Duchess of Malfi and Streetcar Named Desire

Bosola- plum tree quote

"He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing pools; they are rich, and o'erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies, and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering panders, I would hang on their ears like a horse-leech till I were full, and then drop off."

Duchess- identity, keeping the title

“I am the Duchess of Malfi Still”

Duchess- how she’s going to die

“Whether I am doomed to live or die, I can do both like a prince”

Bosola- obedience to those in power

“I am your creature”

Bosola- criticising the court system to be a place of decay

“Places in the court are but like beds in the hospital, where the man’s head lies at that man’s foot; and so lower and lower”

Duchess- a living person not defined by her husband’s death

“This is flesh and blood sir; tis not the figure cut in alabaster kneels at my husband’s tomb”

Duchess- ditching the civilised realm for Antonio

“Going into wilderness” 

Delio- talking about how Ferdinand can manipulate the law

'The law to him is like a foul black cobweb to a spider, he makes it his dwelling, and a prison to entangle those who shall feed him.”

Bosola- the complicated relationship between recognising evil but wanting power

‘Though I loathed the evil, yet I loved You that did counsel it, and rather sought to appear a true servant than an honest man.’

Ferdinand- killing the Duchess still “loving’ her

"Cover her face: mine eyes dazzle: she died young."

Delio- hope after all is done

‘Let us make noble use Of this great ruin; and join all our force
To establish this young, hopeful gentleman In's mother's right.’

Duchess- Madonna-Wh*re complex

"Diamonds are of most value, They say, that have passed through most jewellers' hands."

Ferdinand- the complexities of his desires of lust and murder

''Tis not your whre's milk that shall quench my wildfire, but your whre's blood.'

What the duchess is accused of

“witchcraft”

Antonio- condescending tone before leaving Duchess

"Be a good mother to your little ones And save them from the tiger’

Antonio- last wishes before death

“Let my son fly the court of princes”

Duchess - having to hide her love because of who is in power

‘And as a tyrant doubles with his words, And fearfully equivocates, so we Are forced to express our violent passions In riddles and in dreams’

Antonio- power dynamics in the relationship

‘These words should be mine’

Cariola- duchess’ madness

"Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman Reign most in her, I know not, but it shows A fearful madness."

Bosola- trying to bring justice even though it doesn’t seem likely

‘The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes With the swords of justice."

Bosola- moment of waking

“I am angry with myself now that I wake”

Cardinal

"How tedious is a guilty conscience!"

Ferdinand

'Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust, like diamonds we are cut with our own dust

Antonio- on what it means to live

For to live thus is not indeed to live

Duchess- welcoming death

come violent death

Antonio- on ambition

Ambition, madam, is a great man's madness

Bosola- on man’s hypocrisy

Man stands amazed to wee deformity in any other creature than himself

Cardinal- purity of blood

The royal blood of Arragon and Castile

Duchess- love and fear

Love mix'd with fear is sweetest

Bosola- after death

Mine is another voyage

describing the duchess as evil

‘witchcraft lies rank in her blood’

the son- horoscope

‘threaten a violent death’

Cardinal- killing/poisoning

‘like a lingering poison’ ‘spread in thy veins’

Stanleys- background

"A Master Sergeant in the Engineers' Corps.”

Blanche’s southern femininity is met with violence

"[She sprays herself with her atomizer; then playfully sprays him with it. He seizes the atomizer and slams it down on the dresser]

What Blanche sees before Stanley attacks her

lurid reflections appear on the walls around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque menacing form (...) the night is filled with inhuman voices like cries in the jungle

Blanche- magic

"Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people.”

Blanche- music

'[The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it]' - Varsouviana

Blanche- attracted to her destruction

‘like a moth’

Blanche- going down with Allan

‘i was slipping with him’

Stella+Stanley

They come together with low animal moans

Mitch- female worth

"You're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother"

Stanley- convincing Stella

"Don't you ever believe it. Life has got to go on."

Blanche- funerals

Funerals are quiet, but deaths—not always. Sometimes their breathing is hoarse, and sometimes it rattles, and sometimes they even cry out to you, "Don't let me go!"

Stella- believing blanche and practicality

'I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley'

Stella- love and blindness

‘Her eyes go blind with tenderness’

Stanley- on laurel missippi

‘Not in my territory’

Stella+Stanley- weird relationship dynamic

‘And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby’

Stella- picking for the child

‘Stella accepts the child sobbingly' 

Blanche- strangers

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."