A* English Literature Essay on Acceptable Behaviour in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Duchess of Malfi
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Course
AS Unit 1 - Prose and Drama
Institution
WJEC
This A* English Literature essay is a great colour-coded exemplar on Acceptable Behaviour in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Duchess of Malfi. The colour-coded system highlights the AO assessments that make it an A* essay.
“The play explores the boundaries of acceptable behaviour in an unequal but changing society.” How
far would you apply this comment to both The Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named Desire?
Both the Duchess in Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and Blanche in Williams’ A Streetcar Named
Desire cross the boundaries of acceptable behaviour in unequal but changing societies, most notably
through how they express “their own sexual desire,” as Tolman suggested about Blanche. In A
Streetcar Named Desire, Williams presents the social expectations of women in the 1940s as
needing to appear “prim and proper” and “clean,” suggesting women should remain pure as it
means they are the elegant, soft women society wants them to be. The consequences of not
conforming to this acceptable behaviour would result in ignominy and condemnation for women.
While Blanche tries to avoid this societal shame through her façade of being “daintily dressed” in
“white clothes” which connote heavenly purity, Williams presents how she does not truly conform
to this expectation, as she has had “many intimacies with strangers.” This implies that Blanche is
openly promiscuous and does not abide by the strict, rigid rules of the unequal 1940s patriarchal
society that views her behaviour as unacceptable. In a similar way to how Blanche disregards
patriarchal restrictions on her gender in Streetcar, Webster’s Duchess also subverts her brothers’
commands for her to not re-marry: “if all my royal kindred lay in my way unto this marriage, I’d
make them my low footsteps.” This suggests a sense of rebellion in the Duchess’ transgressive
attitude, as she is prepared to nonchalantly walk over her brothers’ commands. Perhaps the Duchess
could therefore be described as a ‘passive heroine’—a woman who remains stoic and won’t let the
world change her. Much like the confined expectations of Blanche to appear “prim and proper” in
Streetcar, the Duchess also complains about the expectation for her to remain “cased up, like a holy
relic,” both plays offering similar portrayals of what is deemed acceptable behaviour for women,
expressed through the holy imagery. This may also represent the angel vs. whore dichotomy, which
views women who are virginial as angelic and pure, whereas women who openly express their
sexual desire (like Blanche and the Duchess) are immediately seen as tainted and unholy. Thus, we
can apply Roider’s suggestion that both The Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named Desire are
“cautionary tale[s]” for women, as they reveal how they cross the boundaries of acceptable
behaviour. This expectation is placed on these women as both female characters live in unequal,
patriarchal societies. Webster’s Duchess is set in the Early Modern Period, a particularly challenging
time for women; church leader John Knox declared in the 1500s that a woman in a position of status
and authority was against nature and unacceptable behaviour. Williams’ Blanche is also trapped in a
similarly patriarchal society, over 300 years after Webster’s play. In fact, the later 1940s was
described as an era of “domestic containment” for women in a male-centred society, which was only
reinforced by the championing of the male heroes returning home at the end of the Second World
War in 1945. Therefore, both female characters in The Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named
Desire break the boundaries of what is deemed acceptable behaviour in unequal but changing
societies through their exploration of their promiscuity, which is heavily policed and condemned in
these similarly male-dominated societies.
In both The Duchess of Malfi and A Streetcar Named Desire, both Webster and Williams use the
male characters to express the hypocrisy in what is seen as acceptable behaviour for men and
women in both unequal but changing societies. For example, in A Streetcar Named Desire Williams
describes that the “centre of [Stanley’s] life has been pleasure with women” and that he is a “gaudy
seed-bearer.” This suggests Stanley openly expresses his sexual desire in a proud manner without
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