SEXUALITY AND DESIRE Flashcards
SEXUALITY AS A DESTRUCTIVE FORCE
The Duchess exhibits healthy sexuality while Blanche exhibits unhealthy sexuality.
However, in the end, both are condemned by men because of their ways of demonstrating their female sexuality.
Quote: The Duchess attempts to transgress traditional sexual roles for women (healthy sexuality)
‘diamonds are of most value, they say, that have passed through most jewellers’ hands’
While the brothers see a women as precious when they remain untouched, The Duchess reverses this with the motif of the diamond.
The Duchess redefines a woman’s worth as having complete autonomy over their body and to do with it as they please.
Quote: the Duchess is able to find a safe space to express her sexual desires in marriage as this aligns with christian ideals
‘What pleasures can two lovers find in sleep’
in a time where sexual desires were supposed to be suppressed and ideals of chastity was celebrated, the duchess not only celebrates her sexuality but declares them boldly and sensually.
Ferdinand equal response symbolises their healthy marriage.
Arguably, the Duchess is only allowed to do this in the confinement of marriage, where is aligns with christian ideals of only permitting sex within marriage.
Bliss
The Duchess seeks private happiness at the expense of public stability
The Duchess’ societal role at the ‘lusty widow’
The duchess is entrapped in a role where if she remarries or has sex again, she is confirming and proving the ‘luxurious[ness]’ which her brothers proclaim to be.
Therefore, the role which she plays in society prohibits her freedom. Her sexual autonomy therefore comes at a cost.
The apricots as an attempt to corrupt the Duchess’ healthy sexuality
the motif of the apricot is weaponised by Bosola and Ferdinand. It represents a toxic masculine attempts to expose the Duchess’ sexuality and humiliate her because of it.
just like the cupping glasses treating her pregnancy like a sickness to be diagnosed and punished.
Quote: the brothers seeing The duchess’ sexuality as a threat to their ‘high blood’
‘Cupping glasses’ … ‘to purge infected blood, such blood as hers’
cupping glass was used to remove poison
also alludes to unhealthy sexuality of incest
Quote: Blanche uses sex as a refuge - tarantula arms
(unhealthy sexuality)
“intimates with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with”
Blanche describes her sex as merely a coping mechanism devoid of all connection and emotion. This is contrasted with the Duchess’ sex which is built on marriage.
Her declaration also seems like a confession. She did not do this as an act of rebellion, but is rather something she is ashamed of.
Intamcy and stranger create an oxymoron that shows she does not fill the empty heart.
Bigsby
sexuality with the power to redeem and destroy
Quote: Blanche’s unhealthy sexuality is an escape
“Like a young prince straight out of the Arabian nights”
Blanches illusions paired with her unhealthy sexual desire for young men throughout the book depict her escapism into her promised life. Through erotic fantasy she can go back to a time of a stable old south where Allan didn’t die.
Her longing for a promised youthful love and her incapability to get it sends her into unhealthy sexuality.
Stanley and Mitch condemn her
“Sister Blanche is no lily”
Lilly is symbol of purity and chastity which Blanche tries to obtain. Blanche seems to be a symbol of this at the beginning when Blanche is dressed in a ‘white suit’ and adopts her southern belle persona. throughout the play this version of her gets more tainted. Stanley, instead of helping her condemns her. ‘Sister Blanche’ offers a sense of false sincerity, much like how Ferdinand and the cardinal’s brotherly love is virtually non-existing.
“You’re not clean enough to bring home with my mother”
This shatters Blanche’s illusion as her biggest desire is to be ‘clean’. Blanche wants free sexual expression and as seen with the duchess, this is only possible within marriage. Therefore, Mitch ruins Blanche’s chance of redeeming herself when denying her marriage.
Mitch being hypocritical
“What I been missing all summer”
DESIRE IS DESTRUCTIVE
Blanche’s main desire is to escape. She uses her illusions to do this, but consequently this strong desire for an escape into a cleaner self and better future is what destroys her and makes her go mad.
Ferdinand’s desire is one for power and an incestious desire for the Duchess. His unchecked desire leads to the death of the Duchess and consequently his madness.
Death and Desire are interlinked
Blanche rides a ‘streetcar named Desire’, then transfers to one called ‘cemetery’, and then gets off at ‘Elysian Fields’.
Blanches whole trip is powered by desire and it leads her to death (foreshadowing)
Blanche desires illusion world which makes her go mad
“I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth”
There is a duality of reality and what Blanche finds to be reality. Her lies are a device to live in her desired world, but for others to also believe her version of the truth.
The American dream as a false promise
Blanche’s promised American dream is rooted in the ideals of the old south and the southern belle - both of which doesn’t exist anymore.
She enters New Orleans, a place where the new American dream is built on survival and raw vitality. Blanche is not used to this and doesn’t like it, she deludes herself into thinking these ideals still exist because they’re what we promised to her. They are what ‘ought to be the truth’.
The motif of ‘Shep Huntleigh’
in the end, Blanche completely descends into her illusions, believing that he will come and save her from New Orleans which in Scene 11 she now describes as a ‘trap’.
Shep never shows up and instead the doctor and matron show up, a breach into her illusory world.
Quote on Ferdinand’s desires
“Damn her! That body of hers, while that my blood ran pure in’t, was more worth”
Ferdinand’s desire is rooted in the obsession of The Duchess’ pure body. He deems to be pure only if ‘his blood’ runs through it, this is a twisted version of dynastic purity involving incest.
The duchess’ body is only worth something when pure.
“damn her” foreshadows violence and death.
Quote: Ferdinand and Madness
I have this night dug up a mandrake
The Duchess has driven him mad through her remarrying. But this isn’t what ultimately tips him over. But rather her death.
Quote: ferdinands madness as regret which is manifested in his lycanthropy
“Cover her face. Mine eyes dazzle: she died young.”
Unlike Blanche, whose madness is the profit of her continued descent into her illusory desires, Ferdinands descent into madness is due to a regret of his desires and what they have caused.
Dazzle can be crying but also an admiration of the duchess. In Ferdinands eyes she died pure but he cries at the loss of her entirely.
Cover her face shows an inability to face reality - much like Blanche’s motif of the lantern shade which ‘softens’ her reality
SEXUALITY AND DESIRE IS NOT DESTRUCTIVE FOR ALL CHARACTERS
although sexuality and desire seem to be destructive for all characters in the Duchess of malfi, this is not the case of a streetcar named desire.
John Roderick
“stanley would be the hero, warding off a sexually promiscuous intruder who threatens his normal, healthy marriage”
Quote: Stanley’s desire for power and control and his unhealthy sexuality
Desire for control “I am the kind around here, so don’t forget it!”
Stanley is described as to ‘come together with low, animals moans’.
Their unhealthy sexuality is a way to ignore their problems rather than solve them.
Stanley wins
“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley”
Stanley takes away her autonomy, she is trapped to Stanley because of the baby and needs him for support. He successful gets rid of Balnche too, his only threat.
“The game is a seven card stud”
Symbol of toxic masculinity. The baby will grow up in this environment.
