This paper examines the change of representation of pregnant women, the Duchess in John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi (1614) and Helena in Shakespeare’s All Well That Ends Well (1603), comparing them with those in each source novella by William Painter. The change of medium from novella to stage entails the disappearance of authorial narrator and the representation of actors’ bodies, which tend to influence more the characterization of female characters than that of male characters. Especially, stage representation of the body of pregnant women, though they were portrayed by boy actors, can emphasize their femininity and sexuality and also dramatize the male / social /cultural anxiety about women’s pregnancy. Webster’s Duchess on stage is now free from the narrator’s rigid criticism about female desire in its source novella. Webster’s Duchess acquires much more dignity and the audience’s compassion. In contrast to the narrator’s brief description of her pregnancy and childbirth in the novella, the representation of Duchess’ fertile body on stage seems to empower her. On the other hand, much dramatic tension results from the appearance of the full-term Duchess on stage and her screaming during childbirth behind the scene, as her pregnancy and delivery cause suspicion and anxiety of the people around her. The appearance of Shakespeare’s Helena as a pregnant wife at the end of the play is a significant deviation from the ending of its source novella. In Painter’s novella, Giletta, the equivalent of Helena, comes to see her husband after she gave birth to twin boys. Helena slyly changes Bertram’s condition ; “show me a child begotten of thy body that I am father to” turns into “with child”. Moreover, her pregnancy itself can be regarded as lack of proof and ambiguous as long as we read the text. Pregnancy was mysterious enough for both the mother and the surrounding people in early modern times. Therefore, the final interpretation of Helena’s character and the play’s ending depends much on the representation of her pregnancy on stage. Both Webster and Shakespeare skillfully dramatize the social and cultural confliction about pregnancy, femininity and maternity with the complex effects of a pregnant body on stage
