Violence And Death Flashcards
Introduction for emotional and physical violence
Violence in DOM and ASCND takes both emotional and physical forms, though each play emphasises them differently.
Webster’s Jacobean tragedy is steeped in grotesque spectacle, where physical brutality- often ritualistic and stylised- is preceded by intense psychological torment, particularly in Ferdinand’s sadistic manipulation of the Duchess (wax figures, symbolic lighting heightens emotional cruelty)
Williams’s Plastic theatre externalises Blanche’s psychological deterioration through sound, lighting and symbolic staging, making emotional violence the central mode of destruction
Stanley’s calculated erosion of Blanche’s identity culminates in a final act of physical dominance, yet the true devastation lies in her mental collapse
While Webster’s world is defined by overt carnage, Williams’s is quieter but equally harrowing, with both plays revealing how violence- emotional or physical- is inextricably tied to power, control and gendered oppression
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topic sentence
Both DOM and ASCND depict emotional violence as a corrosive force […]
Bothe DOM and ASCND depict emotional violence as a corrosive force that erodes identity and autonomy, but they diverge in tone and focus. Webster’s portrayal is gothic and grotesque, situating torment within a larger metaphysical and religious framework, whereas Williams’s vision is subtler and more intimate, rooted in domestic realism and psychological naturalism
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DOM
In Malfi, Ferdinand’s emotional violence is performative and baroque. […]
In Malfi, Ferdinand’s emotional violence is performative and baroque, cloaked in the guise of familial honour but driven by incestuous desire and authoritarian control. His presentation of wax effigies, emotional cruelty reaches crescendo, to the Duchess:** “i will leave this ring with you for a love token/ and the hand as sure as the ring”** is a theatrical act designed to shatter her sanity, not merely used as a tool of fear, but a method of erasing her hope. This perverse parody of marital tokens from earlier scene with Antonio reinforces how Ferdinand exploits symbols of affection to enforce horror.
The Almeida Theatre 2019 use of a singe spotlight on the duchess emphasised her isolation, visually portraying her descent into existential despair. Ferdinand’s eerie command, “let her have lights enough” weaponise illumination as a psychological device. However, one could argue that this minimalist staging stripped the scene of its intended horror; other interpretations- such as the 2010 Old Vic production- used a more cluttered, claustrophobic space to mirror the duchess’s psychological entrapment more viscerally
The Duchess’s line, “that’s the greatest torture souls feel in hell- that they must live and cannot die” captures how emotional violence manifests as a metaphysical imprisonment. Critics such as Frank Whigham argue that Ferdinand’s obsession stems from his need to preserve social hierarchy and bloodline purity, but his methods expose eroticised sadism masked as familiar honour
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ASCND
By contrast, Stanley’s emotional cruelty in Streetcar is less theatrical, but more insidious, embedded within the banal rhythms of domestic life. […]
By contrast, while stanley’s psychological dominance is similarly methodical, Stanley’s emotional cruelty is less theatrical, but more insidious, embedded within the banal rhythms of domestic life. His cruelty unfolds incrementally, exploiting her vulnerability until her mental collapse seems inevitable. His assertion **”Remember what Huey Long said- “Every Man is a King!” (Scene 8) positions emotional control as a natural, patriarchal entitlement (Huey Long, governor of Louisiana, was a demagogic and authoritarian politician who used aggressive tactics and manipulated power to build a corrupt, self-serving political machine). The exposure of Blanche’s past, **”a seventeen-year-old boy- she’d gotten mixed up with” (scene 7) is a calculated act of humiliation, weaponising truth to strip her of dignity. Unearthinh her repressed trauma to destroy her dignity.
The infamous “Ticket! Back to Laurel!”, underscored by The Varsouviana Polka, recurring during moments of mental fragility, becomes a sonic symbol of inescapable trauma (represenation of Blanche’s guilt and impending breakdown). Like the wax hand, the ticket becomes a symbolic catalyst for psychological disintegration.
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Comparison and evaluation points
While Almeida’s stark spotlight isolates the Duchess […]
While Almeida’s stark spotlight isolates the Duchess, the 2014 Young Vic production of streetcar employed a green, sickly hue to suggest decay and corruption. This could be viewed as an effective visual foreshadowing of Blanche’s breakdown. (Surreal edge as sickly lighting and fractured sound design)
Both plays, written at times of social transition- the Renaissance erosion of feudal stability and post-war American disillusionment- explore how patriarchal systems weaponise emotional violence to punish women who defy their confines. The Duchess challenges the social order through her clandestine marriage; Blanche defies postwar domestic ideals by seeking autonomy through illusion. In both, male cruelty serves as retribution for female transgression.
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Although, emotional violence is pervasive, both plays escalate towards physical brutality- yet again in markedly different ways. […]
Although emotional violence is pervasive, both plays escalate towards physical brutality- yet again in markedly different ways. Webster’s world is overtly violent, stylised and fatalistic, whereas Williams’s use of physical violence is more restrained, but equally devastating, rooted in psychological realism
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DOM
In DOM, the Duchess’s strangulation is a moment of gruesome physical violence, but is presented as almost ceremonial, undercutting its brutality with a sense of tragic nobility.
in DOM, the Duchess’s strangulation is a moment of gruesome physical violence, but is presented as almost ceremonial, undercutting its brutality with a sense of tragic nobility. Her final lines- ”Pull, and pull strongly, for your able strength/ Must pull down heaven upon me”- frame her death not as victimhood but transcendence. Directors often underscores this paradox; in the 2023 Sam Wanamaker production, the Duchess strangles herself, a chilling choice that transforms her from victim to martyr, reclaiming control even in death. While some critics praised this reinterpretation for empowering the Duchess, it can be seemed as being problematic- risking the suggestion that female suffering must be self-inflicted to have dignity, a reading at odds with Webster’s critique of patriarchal cruelty.
The image of Bosola dragging corpses offstage becomes a grim refrain, emphasising the play’s obsession with death and decay. In Zinnie Harris’s 2024 Trafalgar Theatre staging, the stark visual contrast between the dead women, ethereally dressed in white and elevated, and the sprawled male corpses below, suggested a kind of tragic sanctity afforded to female suffering- a commentary on how violence against is often aestheticised.
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In Streetcar, Stanley’s rape of Blanche is similarly the culmination of sustained campaign of psychological erosion. […]
In Streetcar, Stanley’s rape of Blanche is similarly the culmination of a sustained campaign of psychological erosion. The moment is shocking not because of gore or spectacle, but because of its stark inevitability. His line- “we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning”- evokes fatalism, but unlike Ferdinand’s poetic declarations, its laced with predatory entitlement. In the 2014 Young Vic production, Stanley veils Blanche’s face as he rips her dress, highlighting her dehumanisation. Some audience members found this imagery powerful, but it could also allude the physical veiling as a dangerous romanticisation of gendered violence.
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Comparison point
While both plays depict violence as a culmination of emotional torment, Malfi surrounds death with ritual- funeral imagery and spiritual consequences- whereas Streetcar offers no catharsis.
While both plays depict violence as a culmination of emotional torment, Malfi surrounds death with ritual- funeral imagery and spiritual consequences- whereas Streetcar offers no catharsis. The act of rape is followed by silence, denial and Blanche’s quiet removal from society
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DOM
The Cardinal’s murder of Julia in Malfi echoes this dynamic of dehumanisation via oppressive physical violence
The Cardinal’s murder of Julia in Malfi echos this dynamic: ”Kiss it”- his command to kiss a poisoned Bible represents both a religious perversion and sexual domination. In Zinnie Harris’s 2024 production, the Cardinal suffocates Julia by forcing paper into her mouth- visually aligning spiritual corruption with patriarchal silencing. Julia a passive symbol.
Offers a grotesque parody of sacrament, linking lust, faith and death.
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ASCND
Stella, like Julia, becomes a victim of psychological entrapment. Both women cling to relationships that are grounded in sexual power, even when those relationships are fatal. While Julia’s death is explicit, Stella’s psychological entrapment is less visible and is masked by desire and societal expectations
Stella, like Julia, becomes a victim of complex psychological entrapment. Her line ”there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark- things that make everything else seem unimportant” (scene 4) demonstrates how sexual dependency masks physical, domestic abuse. The moment Stanley ”stanley smashed all the lightbulbs with the the heel of my slipper” suggests an erasure of truth and a need to conceal his violence, illuminating how physical abuse operates under a veil of domestic normalcy.
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Thus while physical violence […]
Thus, while physical violence is theatrical, symbolic and fatal- each act a dramatic punctuation to emotional torment. In streetcar, it is raw, real and unresolved- leaving characters trapped in the very structures that allowed the violence to occur.
In both plays, physical violence emerges as a grotesque finale to emotional degradation- underscoring how the psychological and physical are inextricably linked to male assertions of control.
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Madness in both plays operates as a complex metaphor for the consequences of prolonged violence- though the trajectory differs markedly between the characters. […]
Madness in both plays operates as a complex metaphor for the consequences of prolonged violence- though the trajectory differs markedly between the characters. While the DOM presents it as a divine retribution, Streetcar positions it as a tragic result of social and psychological violence
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DOM SELF DESTRUCTION
For Ferdinand, madness is a self-inflicted punishment, a psychological collapse born from guilt and incestuous obsession. His lycanthropy in Act 5- “i will throttle it”-
For Ferdinand, madness is a self-inflicted punishment, a psychological collapse born from guilt and incestuous obsession. his lycanthropy in Act 5- “i will throttle it”- as he attempts to strangle his own shadow, represents the externalisation of internal decay. The 1985 National Theatre production introduced a hooded figure of Death, mistaken by Ferdinand for his shadow, turning his madness into a hallucinatory reckoning with mortality.
His descent into lunacy is consistent with Renaissance beliefs about the humoral body- his sin has imbalanced him, and the result is moral and mental disintegration. Critics such as Leah Marcus interpret Ferdinand’s madness as emblematic of aristocratic decay- his inability to suppress desire undermines his social function and obliterates his rational self.
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ASCND
Blanches’s madness, however is not born of guilt, but of trauma.
Ferdinand’s madness, by contrast, is isolated and grotesque- a private punishment for private guilt.
Blanche’s madness, however, is not born of guilt, but of trauma. Her illusions- ”i want to deceive him enough to make him want me”- are self-preserving than malicious. Where Ferdinand’s delusions the product of internal rot, Blanche’s are a fragile scaffold against a hostile world. Williams crafts her mental decline as tragic rather than grotesque/ even Mitch, who initially represents hope, turns on her after absorbing Stanley’s narrative: ”you’re not clean enough to bring into the house with my mother”. Emotional violence extends beyond stanley; even those who show kindness can become agents of cruelty once infected by patriarchal logic.
The final stage direction-**”[he draws her up gently and supports her with his arm and leads her through the portieres]”-is disturbingly tender, masking institutional violence under a veneer of civility. Her illusions are not delusions, but deliberate acts of survival.
Elia Kazan famously described Blanche as **”an unstable woman who has entered and threatened the security of a different world”. Yet this interpretation risks justifying her breakdown as a consequence of intrusion, rather than a condemnation of the world that could not accommodate her vulnerability. Blanche as a casualty of a brutal and unyielding social order
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Conclusion and comparison
Where Ferdinand’s madness is a perverse justice- his sins consuming him from within- Blanche’s is a social tragedy.
Where Ferdinand’s madness is a perverse justice- his sins consuming him from within- Blanche’s is a social tragedy. Her final institutionalisation is not a judgement but a surrender, not to madness but to a society that cannot beat the fragile truth she embodies.
Thus madness functions differently in each play: Ferdinand is devoured by his own sins, while Blanche is destroyed by societal cruelty. One reflects internal corruption, the other, external punishment. Yet in both, madness becomes the ultimate cost of violence- either as a form of poetic justice or as the tragic endpoint of victimisation
In this sense, madness operates as a mirror in both plays: one reflects guilt turned inward; the other, trauma turned outward. Both are responses to violence- but where Ferdinand’s insanity is a grotesque spectacle of punishment, Blanche’s is a haunting elegy for lost innocence and human failure.
