DOM + SCND Critical Views Flashcards
Ferdinand’s madness - Whigham (D)
‘manifestation of his inability to control his obsessive need for dominance over his sister’
Cathartic bathing - Elliot (S)
‘the bathing symbolises Blanche’s need to wash herself clean of the past’
Safety in delusion - Chapman (S)
‘takes gallant and desperate refuge in a magical life she has invented for herself’
Power - Gunby (D)
‘commentary on the abuse of power’
Female identity - Jankowski (D)
‘examines the consequences of a women who attempts to create her own social and sexual identity’
Social Mobility - Marcus (D)
‘expresses both fear and fascination with social mobility
Blanche symbolism - Churman
‘Blanche symbolises the old South, romantic, self-deluded, decayed’
Stanley symbolism - Churman
‘represents the new, brutish, materialistic world that is taking over’
Conflict of culture - Gossner (S)
‘illustrates a violent struggle between primitive forces and the fragile remnants of culture’
Masculinity - Bray (S)
‘he embodies a powerful form of masculinity that appealed to the post war era’
Tragedy of desire - Miller (S)
‘dichotomy between sexual desire and self destruction
Female leadership - Jankowski (D)
‘no language exists for women as rulers, yet is did on women within marriage’
Aural devices - Williams (S)
‘This ‘blue piano’ expresses the spirit of life which goes on there’
Not a victim - Mann (D)
‘The Duchess creates her own tragedy by her actions, preferring to live her sexual life to the full’
Sexual conflict - Tapp (S)
‘dramatises the battle between sexes’
Duchess’ marriage - Callaghan
‘perpetually clandestine’
The trunk as a symbol of Blanche’s privacy - Shead
‘Stanley’s intrusion into the trunk marks the beginning of an invasion of Blanche’s self’
Blanche and Williams - Pagan
‘like Blanche, Williams has a tendency to lie […] shared propensity to mislead people concerning their age’
Secrecy in Jacobean society - Orlin
‘privacy seemed a menace to the public well-being’
The Duchess’ actions - Densens
‘repeating the historic transgression of Eve’
Death and virtue - White (D)
‘a virtuous woman achieved heroism through her death’
Stanley’s vitality - Quirino
‘the master player and Darwinian survivor’
Elysian Fields - Elliot
‘is the equivalent of heaven in Greek mythology’
Webster and death - Eliot
‘Webster was much possessed by death, and saw the skull beneath the skin’
Tragic justice - White (D)
‘[villains] meet their death in ways which satisfy poetic justice’
Corruption and death - Bogard (D) (the P of ED which D all M to D)
‘the presence of evil decay which drags all mankind to death’
Social system - Gibbons (D)
‘the system devours those who serve’
Anxiety about mixing of social classes - Smith (D)
‘Bosola becomes a figure of class anxiety’
High class women - Jankowski
‘in this double position of wife and ruler, the Duchess becomes an uneasy and threatening figure’
Blanche as a victim of class - Tapp
‘a victim of the mythology of the Southern Belle’
Domestic abuse - Koprinee (S)
‘macho need for control leads him to abuse Stella emotionally and physically’
Masculinity asserting violence - Windsor (D)
‘when confronted with female power and sexual desire, more characters react with extreme violence’
Need for sexual dominance - Bottoms (S)
‘where he cannot dominate sexually Stanley uses force’
