A Streetcar Named Desire Flashcards
Who is the Playwright
Tennessee Williams
When/Where was it published/performed
1947, USA
Where is it set?
New Orleans
What is important about the setting? (QUOTES)
Scene 1 - Setting description
“It has a raffish charm”
“Faded white stairs”
“atmosphere of decay”
‘Her appearance is incongruous to this setting’
*This place is Called Elysium
*Duality of Beauty & Decay
=all “fake appearances” are lost. This is what “paradise” really is.
Blanche’s memory of the incident with Allan (QUOTES)
Scene 6
Blanche recalls her encounter with Allan to Mitch:
“By coming suddenly into a room that I thought was empty–which wasn’t empty, but had two people in it… [A locomotive is heard approaching outside. She claps her hands to her ears and crouches over. The headlight of the locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past.]”
- Plastic Theatre
- Use of Stage Directions
- Blanche’s emotional state (how this haunts her)
Blanche’s regret for how she handled Allan (QUOTES)
Scene 6
Blanche to Mitch:
“All I knew was I’d failed him in some mysterious way and wasn’t able to give him the help he needed.”
*Blanche’s guilt – not helping Allan
Blanche’s statement on “soft people” (QUOTES)
Scene 5
Blanche to Stella:
“When people are soft–soft people have got to shimmer and glow–they’ve got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a– paper lantern over the light… It isn’t enough to be soft. You’ve got to be soft and attractive.”
- Commentary on the world, there are strong and soft people. The world is too hard. Not meant for the soft.
- Blanche’s illusions
How are the poker men described? (QUOTES)
Scene 3
Poker game
[they are men at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colors.]
- Poker game is symbolic for life
- the players, the people in this world, are direct, strong. Too harmful for Blanche. she doesn’t fit here
Introduction to Stanley (QUOTES)
Scene 1
Our first introduction to Stanley
[Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes. Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.]
- Characterizes Stanley as Animalistic,
- Demonstrates his POWER & dominance
The Radio (QUOTES)
Scene 3
After Blanche turns on the radio:
[Stanley stalks fiercely through the portieres into the bedroom. He crosses to the small white radio and snatches it off the table. With a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out the window]
- Tension between Blanche & Stanley
- Stanley is direct and fierce
- Stanley characterization as animalistic
Tickets (QUOTES)
Scene 8
Stanley to Blanche:
“Ticket! Back to Laurel! On the Greyhound! Tuesday!”
[The ‘Varsouviana’ music steals in softly and continues playing. Stella rises abruptly and turns her back. Blanche tries to smile. Then she tries to laugh. Then she gives both up and springs from the table and rushes to the next room.]
- Stanley’s directness
- Stanley’s power, he controls Blanche’s situation
- Plastic Theatre
- Blanche trying to keep up the illusion
- Her efforts are failing
Mitch puts on a lantern (QUOTES)
Scene 3
Blanch tells Mitch to put a colorful paper lantern on the lightbulb
Blanche to Mitch:
“I can hardly stand a naked light-bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action”
- Blanche’s character as “soft”
- reference opposing Stanley’s Direct nature
Hint with Mitch for Blanche (QUOTES)
Scene 9 [the rapid, feverish polka tune, the ‘Varsouviana’, is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it] Blanche: Who is it, please? Mitch: Me. Mitch. [the polka tune stops]
- Plastic Theatre
- The increasing damage of her mind
- Establishes Mitch as Blanche’s possible savior
Brutal desire (QUOTES)
Scene 4
Blanche to Stella:
What you are talking about is brutal desire – just – Desire! – the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another
- Use of names. The Streetcar – Desire brought them here.
- the intensity of desire, which can make you disregard all else. (Stanley hits her, but her desire keeps her there)
Mitch Fails (QUOTES)
Scene 9
Mitch tells Blanche he doesn’t want to marry her b/c:
Mitch: You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother
- Stanley’s direct influence is destroying Blanche
- Mitch fails us, he could have saved her
