Streetcar-Malfi AO5

Critical interpretations of Tenessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi'

Atkinson (on Williams’ understanding of people)

(Williams’) “knowledge of people is honest and thorough”

Bentley & Boxhill (on Streetcar's genre)

(Streetcar is a) “social historical drama”

Drake (on Blanche)

(Blanche is) “portrayed as the last representative of a sensitive, gentle love whose defeat is to be lamented”

Taylor (on Williams’ use of opposition)

“Williams creates opposition in Blanche and Stanley but not true conflict”

Burks (on Blanche and Stanley’s conflict)

(Their conflict is a) “social Darwinist struggle for survival between two species of human beings”

Adler (on Streetcar’s genre)

(Streetcar is) “a modern variation on the medieval morality play”

Cohn (on Stanley)

(Stanley’s) “cruellest gesture in the play is to tear the paper lantern off the lightbulb”

Corrigan (on Streetcar as a psychological drama)

“The external events of the play … serve as a metaphor for Blanche’s internal conflict”

McGlinn (on Blanche’s disillusionment)

(Blanche) “refuses to accept the reality of her life and attempts to live under illusion”

Cardullo (on Blanche’s struggle)

“Blanche’s struggle … is not so much with Stanley as with herself in her efforts to achieve lasting intimacy”

Melman (on Blanche’s rejection of death)

(Blanche) “grasps at desire as a means of escaping death”

Berlin (on Streetcar’s balanced nature)

“Stanley condemns Blanche for her sexual looseness and Blanche condemns Stanley for his apishness”

Goodman (on Williams’ worldview)

(Streetcar can be read as) “an allegorical representation of the author’s view of the world he lives in”

Gassner (on realism and surrealism in Streetcar)

“Poetic drama becomes psychological reality”

Tischner (on Williams’ portrayal of Stella and Stanley)

“Apparently Williams wants the audience to believe that Stella is wrong in loving Stanley but right in living with him”

Krutch (on Blanche’s retention of her principles)

(Unlike Stella) “at least she has not succumbed to barbarism”

Gassner (on Williams’ reduction of tragedy)

(Williams) “reduced potential tragedy to psychopathology”

Brooker (on Williams’ portrayal of suffering)

“Williams has looked steadily and wholly into the private agony of one lost person”

Bak (on Stella’s power over Blanche and Stanley)

“Both fight over Stella, for in her choosing one species means the death of another”

Murray (on the Duchess)

“The radiant spirit of the Duchess cannot be killed”

Oakes (on the Duchess’ individuality)

“She becomes the woman carved in stone that Ferdinand wanted her to be”

Hart (on Ferdinand and the Cardinal)

“The two brothers are not driven by any sense of possessive outrage, however warped, but a delight in malice itself…”

Bradbrook (on Ferdinand’s actions)

“The sight of the Duchess’ face awakens Ferdinand to what he has done”

White (on tragedy in Malfi)

(Malfi features) “the tragedy of a virtuous woman who achieves heroism through her death”

Jankowski (on the Duchess)

“She challenges Jacobean society’s views regarding the representation of the female body and woman’s sexuality”

Callaghan (on the Duchess as a central character)

“The Duchess of Malfi is an unusual central figure for a 17th-century tragedy … as a woman, she combines virtue with powerful sexual desire”

Ribner (on Ferdinand’s madness)

(Ferdinand demonstrates) “a complete descent of man into beast”

O’Neill (on secrets in Malfi)

(Malfi is) “a play obsessed with secrets”

Cecil (on Webster’s worldview)

“The world as seen by [Webster] is, of its nature, incurably corrupt”

Hazlitt (on the Duchess’ death)

(The Duchess’ death) “exceeds the just bounds of tragedy”

Bliss (on the Duchess’ priorities)

“The Duchess seeks private happiness at the expense of public stability”

Gunby (on Ferdinand and the motif of fire)

“The images of fire which characterise the Duke’s speech … mirror his fierce energy and ungovernable temper”

Gunby (on Bosola)

“Bosola is generally recognised as a man divided against himself”

Ribner (on Bosola’s significance in the play)

(Bosola is) “the most important unifying element in The Duchess of Malfi”

Hart (on Bosola’s nature)

(Bosola is) “a twisted misanthrope and cut-throat”

Gunby (on Antonio)

“Without the Duchess he is aimless and apathetic”

O’Neill (on punishment in Malfi)

(Malfi portrays) “the inevitable punishment of ‘whoredoms committed under the colour of marriage’”

Cecil (on Webster’s portrayal of evil)

“Webster envisages evil in the most extreme form: and he presents it … as far more powerful than good”

Gunby (about salvation in Webster’s works)

“Salvation and damnation are ever-present realities”

Bogard (on the ultimate tragedy of Webster’s world)

“The ultimate tragedy of Webster’s world is … the presence of evil and decay which drags all mankind to death”