A Streetcar Named Desire - Essay Flashcards
What are the key points regarding Blanche Dubois in the introduction?
Arrives in New Orleans to live off her sisters charity.
Lost her family home due to debt and promiscuous behaviour.
Feels totally isolated from those around her.
How is Blanche’s psychological fragility described at the start of the play?
“Daintily dressed in a white suit” - “Daintily” suggests fragility and “white suit” suggests purity and innocence.
Also, the name “Blanche” further exaggerates her purity further as it is french for “white”.
“fragile as a moth” - “Moth” describes further her fragility and weakness.
Also foreshadows her downfall at the end of the play.
Blanche’s dress sense also isolates her further as it suit the rough area her sister lives in.
How is Blanche’s isolation brought about by her excessive drinking?
“springs up and crosses to the closet” - The use of stage direction and word choice shows her eagerness to gain a source of alcohol when she first arrives in the apartment.
“Pours half a tumbler and tosses it down” - Word choice of “tosses” shows Blanche’s desperation to gain the numbing effect of the alcohol.
She quickly washes the glass to conceal her addiction to alcohol.
When Blanche takes such drink she feels it acts as a protection from her horrible past.
Stanley becomes annoyed about the amount of his alcohol Blanche is consuming. As he is supplying her need.
How does Blanche’s behaviour change through her consumption of alcohol?
“A feeling of hysterical exhilaration came into her” - The fact that Blanche becomes hysterical has a disturbing reaction to her psychological state.
Drinking lowers her inhibition and renders her more susceptible to being physically overcome.
Unfortunately drinking as much alcohol as she did led to her being raped. If she had only drank less, or even better, nothing she may have been able to defend herself.
How Blanche’s compulsive lying alerted the audiences attention?
At the beginning of the play Blanche states “I’m only accustomed to having one drink. Two is my limit” The audience is already aware that Blanche is lying as they are already aware that she has had more than one drink.
It is Blanche’s tendency to lie that make the other characters in the play mistrust her.
Describe one of Blanche’s more elaborate lies.
This involves an imaginary boyfriend coming to save her from the hands of Stanley “A man from Dallas is coming from where gold sprouts out from the ground”
This “lie” even isolates Blanche further from everyone around her.
Her “lie” is so elaborate that the imaginary boyfriend has even been named “Shep Huntleigh”.
Stanley feels empowered as he, himself knows that this man does not exist.
How does Blanche show her hatred towards Stanley?
Blanche tells Stella that “I think you’re married to a madman” which Stanley overhears and further increases his hatred towards her.
Blanche believes Stanley is mentally unstable and fears what he is capable of when he has a violent streak.
Stanley, on the other hand wants to change peoples perception of Blanche.
Stanley tells those that previously sought her company of her promiscuous past after which they are repelled.
Williams’ stage direction of “coldly” in describing Stella’s response to the tirade of criticism regarding Stanley shows just how unable she is to accept any of his flaws and at this point Blanche has been rejected by Stella.
How does Blanche further isolate herself through inappropriate relationships?
Blanche reveals her thoughts and feelings of her late husband, she feels “she had failed him in some mysterious way” when she discovered he was homosexual. She told him “he disgusted her” at that point he couldn’t take it any longer and shot himself. At that time, Polka music was playing and such music has haunted her ever since.
She is annoyed with herself as if she hadn’t said anything to him he wouldn’t have committed suicide. Also, if she hadn’t told him he disgusted her, he wouldn’t of committed suicide and as a consequence wouldn’t have drank as excessively as she has.
How do the residents of Elysian Fields treat Blanche?
Promiscuity is severely frowned upon by the inhabitants of Elysian Fields.
Blanche sparks up a relationship with Mitch - one of the inhabitants, but when he is informed of her dark past he says “I don’t think i want to marry you anymore” because she is “not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother”
Why does Blanche become even more increasingly isolated after flirting with Stanley?
Blanche publicly displays in playful behaviour with Stanley “She sprays herself with an atomizer then sprays Stanley with it”. Stanley doesn’t want anything to do with this and as a result becomes slightly stand offish. But, she continues to flirt wanting more of his attention which plays a part in Blanche’s rape in scene 10.
How, at the end of the play has Blanche become completely isolated?
At the end of the play Stella’s unity with her husband is more complete than ever yet her relationship with her sister is as distant than it has ever been.
Blanche’s past has come back to haunt her, her psychological status has deteriorated brought about by constant lying, drinking, insulting behaviour and failed relationships with men.
