(Streetcar/Malfi) Societal Corruption
- Created by: NHow02
- Created on: 25-02-19 17:02
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- Societal Corruption
- Duchess of Malfi
- Italian Court
- 'Like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools'
- 'Standing' suggests contamination + disease
- 'pools' incites reflection/ judgement
- Natural image used to describe an unnatural society, creates a recessive effect (Like Stanley)
- Simile references the 'tree of life' in the Garden of Eden and the 'forbidden fruit'
- Lack of sustenance/ nutrients. Sycophants seek further corruption
- 'o'erladen with fruit.'
- Weight of Upper Classes ('fruit') creates a crooked class system
- Bible states 'you will recognise them (Jesus's followers) by their fruits'
- Blble states 'nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit'
- Lucy Webster: A 'world that is more sinned against than sinning'
- 'Standing' suggests contamination + disease
- 'Like plum trees that grow crooked over standing pools'
- French Court
- 'Like a common fountain whence should flow pure silver drops'
- Hints at Duchess' reference to 'diamonds' as she is virtuous
- Alludes to the 'fountain of youth', suggesting purity prolongs life
- However, Duchess' destruction suggests corruption drives society
- 'Like a cedar planted by a spring'
- In the Old Testament cedar was used to build the palace of Jerusalem
- Source of flowing water, pure nutrients
- Currents represent change & sharing wealth
- 'Like a common fountain whence should flow pure silver drops'
- Italian Court
- Streetcar Named Desire
- New Orleans
- 'primary colours'/'raw colours of childhood's spectrum'
- 'Primary' alludes to the patriarchal society of post-WW2 America (men replaced women in industry)
- 'them coloured lights'
- Sexual Euphemism
- Colloquial speech, Stanley represents a recessive society
- New Orleans was seen as a 'melting pot' of cultural influences
- 'red stained package'
- Men were typically the breadwinners and provided for the family
- The jungle reference suggests these attitudes are still backward
- Darwinian idea of 'survival of the fittest'
- Represents Stanley as a predator (dangerous to women/ Blanche)
- Eric Bentley sees the play as a clash of "species"
- 'primary' excludes other players as collateral damage
- 'childhood' could suggest that for men, the world is a playground, and women are the victims
- 'primary colours'/'raw colours of childhood's spectrum'
- Women
- 'Rhinestone Tiara'/'A pair of queens?'
- Oxymoronic phrase creates an affected effect (fake authority)
- Despite the way they outnumber him, Stanley remains omnipotent
- 'I am the king around here'
- Stanley controls the poker game as the patriarch
- The ideal of the American Dream
- Shawn Alff describes the play as a 'heathens paradise'
- 'Lay her cards on the table'
- 'lay' suggests surrender, and a possible sexual euphemism
- 1940's women had been robbed of the freedom they had experienced during the war
- As a man, Stanley is not inclined to hide his secrets or reveal them
- 'Rhinestone Tiara'/'A pair of queens?'
- New Orleans
- Duchess of Malfi
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