'What strikes us most is the powerlessness of women'. With regards to this statement, discuss the connections between 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Duchess of Malfi'.

Both plays are set in a time where women are essentially powerless to their male counterparts, yet each piece is arguably female-centric. In John Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi', the Duchess is thrown into a role traditionally held by men, and as such throughout the play, she is seen as incapable of being both female and powerful. Carolina says 'whether the spirit of greatness or of woman reign most in her I know not', making the conflict between her role as a prince, and her own feminine desires, to be with Antonio seem like an internal struggle that one will eventually win. To be a successful prince the Duchess is expected to relinquish all feminity and follow only the wish of the men surrounding her, a pawn in the corrupt court of Malfi. During this period she would be expected to remarry for political gain in order to swiftly produce an heir, however, her choice to act upon the stereotypically female emotion of love is in direct defiance of these ingrained ideas. In fact, she even defies the tradition of a proposal, she initiates the marriage between herself and Antonio stating that ' the misery of us that are born great is that we are forced to woo, as none dare woo us'. Similarly, in Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire', Blanche defies the innocent and pure depiction of a southern belle, desired by most men at the time, in favor of giving into her sexual desires. Being set in the 1940's, 30 years before the sexual liberation of women, women were still expected to conform to household roles and to be subservient and only sexualised by the men, not by their own choice. Throughout the play, we see glimpses of Blanche giving into her desires, for example when she speaks to the young boy saying ' I want to kiss you, once soft and sweetly on your mouth'. Not only does this expose her lies and reveal her true sexual nature but also makes her seem perverse giving in to not only a taboo of the time but a taboo still present today. Although both women break the stereotypes of their respective periods, they are still punished making their efforts seem fruitless. The Duchess is murdered by her brother in a fit of jealousy and rage, leaving only her male heir, essentially resetting the political climate and squashing any female influence in the court. By the end of Streetcar, Blanche experiences a spiritual death in the form of an implied lobotomization leaving her mentally absent but returning her to the status of a subservient object, leaving her physically present to be sexualised by men. Her final line ' I always rely on the kindness of strangers', contrast the adult revelations of her past with childlike naivety giving into the idea of weakness and helplessness, attractive to men at the time.