Connections

Blanche with Duchess - both tragic protagonists

Blanche with Duchess - both criticised for sexual desire

Blanche with Duchess - both have male relatives seek to destroy them

Stanley with Cardinal- both violent and cruel male characters but Cardinal is more dangerous as he hides his cruelty under the guise of religion whereas Stanley is open about his aggression

Mitch with Antonio - both symbolise hope through possibility of new relationships, less cruel than the other men

Mitch with Antonio - Mitch represents fleeting hope as relationship burns whereas Antonio symbolises real hope as he demonstrates his true love for the Duchess

Endings - at the end of both plays the worlds are left with babies (Stella and Stanley’s and Duchess and Antonio’s) which symbolise possibility of hope through a new generation

Stanley and Ferdinand - both assert power over others unpredictably but men look up to Stanley more so than they do to Ferdinand

Stanley and Cardinal - both glean info from other people, Cardinal from ‘intelligencers’ and Stanley from Mitch/colleagues

Blanche and Bosola - misogynistic views of female appearance, ‘abortive hedgehog’ vs internalised misogyny about needing to be ‘soft and attractive’

Stanley and Bosola - both loathe all mankind and understand humanity’s propensity for deception, hypocrisy but Bosola is part of this whereas Stanley views himself as superior

Stanley and Bosola - both plot, Stanley against Blanche and Bosola against the Duchess, to endanger and destroy protagonists, suggests in patriarchal societies women are powerless at the hands of men

Stella and Duchess - both enter into relationships with men that are members of a different class which causes upheaval in their worlds

Mitch and Bosola - Bosola undergoes anagnorisis ‘I am angry with myself now that I wake’ whereas at the end of S11 Mitch places all the blame on Stanley despite he turning Blanche away himself

Blanche and Duchess - Duchess hears the echo which suggests a supernatural force, the use of sound is similar to William’s plastic theatre to convey Blanche’s psychological state ex. ‘inhuman jungle voices rise up’ just before Stanley rapes her

Stanley and Delio - both frame play, Delio starts and ends it in the same way Stanley’s competitiveness frames SC