A05 Flashcards
ASCND is a ‘tragedy of the powerless’ - Bubb
Can link to:
-Blanche as mentally ill - she tragically unravels and is then confined to a mental institution
- Blanche as a single woman who pursues desire as she is villainised for her lack of conformity to 1950s trad. housewife expectations
This also links to the DOM as ult. the female pursuit of desire & love seals their fate in their increasingly misogynistic societies.
Miller:
‘individual against an…unchangeable environment’ - can be used for both the plays
- Blanche’s inability to adapt to New Orleans & stanley = metaphor for the inevitable death of the old south post-ww2 with the development of a new America with no place for racist ideologies etc. = Her inability to conform results in her tragic mental decline
Williams: Blanche and Stanley are ‘two sides of the same character’
Both B & S pursue desire but face different reactions.
B as a woman exploring her sexuality is gossiped about, is turned on, eventually confined to a mental institute. - she does recognise that she must hide this from people to avoid discrimination.
Stanley however is free to express his sexuality ‘gaudy seedbearer’. - Williams’ critique of society’s hypocrisy.
Stanley ‘stalks into the bedroom’ vs Blanche’s ‘hunting for protection’.
Jankowski: the brothers argument over the DOM’s marriage is a ‘dynastic argument concerned with the Duchess’ body politic’
- Fears of the DOM remarrying is rooted in fears of uncontained female sexuality which they fear may bring ruin to their ‘high blood’ status through the birth of a ‘bastard’ child.
Jankowski: the duchesses ‘body politic’ and ‘body private’
the Duchess remains ‘unquestionably feminist’
JANKOWSKI: ‘The Duchess of Malfi can be viewed as a subversive play because it challenges the basic concept of the early modern marriage.’
AO3/AO5: JANKOWSKI: ‘nature of the Renaissance dynastic marriage served almost totally to objectify the woman.’
Peterson:
‘The Duchess improperly sets the private claims of her body natural above the public claims of her body politic’
Brustein:
‘The conflict between Blanche and Stanley allegorises the struggle between effeminate culture and masculine libido.’
- Sexuality - the contrast between Stanley & Blanche’s approach to desire as Stanley is very vulgar as demonstrated by his ‘gaudy seedbearer’ persona. Blanche however is often more delicate in terms of exacting desire.
- Look at the rape scene - Stanley’s utter domination of Blanche who ‘lies prone’ incapable of defending herself.
J.C McGlinn:
‘[Stella’s] refusal to accept Blanche’s story of the rape is a commitment to self-preservation rather than love…’
- the idea of Stella being trapped in a loveless, abusing marriage.
- Stella perhaps plays a potentially active role in her own abuse by vehemently supporting Stanley, depicted through her decision to have a son with Stanley. –> this child is a physical manifestation of the indestructible link between Stanley & Stella, Stella’s decision to have this child has effectively bound her to Stanley for life.
The fact the child is a little boy = potential for cyclical abuse to occur which merely reinforces Stella’s utter naivety as she fails to recognise the destructive potential this child might harbour.
Leech on DOM: ‘dangerous independence of mind’
Miller: tragic flaw…‘inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of a challenge to his dignity’
Can majorly link to Stanley & the Aragonian Brothers!!
- Stanley’s rape of Blanche !!
- ‘Remember what Huey Long said - ‘Every man is a King!’
- Ferdinand’s mental decline due to the pursuit of revenge:
- ‘whether we fall by ambition, blood or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust’ - recog. that this tragedy is of his own creation.
Burke: ‘dangerous mixture of desire and revulsion…inherent in a patriarchal society’s understanding of the female body’.
Links to:
- Ferdinand & the Cardinal’s descriptions of the ‘lusty widow’
- Stanley & his uncovering of Blanche’s past, yet the rape scene.
Jankowski: labelling of women ‘who acted in ways contrary to accepted patterns of female behaviour as ‘whores or witches’ ‘
