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.
Jankowski on the renaissance wife
‘The Duchess is represented as being radically different from the traditional picture of the Renaissance wife.’
P.B Murray on antonio’s character
“Antonio is modelled on the ideal of Christian gentility.”
Riben on ferdinands madness
the complete descent of man into beast symbolised by the lycanthropia of Ferdinand
