‘Appetite – whether for power, knowledge or sex – is always a destructive force.’ In the light of this view, discuss ways in which writers present appetite. In your answer, compare one drama text and one poetry text.

Both Christina Rossetti and John Webster explore how an unconstrained appetite results in suffering. Webster’s Ferdinand desires power over his sister’s sexuality, knowledge of her intimacies (he instructs Bosola to ‘observe’ her) and retains an incestuous desire for her, imagining her with a ‘strong-thighed bargeman.’) Characteristic of Jacobean tragedies, his revenge that is motivated by such appetites is responsible for the ultimate death and destruction. The court’s dangers have been forewarned by Ferdinand, as corruptive and Laura and Lizzie’s story in Goblin Market becomes a cautionary tale. Moreover, the constant threat of appetite ‘always’ being a ‘destructive force’ is implied. Ferdinand’s allusion to the ‘deadly ‘honeydew’ that is the court can be linked to the the Goblin-men’s ‘sugar-baited words’ as both juxtapose the sweet appearance of charmers with the reality of succumbing to temptation. Furthermore, both texts explore how the allures of sexuality and pleasure mask sin, which will ultimately be reprimanded by society. Female sexuality is presented as discourse from the Victorian expectation of religious obedience and abstinence. Laura chooses to fulfil her own sexual appetite and the Duchess of Malfi chooses to marry her social inferior and thus, both females abandon the purity and chasteness of the archetypal ‘Angel of the house.’ John Webster’s Duchess is punished for being a ‘lusty widow’ as she violently dies by strangulation. Laura was once a ‘leaping flame,’ (symbolising uncontained lust,) and this same fire of passion threatens to destroy her, metaphorically causing her ‘decay and burn.’ This strongly resonates with Ferdinand’s conclusion that: "whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, | Like diamonds we are cut with our own dust,’ where the direct consequence of pursuing appetite is death. In both texts, the ‘fall’ from the path of righteousness is thus solely blamed on pursuing individualism rather than devoting oneself to religion and the community’s agendas.