Class and society Flashcards
Blanche’s introduction to Stanley and attempt to recover her innocence and Southern Belle status
‘Hello, Stanley! Here I am, all freshly bathed and scented, and feeling like a brand-new human being!’
Blanche suggesting to Stanley that she is familiar only with a world of chivalry
‘Some buttons in back! You may enter!’
This is to held do up her ‘flowered print dress’
Blanche’s linking her name to the Southern Belle archetype
‘It’s a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods. Like an orchard in spring!’
Antonio’s initial epithets for the Duchess
‘the right noble Duchess’
Antonio suggesting the Duchess’s is chaste and unattainable
‘There speaketh so divine a continence / As cuts off all lascivious and vain hope’
Antonio suggesting that the Duchess’s virtue and chastity should be replicated
‘Let all sweet ladies break their flattering glasses / And dress themselves in her.’
the Duchess’s class being the origin of her power and enabling her transgression
‘If all my royal kindred / Lay in my way unto this marriage / I’d make them my low footsteps’
the Duchess’s ironic demand for equal status with Antonio
‘Raise yourself’
the Duchess’s noble class inhibiting her expression of sexuality
‘The misery of us that are born great; / We are forced to woo, because none dare woo us’
tension between the Duchess transgressing social norms and enjoying her social power (proposal scene)
‘Being now my steward – here upon your lips / I sign your Quietus est.’
tension between the Duchess challenging aristocracy and also enjoying its privileges
‘When I wax grey I shall have all the court / Powder their hair with arras to be like me’
