Comparative Themes
Both plays explore similar themes -- female sexuality, violence, madness, class, confinement, morality, deception, and death -- but treat them differently based on their historical contexts and theatrical conventions. Click each theme below to explore detailed comparative analysis.
Female Sexuality and Autonomy
Both the Duchess and Blanche assert sexual autonomy and face violent male retribution. The Duchess chooses to remarry for love; Blanche's sexual history becomes a weapon against her.
Key Comparison
Webster celebrates the Duchess's desire; Williams shows Blanche's sexuality as traumatized and compulsive.
Violence, Cruelty and Suffering
Both plays feature extreme male violence against women -- Ferdinand's torture and execution of the Duchess; Stanley's rape of Blanche.
Key Comparison
Webster stages violence spectacularly (visible death); Williams makes violence subtle and domestic (rape implied, institutionalization bureaucratic).
Madness and Psychological Breakdown
Ferdinand's lycanthropy and Blanche's mental collapse both result from traumatic events, yet are represented through different theatrical techniques.
Key Comparison
Webster uses madness allegorically (madmen as symbols); Williams uses it psychologically (expressionism externalizes Blanche's subjective experience).
Class, Social Status and Decline
The Duchess's marriage across class boundaries and Blanche's loss of Belle Reve both threaten established social orders.
Key Comparison
Webster shows aristocratic corruption from within; Williams shows Old South aristocracy displaced by working-class immigrants.
Imprisonment, Entrapment and Confinement
Both heroines move from relative freedom to total confinement -- the Duchess imprisoned in her palace; Blanche trapped in the Kowalski apartment.
Key Comparison
Webster uses spectacular sovereign power (Ferdinand commands imprisonment); Williams uses structural power (poverty and dependence trap Blanche).
Sin, Morality and Hypocrisy
Both plays expose moral hypocrisy -- Ferdinand and the Cardinal commit murders while claiming religious authority; Stanley claims 'honesty' while brutally manipulating others.
Key Comparison
Webster provides moral closure (villains punished); Williams denies it (Stanley prospers).
Truth, Deception, and Appearance vs. Reality
The Duchess hides her marriage; Blanche constructs elaborate fictions about her past. Both use deception as survival strategy.
Key Comparison
The Duchess knows and hides truth; Blanche's relationship to truth becomes unstable -- she may believe her own fantasies.
Death, Mortality and Tragic Endings
The Duchess is executed in Act 4; Blanche is institutionalized in Scene 11. Both endings show patriarchy's destruction of autonomous women.
Key Comparison
Webster's ending provides catharsis and vindication; Williams's ending is anti-climactic -- life continues without Blanche.