of love. She remains unbroken although her brothers treat her with cruelty. Due to her strong characterization she continues to assert even at the time of death, “I am the duchess of Malfi still.”

So in the end we can conclude that the devastation observed by the characters in the play of John Webster “The Duchess of Malfi” and Kamila Shamsie’s play “Home Fire” is due to the two main reasons. One reason is that the surrounding characters are not completely aware about the situation, as in the case of Eamonn, his father considers him as a betrayal of homeland and locks him up. Other reason is that characters sacrificed for the sake of love. Major characters from both the plays are killed in order to maintain their love. The corruption of society thwarted the love of characters. Aneeka knows that someone tied up Eamonn with suicide jacket, however she don’t care about that jacket and she rushed into the arms of her love, and love reached to its eventual end as the jacket blasts.

Works Cited:

• Shamsie, Kamila. Home Fire. (Bloomsbury Circus, 2017).
• Webster, John. The Duchess of Malfi Ed. Rene Weis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• 'Is ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ about love or power?' PaperAp.com, Oct 26, 2017. Accessed January 17, 2019. https://paperap.com/paper-on-is-the-duchess-of-malfi-about-love-or-power/
• Boklund, Gunnar. The Duchess of Malfi: Sources, Themes, Characters. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962.
• Ratnam, Mani. Dil Se. India: Eros International, 1998. Film.
• Akbar, Arifa. “A Contemporary Take on a Greek Tragedy.” London Evening Star 31 Aug. 2017. Web. 02 Jan 2017.
• Chambers, Claire. “The Ones We Love are Enemies of the State.” The Hindu 5 Aug. 2017. Web. 02 Jan 2017.
• Schaub, Michael. “Home Fire puts a Topical Spin on Ancient Greek Tragedy.” NPR 15 Aug. 2017. Web. 02 Jan 2017.