AO4- Literary Context

Question 1

Nietzchean interpretation of Stanley and Blanche

Answer 1

• Apollonian Blanche- embodying imagination, reason, purity and order
• Dionysian Stanley- embodying pleasure and chaos
• When they both operate on these extremes, both characters cause destruction, with Blanche lost in her illusion and Stanley instinctive actions resulting in violence and devastation
• Nietzsche saw the fusion of these two drives as the ideal, but when B and S are ‘fused’ in the same environment chaos ensues

Question 2

Appollonian state vs Dionysian state

Answer 2

• Dreams are the most Apollonian state we can experience
• Folk music (e.g Varsouviana Polka) and drunkenness are the pure Dionysian state since it appeals to emotions and not the rational mind. The Dionysian state tends to blur the boundaries between the self and nature. BOTH Stanley and Blanche drink.

Question 3

Freud’s Id, Superego, Ego

Answer 3

• Stanley is the Id- driven by pleasure
• Blanche is the superego- driven by morality
• Stella is the ego- driven by reality

Question 4

George-Clause Guilbert on Mitch AO5

Answer 4

His boyish fragility clearly is opposed to Stanley’s brutish strength’

Question 5

George-Clause Guilbert on Blanche and Allan AO5

Answer 5

Blanche ‘is looking for Allan in herself, but she is also looking for Allan in others’

Question 6

The Liebestod Tradition

Answer 6

• Means ‘love death’
• The erotic union achieved by lovers solely through or after death

Question 7

New Historicist critical lens

Answer 7

We can interpret B’s constant attempts to undermine S’s self-worth as a social commentary on the stagnance of the Old South morality. B is unable to extricate her privilege from the ways of life in the new world. Her failed attempts at restoring her class privilege highlight her status as a decaying Southern Belle