A Streetcar Named Desire Quotes Flashcards
#learn 'em gunni
Elysian Fields - descriptions
‘has a raffish charm’
‘cosmopolitan city’
Stanley - animalistic, primal imagers
‘A red-stained package from a butcher’s’
‘[bellowing]’
‘[animal joy]’
‘[with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.]’
‘[gaudy seed bearer]’
‘a different species’
‘[stalks into the bedroom]’
‘[lurches up and tosses some watermelon rinds to the floor]’
[charges after Stella]
[like a baying hound and bellow’s his wife’s name]
Blanche - appearance and meaning of name
‘Her appearance is incongruous to the setting.’
‘Dressed in a white suit… and ear-rings of pearl, white gloves and hat’
‘It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods.’
Blanche - light and delicate beauty
‘Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light.’
‘suggests a moth’
‘I won’t be looked at it in this merciless glare!’ - light is unforgiving
Symbolism - allegorical representation of Blanche’s downfall
‘They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!’
The Southern Belle - poetry, reference to the arts
‘Mr Edgar Allan Poe!’
New Orleans
‘New Orleans is not like other cities.’
Racism
‘Polacks.’
Stella - dependency on Stanley
‘I cry on his lap like a baby.’
Soundscape
[The blue piano expresses the spirit of life.]
[A cat screeches.] - anxiety
Blanche - pain and trauma regarding Belle Reve
‘Funerals are pretty compared to deaths.’
‘the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep!’
use of repetition: ‘I, I, I’
use of fragmentation
use of exclamations
Alcoholism
‘Oh, this buzzes right through me and feels so good!’
Stanley - Napoleonic Code
‘let me enlighten you on a point or two’
‘what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa.’
Blanche - symbolism of fake jewellery and perfume
‘A rhinestone tiara she wore to a costume ball.’
[She sprays herself with her atomizer; then playfully sprays him with it.]
North vs. Southern Belle - difference between Kowalskis and DuBois
‘The Kowalskis and DuBois have different notions.’
Sexuality - Blanche
[a red satin robe]
Blanche - colours
‘I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours, primary colours. I don’t like pinks and creams and I never cared for wish-washy people.’
- ironic as she is always dressed in pale colours.
Blanche - tokens of love from Allan Gray
‘These are love letters, yellowing with antiquity’
- talisman and token of their sentiment
Desire/Loss/Masculinity - Belle Reve
‘Grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornifications.’
Male saviour - the papers
‘Belle Reve should finally be this bunch of old papers in your big, capable hands!’
Male saviour/New America
‘He’s what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost Belle Reve and have to go on without Belle Reve to protect us’.
Escapism - Blanche being left behind by New America
‘I ought to go there on a rocket that never comes down!’
Idiom - loss and vulnerability
‘The blind are - leading the blind!’
Important colour imagery regarding Stanley’s character
‘lurid nocturnal brilliance’
‘raw colours of childhood’s spectrum’
‘vivid green glass shade’
‘primary colours’
Misogyny/Domestic abuse - Stanley and Stella
[Stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh.]
- breaks the first physical barrier
Blanche - Age
‘You are as fresh as a daisy… (stella)
‘One that’s been picked a few days.’
Sexuality/Female dominance - Blanche having control in Stanley’s home, music
Anger/Male Dominance - Stanley and the radio once again
[Rhumba music comes over the radio.]
[With a shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out of the window.]
Sexuality - Blanche and colour imagery
‘A red satin robe’.
‘dark red satin wrapper’
- does the red intensify over time?
