Context

Question 1

Stanley and the American Dream

Answer 1

‘Unrepressed by social orders’

Stanley is an uncontrolled American Dream idealist

Question 2

Representation of New Orleans

Answer 2

Rural slave and land owning economy

Multiculturalism

Question 3

The American south

Answer 3

Unique cultural and historic heritage
Institution of slavery and legacy of American Civil War
Developed own culture, music and cuisine

Question 4

Southern culture

Answer 4

Generally more socially conservative than North

Question 5

Antebellum society

Answer 5

Pre civil war south
Southern Belle- easily caricatured for extravagance dress and formal speech
White upper classes- mor chivalrous and honourable
Economy largely based on slavery, plantations, rich/ poor divide and between free/ slaves, cling to gentile values after humiliating civil war defeat

Question 6

The American Dream

Answer 6

Social mobility
‘A dream of being able to grow to the fullest’
‘Unrepressed by social order’
Idealistic and emphasis on individual responsibility (greed, competition)

Question 7

Epigraph

Answer 7

Taken from Hart Crane poem ‘The Broken Tower’
Influence by personal life, but also imagery of the section, description of love as an ‘instant’ and as a force that precipitated ‘each desperate choice’ links to Blanche
‘I know not whither [love’s voice is] hurled’, also suggests Blanche; with increasing desperation, Blanche ‘hurls’ her continually denied love into the world, only to revisit her in the form of suffering

Question 8

Clash of American culture

Answer 8

‘Comes out of the bathroom in a red satin robe’
‘Between the L&N tracks and the river’: in between two divides
‘Blue piano’: soul, a struggle, passion

Question 9

Blanche’s tragedy is due to the role of women in the 1940s

Answer 9

• role as southern belle archetype dictates actions- forced to be subtle and avoid impoliteness
• poker night
• men open about promiscuity
• fragility is due to previous experience with men
• ‘her future is mapped out’
• expectation to marry/ be a mother disadvantage her
• however, her selfish and self- centred nature isolated her

Question 10

American societal representations of Stanley

Answer 10

Industry of north: rugged and literal nature rep. of the immigrant working class of post- war America; character of inexpressive, blunt masculinity 
Male dominance of women: us socially developing- societal sectors resist changing gender roles

Question 11

American societal representations of Blanche

Answer 11

Rep of older form of America, southern belle conflicts with industrious working class 
Old age gentility and convention will be dominated by industrialism: final scene- exertion of power- supremacy of N industrialisation over S agriculture/ etiquette

Question 12

Military industrial complex

Answer 12

Stanley is emblematic of
Arose in America after WW2
Tyrannical/ aggressive assets of S rep the manner in which post- war america became economically reliant on war and conflict

Question 13

Struggle of sexual desires

Answer 13

Hyper sexuality of B as a consequence of longing for ‘shelter’: female transgressive qualities condemned/ deemed insane
Lack of catharsis: treatment of female vs male sexuality
Blanche questions authority of S, challenges gender roles and patriarchy in which he thrives, exposes her lies (realism) and dominates her (forceful)