Characterisation Flashcards
What are the key characterisation methods in A Streetcar Named Desire?
- Blanche as the emblem of the Old South
- Stanley as the alpha male emblem of the working class and New America
- Stella as the emblem of change
- Mitch as Blanche’s hope
- Baby as the symbol of the future
- Steve and Eunice as champions of the American Dream and foils to Stanley and Stella
- Minor characters such as Shep Huntleigh and Allan Gray to symbolise the illusion of Blanche
Motif of clothing Sc1 Stanley
“roughly dressed in blue denim work clothes”
Motif of clothing Blanche Sc1
“Her appearance is incongrous to the setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit”
“Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”
Stanley’s diction Sc1
Stanley: “Catch!”
Stella: “What?”
Stanley: “Meat!”
Blanche’s first line Sc1
(with faintly hysterical humour) “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and…get off at-Elysian Fields!”
* Freudian theory of Eros and Thanatos
* Blanche is educated enough to understand references
Presentation of Eunice Sc1
“A place like that must be awful hard to keep up” (referring to Belle Reve)
Stanley and Stella’s relationship Sc1
“When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild! And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…”
Presentation of Stanley Sc1
“a richly feathered male bird among hens”
” gaudy seed-bearer”
Presentation of Stanley with symbol of the trunk Sc2
“Let’s see the papers!” Stanley
“He jerks open a small drawer in the trunk and pulls up a fist-full of costume jewellery”
Motif of clothing Blanche Sc3
” she has slipped on the dark red satin wrapper”
Blanche flirting with Stanley Sc2
“She sprays herself with her atomizer; then playfully sprayed him with it”
Blanche, Stanley and the love letters Sc2
“He rips off the ribbon and starts to examine them. Blanche snatches them from him, and they cascade to the floor”
Blanche on finding out about the baby Sc2
“The Blue Piano sounds louder”
“maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood now”
Mitch as a gentlemen Sc3
“Poker should not be played in a house with women” Mitch
Stella and Stanley coming together after he hits her Sc3
“he throws back his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife’s name”
“they come together with low, animal moans”
“her eyes go blind with tenderness”
