A Streetcar Named Desire Flashcards
Life of Tennessee Williams
March 26th 1911- February 25th 1983
What did Tennessee struggle with in his life?
Personal struggle with homosexuality, alcoholism and a fragile mental state
Importance of Williams’ mother
She was a southern Belle
Who coloured the portrayal of Stanley?
Williams’ boyfriend Pancho
When was the play first performed?
1947
The state of America during the time of writing and publishing the play
- Rapid industrialisation in cities
- Huge divide of North and South
- Nation ready to embrace old fashioned values of family and home
Economic impacts of America
- Wall street crash of 1929 led to the ‘Great Depression’ of 1930’s
- Huge unemployment, high interest rates, debt
New Orleans’ railway line
- The streetcar line was the oldest operating the US
It began service in 1835 and by 1922 it covered 225 miles
Desire line established in 1920 and was discontinued in 1948
Tennessee WIlliams’ childhood
Born in Mississippi in the deep south with an idyllic childhood
Culture of New Orleans
- Play set in the French Quarter with architecture being primarily spanish
- French quarter is a melting pot for all races and classes
- Jazz was of special importance in New Orleans, born of musical traditions associated with slavery representing rebellion and sensuality (known as ‘cradle of jazz’)
What does Stanley represent
The American Dream
What does Blanche represent
Old south where class and race was seriously important
Traditional view of Southern Belles
-Seen as delicate and frail to be treated with respect
-Look to others for protection, men in particular
Traditional view of Southern men
Seen as gentlemen to act like ‘knights in shining armour’
What is the Napoleonic code
Concerned itself with civil law rather than criminal law, preserving traditional inheritance patterns yet also allowing more freedom
- Used still by Louisiana state government
Importance of the decline of the southern aristocracy
- Begun after civil war and was evident by WWII when rapid inustrialisation occured leading to Old South radicalising (5 million women in workforce by 1945)
- Shutting down of many plantations
Significance of Belle Reve
Demonstrates the Old South values diminishing
- It is a link to Blanche’s ambiguous nature
When was the play set
1940’s America
- Two years after the war
Prosodic features
The way lines are spoken and connected to each other to create effect
Utterances
The manner which characters speak to one another
Genre of the play
Melodramatic tragedy
What are Blanche’s tragic flaws as a tragic heroine?
- sexual desires
- unable to face reality
Grice’s Maxims
The co operative principle of being in a conversation and wishing to be understood
- Maxim of quality
- Maxim of quantity
- Maxim of relation
- Maxim of manner
What does J.M Clum critically state
‘In Williams invisible homosexuals they tend to have grotesque deaths and are usually a victim of rejection by those closest to them’
What are the ‘coloured lights’ representative of
The liveliness, excitement and the raw lifestyle of Stanley’s society in New Orleans
Stanley is using imagery to show how his relationship with Stella has always been sexual and this is the only way, apart from getting angry, Stanley has of expressing himself and connecting with Stella.
Significance of Elysian Fields
’ They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at- Elysian Fields!’
- Creates a sinister link between Blanche’s fantasy utopia and the harsh realities of the new world
- Originally a paradise in the Underworld in Greek Mythology
What is a plastic theatre?
Utilises props, sound, stage direction, and costume to present poetic truths through symbolism.
It is not intended to be realistic, but symbolic
- Williams’ uses the expressionist devices exploited to represent the psyche of the characters
Belle Reve symbolism
‘Beautiful dream’ in French
- It represents the façade of Blanche’s desires and visions for the future being simply beautiful fantasies. The dark undertones signify the grandeur of the DuBois family fading
- Also represents the physical representation of the loss Blanche had suffered transforming the plantation into a symbol of decay and death
What is a Southern Belle?
Coined during the period of the Antebellum South in the 18th and 19t century
- stock character of a woman with a privileged upbringing from the deep south upper socioeconomic class
Irony of Blanche as a Southern Belle?
The men do not respect her; tragically revealed through her rape
- Difference in New Orleans and Old South
What is Blanche?
Archetypal southern belle
Hegemonic masculinity
The dominant form of masculinity that is privileged and upheld by society.
- characterised by strength, courage, aggression, and the ability to provide and protect.
Downfall of Blanche through Stanley
- She attempts to exploit the power rooted in her privilege by emasculating him
- To her misfortune, society accept hegemonic masculinity and the condemnation of women catalysing her own metaphorical death and mental disintegration
Stanley’s hate towards Blanche
Stanley’s unforgiveable antagonism towards Blanche is because she poses the biggest threat to his social status and power as a man
The Varsouviana Polka symbolism
The polka music plays at various points in A Streetcar Named Desire, when Blanche is feeling remorse for Allen’s death.
The polka and the moment it evokes represent Blanche’s loss of innocence. The suicide of the young husband Blanche loved dearly was the event that triggered her mental decline. Since then, Blanche hears the Varsouviana whenever she panics and loses her grip on reality.
Blue piano symbolism
Blanche DuBois’s loneliness and her attachment to a bygone era, as well as her gradual loss of reality.
Represents Blanche’s depression, loneliness and desperation for love
Why is Blanche bathing important
Throughout, Blanche bathes herself to an obsessive degree. Her sexual experiences have made her a hysterical woman, but these baths, as she says, calm her nerves. But in actual fact she is trying to cleanse herself of her past sexual encounters.
Blanche’s alcohol
Blanche’s drinking is anti-social, and she tries to keep it a secret. She drinks on the sly in order to withdraw from harsh reality. A state of drunken stupor enables her to take a flight of imagination such has with Shep Huntleigh.
Blanches drinking leads to destructive behaviour and alcohol augments Blanche’s gradual departure from sanity
What does light symbolise in the play?
Williams uses light to represent truth within the play, in particular Blanche’s fear of the truth about her being revealed or her own fear of facing reality.
William’s use of light to represent Blanche’s past and how Blanche’s fear and attraction to light represents how Blanche desires a return to her former self.
