ASCND - key quotes all scenes

Question 1

‘delicate beauty must avoid a strong light’

Answer 1

‘delicate’ - fragility of this façade Blanche has created, fragility of her mental state and the instability of her illusionary ‘paper’ world
‘strong light’ - truth, revelation, suggests an uncovering if falsehoods - perhaps a metaphor for male surveillance & policing of the female body.
This is a metaphor for Blanche’s fate/hamartia as she, like a moth, is drawn to the light (attention) which will prove fatal as her transgressions will be revealed.

Question 2

‘incongruous appearance’

Answer 2

immediately established as an outsider & outlier in the racially progressive New Orleans.

Question 3

‘white clothes,…suggests a moth’
& ‘white columns’ of Belle Reve

Answer 3

• purity of white imagery = desire for racial purity, tying her to her ‘Southern Belle’ identity.
  Becomes the phys. embodiment of BR ‘white columns’ - like a pillar she wishes to uphold racist notions.
• cocoon symbolism reflects Blanche’s attempts to reinvent herself .
• moth lives in the dark meaning Blanche’s fate is to live in ignorance which is consolidated by her eventual membership in a mental institution.
• moth = attracted to light as Blanche is attracted to attention, ultimately Blanche’s fatal flaw is her pursuit of desire.

Question 4

‘Elysian fields’

Answer 4

Greek myth = paradise version of the afterlife intended specifically for heroes. ASCND has no heroes so this could be a critique of human nature

Question 5

‘take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemeteries’

Answer 5

Warning from Williams of the danger of uncontrolled Desire which can ultimately be fatal.
Blanche’s nymphomania and constant want for attention kills her twice over, destroying her reputation in…and later restricting her from a life of freedom by confining her to the mental institute
Stanley’s uncontrolled Desire also leads to ‘Death’ esp. concerning Stella and Blanche’s relationship

Question 6

Paper lantern symbolism:
‘can’t stand a naked bulb’

Answer 6

• fragility of the lantern represents the fragility of Blanche’s southern belle façade & her vulnerability
• provides a pretty veneer/ rose coloured tint much like Blanche’s trunk of clothes & jewellery which function to mask the stark reality underneath, reinforcing her utter fear of death and ageing

Question 7

‘subhuman…something not quite to the stage of humanity..’
& ‘ape-like’

Answer 7

• barrage of disparaging xenophobic remarks display of Blanche’s hatred of Stanley.
• Xenophobic zoomorphism = misshapen, caught halfway between trans. from animal to human = utter lack of deference , views his status beneath her as biological fact.
• dominating animalistic behaviour = untamed, requires reeducation

Question 8

‘richly feathered male bird among hens’

Answer 8

Stanley ‘peacocks’ utilsing his masculinity to attract the opposite sex, granting him utter control over Stella.

Question 9

‘Gaudy Seedbearer’

Answer 9

bawdy chauvinism established.
- garish quality of phallic imagery = perverted pride in masc. status which he uses to visually dom. spaces reestab. ‘rightful’ control over women as a 1940s male.

Question 10

Poker night:
‘coarse…direct…powerful…primary colours’

Answer 10

• gaudy - pride in masculinity which overtakes the whole setting
• crass, crude colours = glaringly ugly toxic masculinity encroaching into the domestic

Question 11

‘primary colours…of a childlike spectrum’

Answer 11

AO1/2: Colours stripped back to most basic form. Lack of variety of hues = metaphor for 1940s male inability to comprehend world beyond their own myopic world view.
- infantile connotations = lack of mental growth., perhpas this is an infantilisation of masc. figures which allows them to deny culpability for tehir abusive actions.

2/3: confined to childlike view of world were everything is strictly classified - men & women’s roles classified by gender w/ trad. ‘blue’ and ‘pink’ esp. in post-ww2 era as women forced back to dom. sphere.

Question 12

[awkward imitation…like a dancing bear] - Mitch

Answer 12

AO1/2: juxtaposing imagery of the jovial dancing with ‘bear’ which is often considered to be a very violent animal arguably foreshadows Mitch’s later violence as this is his true underlying nature.
- ‘awkward imitation’; uncomfortable, unnatural = metaphorically represents the true incompatibility of the union between Blanche & Mitch

Question 13

Stanley further animalised:
‘stalks fiercely…charges after stella’
‘baying hound’

Answer 13

AO1/2: predatory verbs consolidate Stanley’s vicious desire for sex which animalises him, causing him to act in a threatening manner as he practically loses all sense of his humanity. - potentially the fact that he reaches the peak of his animalism before and during his physical and sexual assaults of Stella & Blanche = peak of his immorality. –> his zoomorphism by blanche and the stage directions prior to these events demonstrate his innate capacity to inflict suffering onto others = metaphor for underlying potential of the patriarchy to enable female suffering.

Question 14

[the sound of a blow] - stage directions

Answer 14

interesting that the actual physical act of violence is never seen on stage, only given the highly auditory ‘sound of a blow’ = representing Stella & society’s unwillingness to face the realities of DV
AO3: DV highly highly normalised in the 40s, seen as an issue between the couple & not to be intervened with.

Question 15

‘they come together with low animal moans’ & ‘Her eyes go blind with tenderness’

Answer 15

AO1/2: ‘animal moans’ - deep primal sexual connection between Stella & Stan. Illustrates the unhealthy relationship between the two as sex is used as a reparative.
‘go blind with tenderness’ - Stella’s own desire for Stanley leads to her downfall as she grows unable to see his flaws & ultimately has his child, a physical embodiment/manifestation of her new indestructible link to Stanley as she will be forced to raise this child, essentially contributing to her own cycle of abuse.
AO4- Can link to the DOM as she too bears Antonio children, despite recognising that thios transgression of class boundaries will lead to her destruction = female sexuality as hamartia.

Question 16

‘He was as good as a lamb when i came back…stanley’s always smashed things’

Answer 16

• ‘good as a lamb’ - simile, further animalisation of Stanley but a contrast to prior imagery.
• ‘lamb’ suggests meek, caring, tender highly ironic bc Stanley has never displayed this behaviour & also lamb is not fully developed, demonstrating that Stanley hasn’t truly reached his ultimate violent potential. –> this is a manifestation of Stella’s naivety as she truly is ‘blind with tenderness’.
  Stanley as the ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ as his true vicious nature is concealed esp. w/ Stella

Question 17

‘Hotel Flamingo…the odour of cheap perfume is penetrating’.

Answer 17

• never-visited-on-stage ‘Hotel Flamingo’ to evoke social attitudes concerning the sexual conquests of the unmarried female.
• sense of exoticness is established through ‘Flamingo’ = this establishment plays host to ‘foreign’ activities which subvert social norms.
  AO1/2/3:The highly olfactory image evokes an inescapable scent which pervades the air, a metaphor for the irreversible damage of prostitution to the female reputation as in the 1940s and 50s sex was an activity exclusively reserved for marital relationships and if a woman was to engage in these activities outside of matrimony, she would be deemed a ‘whore’. - poor attempt of masking a scent, creating an olfactory illusion, a motif of illusion to disguise the truth of Blanche’s sexual conquests.

Question 18

‘how much longer [she] can turn the trick’ & ‘put on soft colours’

Answer 18

• The artificiality and deception of ‘turn[ing] the trick’ is emphasised by metatheatrical ‘put on soft colours’ = Blanche’s adaptation to a lower class role of a ‘prostitute’ to secure her survival & she has had to mask this to avoid damage to her rep.
• The deceit-fuelled language reflects social perceptions of Blanche’s covering up of her ‘whore’ persona as immoral as she has ‘deceived’ men like Mitch into believing that she is pure, potentially bringing ruin to their reputation as she is sexually impure.

Question 19

‘What have you heard about me?…about me?…about me?’.

Answer 19

AO1/2: repeated, desperate line of questioning.
- terror of being labelled a ‘prostitute’ as she recognises the criticism she will face if the truth is uncovered.
- Blanche’s despair is evident, she quizzes Stella to ensure that her dignity and social reputation remains intact as she recognises that there are social punishments for women who partake in sexual acts outside of marriage, namely their exclusion from society. So, though Blanche ‘want[s] Mitch…very badly’ it can be argued that this is not for a sexually gratifying purpose or desire-fuelled but merely because she recognises the disadvantage of an unmarried woman in Post-war America, believing that if she were to marry Mitch she could ‘leave here and not be anyone’s problem’. The

Question 20

‘I want Mitch…very badly’
&

Answer 20

• ‘want’ =not for a sexually gratifying purpose, or desire-fuelled, but merely because she recognises the disadvantage of an unmarried woman in Post-war America
• intensified ‘very badly’ serves to further highlight Blanche’s utter desperation as the ageing, single woman to obtain a husband as her lack of marriage marks her an outlier in the heavily gendered society of 1940-50s America in which a single woman would become an outcast from society with age. - So, her desperate ‘want’ of Mitch is a plea to regain societal respect by entering a monogamous relationship, as opposed to her promiscuous past.

Question 21

‘Say its only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea, but it wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me’

Answer 21

• Motif/semantic field of façade/fragile & fantastical lang.
  ‘paper moon,’ ‘cardboard sea’. = representative of Blanche’s falsified, magic reality, she has constructed a fragile world which is impermanent & prone to destruction as Mitch ‘tears the paper lantern’.
• Blanche’s mental state as the paper moon - moon = feminine & hysteria, fragility of paper = psychological destruction of Blanche by the gritty environment of New Orleans.

Question 22

‘Bow to me first! Now present them to me’
& ‘good boy!’

Answer 22

Imperatives - instructive, aiding her construction of this ‘paper moon’ & falsified reality.
‘good boy’ - blanche’s infantilization of Mitch = naivety as like stella she fails to recognise the masculine proclivity for violence, underestimating Mitch’s capabilities as he then later ‘tears the paper lantern off the light bulb’

Question 23

Theme of acting:
‘Dame Blanche…couldn’t put on her act anymore…same old lines, same old act…became a town character’

Answer 23

• extended metaphor of performance - Blanche has had to put on an act merely to survive bc if people truly found out abt her sexual transgressions she would be condemned to fate as an isolated female.
• ‘character’ = blanche as too fragile & delicate to survive in the new America
• very venomous/spiteful tone = feels like this is a violation against himself, female sexuality as an injustice/tarnishing of male reputation

Question 24

‘Delicate piece she is’

Question 25

‘you’ve torn it’
‘I pulled you off them columns’

Answer 25

Exertion of physical strength through violence.
‘pulled you off’ - suggestive of a potential resistance, stanley’s coercive nature?

Question 26

‘work clothes: blue denim shirt…he is unshaven’

Answer 26

Increasingly unkempt, masculinised portrayal of the once arguably meek Mitch. = suggestive of a grave switch in his persona, he has taken on the masculine qualities of Stanley, echoing his introduction as a man ‘carrying a red-stained package’. This masculinisation of Mitch is a clear visual indicator that he has accepted the masculine brotherhood, no longer an ally to Blanche as he seeks to violate her reputation by aiding the spreading of gossip.

Question 27

‘Kiefaber, Stanley & Shaw have tied an old tin can to the tail of the kite.’

Question 28

‘Flores para los muertos’

Answer 28

• incidental appearance of the mexican woman acts as a death toll for multiple factors:
• the death of Mitch & Blanche’s relationship and ultimately the extinguishing of the dwindling hope for Blanche’s escape through marriage
• Psychological death of Blanche
• Reaffirms how Death is inextricably linked to Blanche & her desire which is ultimately her hamartia.

Question 29

‘Soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed silver slippers.’

Answer 29

AO1/2: Corruption and decline of rich, pure & valuable items - suggestive of the corruptive power desire as Blanche’s revered status as a Southern Belle is now as tarnished as her clothes with her being labelled as a whore - the degeneracy and instability of the female’s social position under the pressure of sexuality.
‘crumpled, soiled & scuffed’ - verbs suggest violence & mishandling, foreshadowing the later sexual violence that Blanche will suffer.
‘satin’ & ‘rhinestones’ - cheaper alternatives, façade of wealth = symbolic cheapening of female sexuality
- this dress functions as a wedding dress - its dire state reflecting how Blanche’s hope for escape from social criticism is now unachievable = reflects Mitch’s view that B. isn’t clean enough to bring into the house with his mother.

Question 30

‘physical beauty is passing. a transitory possession…Beauty of the mind…richness of the spirit & tenderness of the heart…all of these treasures.’

Question 31

‘The silk pyjamas I wore on my wedding night…I’ll wave them like a flag’

Answer 31

This appears to be foreshadowing the rape as wedding nights typically end with intimacy and the woman giving her virginity to the man. - In Stanley’s warped perception he parallels himself as the husband to Blanche’s wife in her white gown.

simile ‘like a flag’ - conquering, male victory & domination of the female body as Stanley is celebrating his success in guaranteeing the passage of his lineage.

Question 32

‘deliberate cruelty is not forgivable’

Question 33

‘worn out Mardi Gras outfit’

Answer 33

AO1/2: ‘worn out’ perhaps a crude sexual pun which pokes fun at Blanche’s sexual ‘looseness’, underscoring Stanley’s utter disrespect for Blanche as he mocks her even in her deteriorated state.
- ‘outift’ - again metatheatrical lang. playing into the idea of Blanche’s life as a performance

Question 34

‘lurid reflections appear…around Blanche…of a grotesque and menacing form’
+ ‘cries in a jungle’

Answer 34

AO1/2: Set has become frightening and unnatural (expressionist), which reflects the ugly, destructive (“flames”) reality that to Blanche is so alien.
- Phantasmagorical qualities = represents Blanche’s disconnect from the physical, material world
- plastic theatre, emphasises Blanche’s utter mental instability and utter PTSD and fear - perhaps these shapes are not merely shapes but flashbacks to instances in which she suffered sexual violence.
- Clustering image of the shadows around Blanche = emphasises the inescapability of her psychological state - potentially a metaphor for the cycle of & systematic abuse women face at the hands of men, they become trapped by their ptsd as a result of their exploitation by a corrupt patriarchal system.

Question 35

[He stares at her for a count of 10]

Answer 35

AO1/2: protracted, prolonged action - gives Stanley the time to think through his actions.
This ultimately suggests that Stanley has already calculated this plot to attack Blanche. = underscores the true extent of his cruelty as he deliberately wants to harm B.
- adds to this predator vs prey dynamic that is building to a climax here.

Question 36

[He springs towards her , overturning the table]

Answer 36

Like Ferdinand Stanley finds great gratification in the destruction of a space created by a subversive female. - this domination of a physical location/setting is an exertion of his masculine entitlement

Question 37

‘Tiger - Tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it!’

Answer 37

AO1/2: Stanley’s animalisation of Blanche is his view that Blanche too is a sexual creature, fetishises her terror and sexualises Blanche’s desperate defence with the broken bottle - phallic image.

The imperative ‘Drop the bottle-top!’ conveys dominance, the plural pronoun ‘We’ve’ implies mutuality, and ‘date’ is an ambiguous euphemism, suggesting both a predetermined event and romantic encounter, allowing Stanley to justify his brutality

AO3: The rape can symbolise the total annihilation of the Southern way of life by the modern, industrial North - Blanche threatens his territory so he must destroy it
AO3/5:1947 - in early runs of this play, the audience gave Stanley as slow clap as a commendation for his control of the frenzied female.
AO5: McGlinn ‘ rape of Blanche is his attempt to get her to admit that she is a sexual animal like him’.
Williams: ‘two sides of the same character.’