A Streetcar Named Desire Flashcards
Oppositions in the play
Desire vs Death
“Soft” people vs “Hard” people
Dark vs Light
Fantasy/”magic” vs Reality
Refinement vs Brutishness
Defeat vs Survival
Old South vs New South
The American Dream vs Belle Reve
Laurel vs New Orleans
Feminine vs Masculine
Motifs in the play
The Streetcar Named Desire
Poker
The portieres
Music
Light
Colour
References to high culture
What are the examples of music as a motif in the play?
The music from the Four Deuces
The Varsouviana
The songs Blanche sings in the bath (Captive Maid and Paper Moon)
Xavier Cugat on the radio
The Viennese waltz on the radio
What are the examples of light as a motif in the play?
Light bulbs
Candles
Paper lantern
Stars
What are the examples of colour as a motif in the play?
Blanche in white and then red and then della robbia blue
Stanley and the men in bright primary colours
What are the examples of a reference of high culture as a motif in the play?
The ghoul haunted waste lands of Weir
The Rosenkavalier
La Dame aux camellias
Mrs Browning’s sonnet
Quote about Stanley and rape scene from Kazan.
“This Stanley Never forgets. He’s common. He’s common! He’ll make her common as shit. He’ll fuck her and rape her. He’ll degrade her utterly. That’s his only answer”
- Kazan
Qoute about Blanche from Kazan
“Tennessee Williams equals Blanche. He is Blanche. And Blanche is torn between desire to preserve her tradition which is her entity, her being and her attraction to what is going to destroy her traditions.”
- Kazan
Quote from Pancho
“Sometimes my violence scared the hell out of him”
- Pancho Rodriguez
Quote about Stanley from Kazan
“Stanley is all about flesh and feast, both of which require killing”
- Kazan
The Plastic Theatre quote
“To express his universal truths Williams created what he termed plastic theater, a distinctive new style of drama. He insisted that setting, properties, music, sound and visual effects – all the elements of staging – must combine to reflect and enhance the action, theme characters, and language.”
Signs of melodrama (genre)
Use of music
Heightened emotions
Dramatic/sensational developments
Claptrap (a back-to-the-wall oration by the hero
Stock characters (the femme fatale; the villain etc.)
What does Blanche Dubois represent?
“Neurasthenic”
Suffering psychological trauma
“A person of desperate loneliness” (letter to Brenn)
Fanatasist
Projects the Southern Belle persona
Lyrical/poetic
Values art
Protagonist
Atavistic
The dead past – Belle Reve
Magic – imagination – fantasy
Poetry and lyricism - “the original thinker” - poetic
Hierarchy
Sensibility
Politeness
Softness
Dependency
Idealism
Tenesse Williams’ mother?
French Huguenots (like Tenesse)
What is Blanche Dubois’ desire?
“To rest.” Looking for love and protection
What does Stanley Kowalski represent?
Social Darwinistic
Priapic, Patriarchal
Perspicacious/perceptive
Misogynist
Dominant/aggressive/abusive
Good in bed
“The king of Ball and Jane” (Kazan)
Blanche’s antagonist
Forward-looking
The dynamic future – The American Dream of Huey Long
Realism – straight-talking – brutal truth
Egalitarianism
Functional, transactional prose
Common sense, directness
Hardness
Brusquenes
Independence
Pragmatism
Modern American man
What is Stanley Kowalski’s desire?
To maintain the control over his life and woman/wife
What does Stella Kowalski represent?
Passive/supine
Centre of the play
Dependent
Adaptive
Malleable
“Narcotized, asleep” (Kazan)
Survivor
Faces a choice
What is Stalla Kowalski’s desire?
Excitement, survival
What does Harold Mitchell represent?
Foil for Stella
Touch/abusive
Inured to violence of the quarter
Validates Stella’s choice
What is Harold Mitchell’s desire?
To better himself; to escape mother (Kazan)
What does Eunice Hubbel represent?
Foil for Stella
Touch/abusive
Inured to violence of the quarter
Validates Stella’s choice
What is Eunice Hubbel’s desire?
Assert proletarian validity and establish class-based community
What does Shep Huntleigh represent?
Southern Gentleman
Blanche’s rarefied past
Inherited wealth
At least partly fictional
Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller (genre) - “The flaw…”
“The flaw, or crack in the character, is really nothing-and need be nothing, but his inherent unwillingness to remain passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status. Only the passive, only those who accept their lot without active retaliation, are “flawless”
Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller (genre) - “The tragic…”
“The tragic right is a condition of life, a condition in which the human personality is able to flower and realise itself. The wrong is the condition which suppresses man, prevents the flowing out of his love and creative instinct.”
Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller (genre) - “Tragedy…”
“Tragedy is the consequence of man’s total compulsion to evaluate himself justly, his destruction in the attempt posits a wrong or an evil in his environment.”
How does Mitch sees Blanche? (scenes 3-6)
Madonna (virgin)
How does Mitch sees Blanche as? (scenes 7-11)
Whore, mentally ill sister (whore of babylon)
What does Stanley Kowalski sees Blanche as?
Whore, mentally ill sister (whore of babylon)
Scene 1 - Blanche: “Where…”
Blanche: “Where were you. In bed with your - Polak”
- Intimate - only married to have sex.
Scene 2 - Blanche: “Now…”
Blanche: “Now that you’ve touched them I’ll burn them!”
- Stanley’s masculinity is polluting - only by destroying the evidence can she make things pure and clean again - mirrors how she must destroy her past self and put on a cleaner facade in order to keep surviving in the present day.
Scene 3 - Blanche: “Is…?”
Blanche: “Is he a wolf?”
- Zoomorphising - predator - all men are predators
Scene 11 - Steve: “This…”
Steve: “This game is seven-card stud.”
- Reference to the narrative’s transactional, game-like nature and its lack of propensity to change - despite what has happened, Stella will continue to tolerate Stanley’s “brutal” desire and distrust Blanche -
