deception Flashcards
deception as protection duchess and blanche
“white clothes”, “no, one’s my limit”
vs
“place thyself behind the arras”
“when I choose a husband, I will marry for your honour”
“I’ll never marry”
duchess protects life, blanche protects self image
blanche’s deception of alcoholism as protection
- Idea of alcoholism, and her creating a façade that she does not drink in order to appear elegant and to protect herself from being othered from society. However, in the stage directions, Williams mentions how “the centre of his life has been pleasure with women” and “love of good drink” which places him in a position of similarity to Blanche. He is accepted because of his gender.
deception as protection duchess
- The Duchess’s use of absolutes is an example of dramatic irony but also performance. She deceives both the audience and her brothers in order to survive, rather than to be accepted by society. This image of concealment and lying when Cariola hides herself conveys deception as being a necessity for a woman in a world that is dominated by hegemonic masculinity.
link to ACT 3.2
Duchess says to cariola:
“unjust actions should wear these masks and curtains, and not we.”
ferdinand and stanley using deception
Ferdinand’s deceit feels more powerful because it reaches the audience, whilst Stanley’s is not as we have seen the rape scene, but stanley is also powerful because he GETS AWAY WITH IT
Ferdinand and Stanley both use deception in order to protect a patriarchal society against female threat. Stanley tries to deceive Stella about not raping Blanche, and Ferdinand tries to deceive the Duchess with the wax figures in order to ‘protect’ the court.
“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” and “let her have lights enough” so that she sees the “wax” figures. And also “The Napoleonic Code”
- interesting, because in this case the symbolic truth of “light” that is used in Streetcar is subverted so that it is representative of deceit, presenting this twisted sense of morality, and deceives the audience because they believe it is the truth as well.
- idea that whoever controls the light is in power
context of deceit light and darkness
Blackfriars there would be a darkness that encapsulated the audience as well, so that when they saw the “wax” figures, we would be unaware of the fact that this is not real, and therefore we as the audience are also deceived vs the Globe, where it would be light, and so we would become complicit in this deceit as we are able to see everything. We are placed in the position of the torturer rather than the tortured.
