The plays A Streetcar Named Desire and The Duchess of Malfi are both variations on the

classic tragedy, whether that is a modern domestic tragedy or a Jacobean revenge tragedy.
Therefore, in light of this, the female characters across both plays have a certain powerlessness
due to the convention of tragedies that the audience must feel pity and fear for the protagonist;
however, this powerlessness is more evident with regards to some female characters than
others.

Although both Blanche and the Duchess of Malfi are presented as being strong, capable women
in some instances in the two plays, they are also seen to be powerless in many situations.
However much status the Duchess has given by her title, she is still in the control of and
expected to obey her two malicious brothers. As her brother Ferdinand warns her not to
remarry, he shows her ‘[his] father’s poniard’ and tells her that he would ‘loathe to see’t look
rusty’. The fallic imagery of the poniard and the connotations of violence show the potential
danger the Duchess is in, because of the societal expectation of women that they should submit
to the control of their closest male relatives. In act three, multiple characters, including
Ferdinand and officers, enter and leave the Duchess’s private chamber, whilst she remains
there. Although her consistency in this scene could be interpreted as power as she remains
constant throughout, her lack of control over her own personal space is evident. The Duchess’s
powerlessness, similar to Stella’s in Streetcar, is heightened during her pregnancy. The
Duchess’s declarative ‘Antonio, I fear I am undone’ shows her her vulnerability and worry, where
she is normally independent and courageous, and also her reliance on Antonio as she is
physically weak. Similarly, at the end of Streetcar, Stella is forced to make the decision to
believe Stanley’s account over Blanche’s, because she is bearing his baby, and so the decision
to leave and raise the child without him near impossible.

Throughout Streetcar, Blanche and Stella are also both seen to be largely powerless,
predominantly due to the patriarchal standards of 1940s America. As a married woman, Stella is
not expected to work, so she is therefore financially dependent on her husband, Stanley; this is
also a contributing factor as to why it is near impossible for her to leave him. When Stella wants
to take Blanche out for dinner, she tells Stanley that he ‘better give [her] some money’. The verb
‘give’ shows the nature of their relationship: Stanley, as the man, is the provider, holding the
power, whilst Stella is reliant and powerless. These societal standards are also what eventually
drive Blanche to madness at the end of the play. The necessity for her to repress her sexual
desire and ‘put on soft colours’ takes a considerable toll on Blanche’s mental wellbeing; the
persona she is ‘[putting] on’, pretending to be something she is not in order to fit the mould of
what an reputable single woman in 1940s America looked like, means that she is finally driven
to severe mental illness. The Duchess in Malfi is also expected to repress and hide her
sexuality, although, contrastingly to Blanche, she has a title and therefore enough independence
and power that she is able to marry in secret and somewhat satisfy her desire, regardless of the
danger it puts her in. At the end of the play, at the peak of Blanche’s mental instability, she is
taken away by a matron and a doctor, who ‘draws her up gently…and leads her through the
portières’. This is arguably the clearest representation of Blanche’s powerlessness, as she is in
such a state that she has to be ‘lead’ away by strangers. However, alternatively, this could be
interpreted as a final show of power from Blanche, as her final stage direction is ‘[walking] on
without turning, followed by the Doctor and the Matron’; even though she is unwell and is almost
unable to make her own decisions, she still ultimately very pointedly walks away from life with
Stella and Stanley without looking back, exerting the power she has of her own life.
However powerless all the female characters across both plays are, there are also moments of
power seen from the women, largely due to superiority in class and difference in upbringing. The
Duchess’s relationship with Antonio is one but on a mutual respect for each other. They have
equal control, as seen at the beginning of the second scene of the third act, in which their
shared lines show the balance of power and the Duchess’s sexual puns show the autonomy
and authority she has in the relationship, which was somewhat unusual at this time as men, who
were seen to be higher up on the Great Chain of Being than women and therefore closer to
God, were clear oppressors of women and acted as such. In this scene, the Duchess also
quietens Antonio by saying ‘I’ll stop you mouth’ and missing him; this reinforces the equal
command the characters share over their marriage. In Streetcar, Blanche has a similar show of
power in which she kisses a young man in scene five ‘without waiting for him to accept’.
However, contrarily, this is a desperate act of control in a world in which Blanche has next to no
power, whereas the Duchess’s power in her relationship is accepted by her partner, if not by the
society around her. When Ferdinand discovers the truth about the Duchess’s marriage, she
immediately takes control and we see a reversal in gender roles, where Antonio is in a state of
panic and the Duchess tells him that he ‘must instantly part hence’. Although this could be seen
as a lack of power because her plan is ultimately thwarted by Bosola and her brothers, this use
of a modal verb shows the authority she has, although she is a woman in a time of
Androcentrism.

Both Blanche and Stella also have moments of power in Streetcar, partially due to their
aristocratic family. Blanche shows her intellectual superiority to Mitch, exerting power as she
flirts with him in French, a language he cannot understand. However, this could also be
understood as yet more evidence of Blanche’s lack of power as a single woman, as she can
only express her true feelings in a foreign tongue which others are not able to understand. In a
similar fashion, Stella also shows power derived from her superior knowledge and education
when she and Stanley are looking through Blanche’s possessions, and he asks her ‘what’s
rhinestone?’, to which she calmly answers ‘next door to glass’. Stanley’s interrogative shows his
ignorance, whereas Stella’s measured answer shows that this is one area in which she is able
to have some power over her husband, albeit a small amount. Blanche also is able to have
some power over her love interest, as seen at the end of scene nine, when she refuses to have
sex with Mitch. This strength of willpower is surprising to see in a world in which women typically
have to be subservient and fulfill men’s desires, regardless of their own. This independence of
decision making is also seen in Malfi, where, although her brothers have forbidden it, the
Duchess still goes through with her marriage to Antonio, showing power in prioritizing her own
desire.

Although the women occasionally have moments of power due to the significance of their status
or background, which is more evident in Malfi than in Streetcar, they are predominantly
powerless when compared to their male counterparts. This is because both plays are set in
androcentric societies in which it is difficult for women to have independence and control over
their surroundings. Furthermore, both plays are tragedies, so the audience must feel pity and
fear for the protagonists in order to experience catharsis at the end.