Power S&M Flashcards
(22 cards)
AO1: key facts
The Duchess of Malfi was written in the context of the corrupt court of James I; the context of the ideal/corrupt courts in Europe which Webster satirises. Working-class women are not present, only rich and powerful women, who are nonetheless inferior to the men around them
The advancement of a lower status to a higher status is prevented by the corrupt court. Bosola argues that therefore he will ‘advance some way’, I.e. through violence
Concept of female entrapment through masculine superiority – the warrior-like Duchess who is confined to her chambers
A Streetcar Named Desire was written in the context of post-war America. Unlike in Malfi, in streetcar power does not come through class or money, instead it comes through assertion and dominance – the man bringing home the meat has the power over his wife as he is the provider and she is dependant on him.
There are different types of power in streetcar, feminine power is presented as the power of seduction. However, Blanche occupies a masculine space as well as a ‘feminine’ one – she asserts her dominance.
AO4: Differences (CONTEXTUALISED differences)
- In streetcar, feminine power comes from seduction whilst in Malfi, the Duchess’ power comes from her status and her ‘divine right’. This is due to the context of the ‘sea-faring strength of Elizabeth I’ and the context of the southern belle and the rejection of ante-bellum south values as ultimtately we learn that Blanche’s power is all a façade, broken through by Stanley’s primitive nature
- Status – in Malfi status is defined by class, in Streetcar, it is defined by the amount of masculine/primitive dominance you assert. Context of Malfi and the lack of social mobility compared to post-war America where class has gone down the drain and the working class has come to dominate – new value system.
- Physical display of aggression through power shown by Stanley raping Blanche, symbolically presented in Malfi by Ferdinand invading the Duchess’ chambers. Webster could not present this explicitly, would have been censored
AO4: similarities and differences-within-similarities
- In both plays, there is a power struggle between men and women, and men seem to dominate. However, whilst in streetcar there is no doubt that the men have won, in Malfi there is more of an ambiguity as to who has won as Ferdinand becomes mad and the Duchess stays sane throughout the play
- In both plays, a hunger for power motivates the actions of the characters. However, in Malfi this hunger for power
‘whether I am doomed to live or die, I shall do both as a prince’
‘He springs towards her’
‘We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning’
- Ferdinand’s invasion of her bedchamber – symbolic invasion of her private space and sexual corruption, similar to the rape of Blanche
‘the law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider’
‘Stanley spears his fork into the remaining chop which he eats with his fingers’
- Primal, animalistic
- Power comes from raw emotion
- Blanche’s sophistication prohibits her power – despite her manipulation – honesty will prevail
- Values of the new south and post-war America
- Violent, vulgare imagery shocks the audience and we experience the violence of male pwoer
‘my coronet of state and on a sudden all the diamonds were changed to pearls’
Blanche is wearing ‘a soiled crumpled evening satin gown
‘then witch swears by equivocation they are in love’
‘witchcraft lies in her rank blood’
‘I don’t want realism. I want magic!’
‘I misrepresent things to them’
- James I thought witches were real and was very scared of them – only female characters stronger than men
- Power of malipulation and magic
‘Sir, this goodly roof of yours is too low built’
‘every man is a king, and I am the king around here’
‘F gives her a poniard’
‘He hurls the plate to the floor… he seizes her arm’
‘If I could exchange eyes with a basilisk’
‘the night is filled with inhuman voices like cries in a jungle flame… He springs at her “Tiger – Tiger”
AO3 - context: Malfi
Duchess of Malfi based on the real story of Giovanna d’Aragona but commenting discreetly on English society
Performed in Blackfriars in 1613
Blackfriars theatre audience more educated than open air theatres such as globe
Mary queen of scots who married a man lower to her
Marie de Medici – Queen of France a corrupt woman, expelled by her son
Mary Tudor had secretly married without King’s approval
Elizabeth I previous queen ruler
AO3 - context: Streetcar
New America vs Old America
- Ante-bellum south
Freudian psychoanalysis
- Blanche is the superego whereas Stanley is the Id
Performed in NYC – not a southern audience, but a northern, middle class audience – will have pre-suppositions about working-class southerners that Williams emphasises
Napoleonic code – husband own’s wife’s property which Stanely tries to use to control Blanche’s property
Very strict and confining gender roles emphasising standards expected of women; women were just being allowed to enter bars without male escorts
AO5 - critics: Malfi
Frank Whigham: ‘Ferdinand’s incestuous inclination towards his sister shows a desperate expression of desire to evade degradation association with inferiors’
Rupert Brooke: ‘Webster’s world is inhabited by people driven like animals … only by their instincts’
Jankowski: ‘The Duchess abandons her duties of body politic for those of her body natural and for this she has to die’
R.S. White: ‘the tragedy of a virtuous woman that achieves heroism through her death’
L.G. Salinger: ‘provocative contrasts between human vengeance and divine’
Frank Whigham
‘Ferdinand’s incestuous inclination towards his sister shows a desperate expression of desire to evade degradation association with inferiors’
Rupert Brooke:
‘Webster’s world is inhabited by people driven like animals … only by their instincts’
Jankowski:
‘The Duchess abandons her duties of body politic for those of her body natural and for this she has to die’
AO5 - critics: Streetcar
Harold Bloom: The play is the ‘conflict between the old south and the new’, the ‘gentility and coarseness of human nature’
Brooks Atkinson: ‘Stanley represents the macho, forward-driving America of the future’
Pagan: Blanche occupies not only a ‘feminine space’ but a ‘masculine space’, too
Adler: ‘she cannot integrate or reconcile’ the opposites of ‘clinging to a past ideal of purity and refinement’ and yet being ‘sexually promiscuous’ ‘and so she dissipates her power’
Robert Brunstein: ‘conflict between Blanche and Stanley allegorises the struggle between effeminate culture and maculine libido’
Bert Cardullo: Stanley and Blanche ‘less victim and villain, they are mutual victims of desire’
Harold Clurman: ‘Blanche is a delicate and sensitive woman pushed into insanity by a brutish environment presided over by chief ape man Stanley Kowalski’
Harold Bloom
the play is about the ‘conflict between the old south and the new, the gentility and coarseness of human nature
Pagan
Blanche not only ‘occupies’ a ‘feminine space’ but a ‘masculine space’ aswell
Adler
Blanche cannot reconcile ideals ‘purity and refinement’ and being ‘sexually promiscuous’ and therefore ‘she dissipates her power’
Brooks Atkinson
Stanley represents the ‘macho forward-driving America’
Lacey Baldwin:
People were longing for the ‘sea faring strength’ of Elizabeth I.
