A Streetcar Named Desire Flashcards
What does Kathleen Margaret Lant claim about WIlliams?
That Williams prohibits Blanche from the realm of tragic protagonist as a result of his own culturally ingrained misogyny
How does Anca Vlasopolos interpret Blanche’s downfall?
A demonstration of WIlliams’ sympathy for her circumstances and a condemnation of the society that destroys her
WHat does Kathleen Margaret Lant claim about Blanche?
Lant posits that Blanche had a responsibility as a wife to somehow rescue her husband from his own sexuality
What does Judith Thompson say about STanley?
He is endowed with the many mythic attributes of Dionysus
What does Henry Bradshow Fearon say about New Orleans?
To all men whose desire only is to be rich and live a short life, but a merry one, I have no hesitation in recommending New Orleans
‘I’m looking for the Pleiades, __ ____ ___ _ _______’
The Seven Sisters, but these girls are not out tonight. Oh, yes they are, there they are!
‘Power and pride of a ___ ______ ___ __ ___ ___’
Richly-feathered male bird among hens
Who was one of WIlliam’s main inspirations growing up?
T.S. Eliot
Which poem was his main inspiration from T.S. Eliot?
The Waste Land
How does The Waste Land relate to ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’?
Eliot manipulates the continuous parallel between contemporaneity (Stanley) and antiquity (Blanche)
What does Stella’s name mean, and how is this ironic?
Her name means star, yet, the sole character who looks up at the sky is Blanche
WHat are the main quotes that show Blanche’s interest in Astrology?
‘I’m looking for the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, but these girls are not out tonight. Oh, yes they are, there they are!’ and ‘I’ll bet you were born under Aries’
Why is Blanche’s interest in Astrology and constellations tragically ironic?
She fails to read the signs of her destiny, her tragic blindness is all the more ironic as the omen is inserted by WIlliams just before the peripeteia - in the next scene, Stanley goes on the attack to eliminate his enemy
WHat is the significance of Blanche referring to the seven sisters?
Blanche trivialises the myth of the seven daughters of Atlas, who were pursued relentlessly by the mighty hunter of Orion until they were all translated to the sky.
- Both constellations rise in May and set in November, which is the approximate span of the play. In Ancient Greece, the constellation of Orion was associated with Dionysus (Stanley) and the Pleiades were known to antiquity as the Lyre of Orpheus (Blanche)
How does William’s quote ‘all my characters are larger than life, not realistic’ relate to the Seven Sisters and Orion?
The conflict between Stanley and Blanche may be viewed as the clash between two rival myths