Critical Flashcards
Jankowski on corruption malfi
“The play is set against the background of corruption and idealism”
R S white on what the play is about malfi
“The tragedy of virtuous woman who achieves heroism through her death”
Jankowski on the character of the duchess
“ we can view the Duchess as a figure who values and takes control of her own sexuality by marrying against custom and her family”
Nanci Lamb Roider malfi
“ A cautious tale”
Werthime A - on the birth of the baby
“ it is no coincidence that the day the Kowalski baby is born – the post war hybrid of Stella and Stanley - that the representative of the antebellum South, Blanche, is defeated raped and destroyed.
Williams P on stanley with blanche and stella
“Stanley’s reaction to blanches intrusion Is that of a territorial animal desperately defending it lair”
Allan P on Blanche and magic
“ she craves magic because the truth about postwar America it’s too much to bear”
Mary A corrigan on Blanche and Stanley’s relationship
“ The conflict between Blanche and Stanley is externalisation of the conflict that goes on within Blanche between illusion and reality”
Tapp - Southern Belle
Blanche Dubois is a victim of the mythology of the Southern Belle
Elia Kazan on Blanche (negative)
Blanche was an unstable woman who has entered and threatened the security of a different world,
Clurman - Blanche’s madness
Blanche is a delicate and sensitive woman pushed into insanity by a brutish environment
Williams on the major theme of his work
One major theme for my work is the destructive power of society on the sensitive non-conformist individual
Dolan on secrets in malfi
‘The Duchess of Malfi is famous for its remarkable, indeed improbably sustained, secrets
McLuskie on other historians beliefs
historians believe that ‘unease with a woman character who so impertinently pursues self-determination’
Jankowski on gender roles in malfi
The Duchess of Malfi is a play that is clearly concerned with questions of gender ideology.
