Themes in Streetcar and Malfi

Themes in Streetcar and Malfi

1. Desire and fate

   • Malfi
     • Fate seems more predominant than free will - seen with Bosola's inability control his own future
       • in William Painter's version of the story, Bosola murder Antonio with impunity - webster appears to be evoking divine providence in orer to damn the unworthy
     • Context - a major theological debate at the time within protestanism was wheeter a mans eternal destiy in either or heaven was predestined by God
       • "calvinistic theology...the world as seen by him, of its nature, is incurably corrupt" - David Cecil
   • Streetcar
     • streetcar going along the rails is seen as a symbol of the inescapability of fate
     • Stanely references fate when it comes his violence against Blanche - "we've had this...since the beginning"
       • Stella - meaning star - aligned to the stars, indicating fate

2. Death

   • Death is everywhere - Webster achieves a spectacular level of horrow in the way the characters are killed before - for good characters , it's a relief, forthe bad ones its a punishment
     • Duchess is subjected to torture and knows of her execution, ubt remains dignified; even asks for a violent death to put her to sleep
       • death is shown as a way to escape a life full of suffering
     • no matter how gruesome, death leads to "excellent company in the other world"
       • the duchess' death showcases the play's exploration of the permanence of death, as an echo rises form her grave in an attempt to tell antonio of her fate
     • cardinal's guilt leads to his death - after killing J, hes plagued by guilt
   • Streetcar
     • AO3 - the insistent reminders of death - in words and polka music - recall that the streecars wernt to Desire but also Cemeteries; williams' obsession with death colours his imagery
     • AO2 - Stanley is the opposite of death; he's the embodiment of life and vigour; only talks about death one in the final scene
       • stage directions say he's predigiously elated when he tells his friends that luck is believing you're lucky
     • blanche is surrounded by death; the death of her husband and the dealth of belle reve
       • gives gruesome detail about the death in belle reve - a woman is so swollen by disease that she had to be "burned like rubbish (pg 12)
         • blanche dreams of being bured "at sea sewn up in a clean white sack" (S11)
       • her husband's death haunts her; shown through plastic theatre with the shadows on the wall and the music
     • present from the outset with the mexican flower seller, selling flowers for the dead

3. Mental demise

   • Shown through plastic theatre which gets more overt as the play continues - her mental health getting worse
     • the varsouviana - reminds her of her guilt, provokes the feeling of loss and regret
     • The blue piano - represents 'the spirit of life' and reminds her of her husbands suicide and her subsequent mental demise; is loudest when blanche is sent to the asylum
     • shadows and light - shows blanches avoidance of the light (the truth) highlights her fragility
   • Seen with Ferdinand and his lycanthropia
     • prowling graveyards and digging up corpses, carrying a dead mans limb and howiing
     • shifts from verse to prose to show how his mind is common and how he;s been lowered in his madness
     • he's honest in his madness; A4S2 line 40 - admits his guilt and that he's going to hell

4. Class/social inequality

   • Streetcar
     • Stanley resents Blanche;s sense of superiority - refuses to show her courtesy; unable to match Blanche's wit bc of her class so resorts to violence
       • doesn't stand up for her when she enters a roomn
       • most resentful when it seems Stella's being influenced by Blanche, like in S8, when stella daresto tell him to clear his place on the table
     • blanche is classist; is disparaging about the size of Stella's home and expects her sister to have a maid
       • calls Stanley "common" "sub human" and "ape-like"
       • doesn't mind Mitch's class bc he's more sensitive than stanley; does occasionally mock his lack of education by using phrases he doesn't get - Rosenkavalier in S5
     • Stella doesn't really criticise stanley bc of his class, but does say he makes a "pig" of himself (S8
   • Malfi
     • the social mismatch between antonio and duchess is referred to a number of occasions
       • Duchess is attracted to antonio's virtue and not his social status - "this godly roof of yours is too low built"
     • Bosola - alhtough he rails against a system which denies him the status he believes he deserves - will also use prejudice if it suits him
       • Bosola laments the lack of meritocracy that exists within his society but applauds the duchess on preferring a man 'merely for worth'