Studied by 1 person
AO2 quotes for drama essay - currently only 8 themes
Blanche on falling head-over-heels in love
“all at once and much, much too completely” S6
Cariola concerned by the Duchess’s choices
“whether the spirit of greatness or of woman reigns most in her (…) it shows a fearful madness” A1S2
Stanly did Stella a favour and brought her to his level
“pulled you down off them columns” s8
Bosola on the brothers’ infectiousness
“you have a pair of hearts are hollow graves, rotten and rotting others” a4s2
Why Stella betrayed Blanche
“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” s11
Stella realises what she did
“Oh God, what have I done to my sister?” s11
The Duchess knows she is used
“A many hungry guests have fed on me” a4s2
Stella ends in despair
“she sobs with inhuman abandon” s11
Antonio’s justification for taking action
“for better fall once than be ever falling” a5s1
Stella’s desire and inability to escape Stanley
“They come together with low animal moans” s3
Stanley on their wedding night
“snatched off one of my slippers (…) smashing lightbulbs with it” s4
The Duchess’s dangerous desire
“violent passions” a1s2
Blanche’s provocative attire
“scarlet satin robe” s9
Ferdinand’s incestuous imaginings
“To see her in the shameful act of sin” a2s5
Initial description of New Orleans (2)
“Raffish charm”
“Atmosphere of decay” s1
Antonio on the risk of corruption in a pure court
“prince’s court”
“show flow pure silver drops”
“cursed example poison’t near the head, death and diseases through the whole land spread” a1s1
Bosola’s awakening
“A sweet and golden dream: I am angry with myself now that I wake” a4s2
The alliance against Blanche (2)
“rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, and what a filthy tub” s9
“I got an acquaintance” s2
The brothers’ corruption
“he and his brother are like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools” a1s1
the dubious Dubois ancestors
“improvident grandfathers and fathers and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications” s2
Bosola on the deep-running corruption
“search the heads of the greatest rivers in the world, you shall find but bubbles of water” a2s1
What Mitch blames for the disaster on poker night
“Poker shouldn’t be played in the house with women” s3
Ferdinand on gullible women
“what cannot a neat knave with a smooth tale make a woman believe?” a1s2
Stanley’s pride
“animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes” s1
Stanley’s visual introduction
“bowling jacket and red-stained package from the butchers” s1
Ferdinand’s appearance
“what appears in him mirth is merely on the outside” a1s1
Ferdinand’s diseased inside
“a wolf’s skin was hairy on the outside, his on he inside” a5s2
Stella to violent Stanley
“drunk- drunk- animal thing, you!” s3
Blanche on Stanley’s animal quality
“There’s something downright - bestial - about him” s4
Ferdinand’s diagnosis
“lycanthropia” a5s2
The doomed Dubois
“the Grim Reaper put up his tent on our doorstep” s1
Ferdinand’s early threat to his sister
“This was my fathers poniard (…) I‘d be loath to see it look rusty” a1s2
Stanley’s domestic abuse to barely-challenging Stella
“[a chair scrapes. Stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh]
STELLA: (sharply) “thats not fun, Stanley” s3
The Cardinal’s deceptive poisoning
“I will swear you to’t upon this book (…) kiss it!” a5s2
Blanche’s dried-up love life
“These are love-letters, yellowing with antiquity” s2
Why the Duchess has to pursue
“we are forced to woo because nine dare woo us” a1s2
Blanche’s fear projected onto the walls
“[lurid reflections appear on the walls around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form” s10
The Duchess’s mild temper
“The heaven my head seems made of molten brass and the earth of flaming sulphur… yet I am not mad” a4s2
Stanley’s treatment of Blanche’s belongings
“he crosses to the trunk, shoves it roughly open, and begins to open compartments”
“rips off the ribbon and starts to examine them" s2
Bosola’s eagerness to kill
“whose throat must I cut?” a1s2
Ferdinand’s dramatic death fantasy
“when I have hewed her to pieces” a2s5
dependent Stella on Stanley’s return
“When he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby“ s1
The cardinal on entering marriage
“the marriage night is the entrance into some prison” a1s2
Stanley’s response to silly Blanche
[“playfully sprays him with it. He seizes the atomiser and slammed it down on the dresser.”] s2
The colour of Blanche’s jacket
‘Della Robbia blue” s11
qualities that matter more than beauty (according to Blanche)
“richness of spirit and tenderness of the heart (…) grow“ S10
Onlooking Antonio on the lovely Duchess
“her days are practiced in such noble virtue” a1s1
Stanley as lord of the house
“remember what Huey Long said - every man is a king, and I’ the king around here” s8
Ferdinand makes sin look like virture
“the devil candies all sins over” a1s2
Stanley’s predetermination
“we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning” s10
Ferdinand’s passionate, violent determination
“tis not your whore’s milk that shall quench my wild fire, but your whore’s blood” a2s5
Blanche’s tragic expression
“a look of sorrowful perplexity, as if all human experience shows on her face” s11
Bosola’s observing the Duchess, she looks forward to death
“she is sad as one long used to it, and seems rather to welcome the end of misery” a4s1
Blanche’s tragic costume
“soiled and crumpled white gown” s10
Blanche knows her reputation
“how strange that I should be called a destitute woman” s10
Blanche’s subdued figure
“inert” s10
The Duchess’s assured identity
“I am the Duchess of Malfi still” a4s2
Blanche’s journey to Stan and Stella
“take a streetcar named desire (…) cemeteries (…) get off at elysian fields” s1
Ferdinand’s realises we cause our own demise
“whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut by our own dust” a5s5
The soundtrack to Blanche’s demise
“the hot trumpet and drums from the four deuces sound loudly” s10
Stanley reiterating his dominance
“I’m the man of the house and every man is a king” s8
Stan to Stella on return from beating her
“he was as good as a lamb when he came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself” s4
Humble Antonio
“O, my unworthiness” a1s2
The men caring for riled-up Stan
“they speak quietly and lovingly to him and he leans his face on one of their shoulders” s3
Ferdinand’s dominance in court
“Why do you laugh? Take fire when I give fire, that is, laugh when I laugh” a1s2
Stan’e interest in Blanche’s papers
“Take the Neopleonic code, a man has to take interest in his wife’s affairs” s2
Antonio’s anticipation of a child
“weak delight to see the little wonton ride a cock-o-horse” a1s2
The Duchess’s hubristic defiance of obstacles
“I will make them my low foot-steps” a1s2
What the duchess has (materially) to offer her husband
“Now the grounds broke, you may discover what a wealthy mine I make you lord of” a1s2
Blanche’s expectation of a saviour
“If anyone calls while I’m bathing, take the number” s11
Bosola’s expectation of a reward
“For this act I am certain to be raised” a3s3
The Duchess uplifting Antonio
“Raise yourself, or if you please, raise my hand to help you” a1s2
Blanche kicked out of Laurel
“practickly a town ordinance placed against her” s7
Blanche’s traumatic intimidation
“I don’t want to pass in front of those men” s11
the Duchess’s final wish
“my body bestow upon my women” a4s2
The Duchess is used to suffering forced upon her
“I am antiquated with misery, as the tanned galley-slave is with his oar” a4s2
Blanche’s initial insecurity about her arrival
“you’re all I’ve got in the world, and you’re not glad to see me” s1
The Duchess’s romantic enclave
“All discord, without this circumference, is only to be pitied and not feared” a1s2
How Stanley passes the time that Stella is in labour
“(grinning amiably): The baby won’t come till morning so they told me to go home” s10
Antonio’s final wish for his son
“let my son fly the courts of princes” a5s4
Antonio’s final wish unfulfilled
“establish this hopeful young gentleman in his mother’s right” a5s5
Blanche’s reaction to Stably destroying her beloved
“[tearing (the paper lantern) off the lightbulb (…) she cries out as if the lantern was herself]” s11
Metatheatrical reference to the Duchess’s powerlessness
“I account this world a tedious theatre, for I do play a part in it against my will” a4s1
Stella’s submission to Stanley, in a trance
“her eyes go blind with tenderness” s3
“narcotised tranquility” s4
Bosola’s submission to Ferdinand
“I am your creature”
Why Mitch ultimately rejects Blanche
“you’re not clean enough to bring into house with my mother” s9
Stella’s exciting abuse
“I was - sort of - thrilled by it” s4
Bosola’s affection for Ferdinand
“though I loathed the evil, I loved you that did counsel it.” a4s2
The Duchess on her brother’s coordinated intervention
“I should think this speech between the two of you was studied” a1s2
Blanche on her life in darkness since Alan
“not (…) has there been any light stronger than this - kitchen - candle…” s6
Antonio on why Bosola is this way
“all black malcontents (…) do hurt for want of wearing” a1s1
Blanche’s ultimate physical weakness
"[She moans. The bottle-top falls (…) He picks up her inert figure]” s10
The Duchess’s great limitation
“were I a man, I’d beat that counterfeit face into thy other” a3s5
Stella’s longing for Stanley
“When he’s away for a week, I nearly go wild!” s1
Julia on the burdens of chastity
“This nice modesty in women is but a troublesome familiar that haunts them” a5s2
The Duchess is not a statue!
“This is flesh and blood sir/ Tis not he figure cut in alabaster/ kneels at my husband’s tomb” a1s2
Stanley’s fertile character description
“gaudy seed-bearer” s1
Mitch’s entitlement
“What I been missing all summer” s9
The Cardinal on his services to Julia
“Took you off your melancholy perch, bore you upon my fist, and showed you game”
“You are to thank me” a2s4
Blanche’s bathing motif
“I take hot baths for my nerves” s8
Note 
Flashcard (46)