Cruelty and violence

Question 1

what are the quotations for paragraph 1

Answer 1

paragraph 1: cruelty and violence, and the way in which it underpins much of the interactions and relationships of characters:
- ‘ drunk,drunk animal thing you… a blow is heard’
-‘ come together in low, animal moans’
relationship mirrored by Steve and Eunice
-‘forced…pinioned… nearly throws them off’
- ‘limp in their grasp’
Context: changing of attitudes and divergence from social etiquette and Old-world social decorum and gentility- Williams lived in the more liberal New Orleans

Question 2

what are the quotations for paragraph 2?

Answer 2

cruelty and sex:
- ‘animal joy implicit in his being’ - ‘ we are all savages at heart’
- ‘ loud whack on the thigh’
- ‘wedding night… kind of thrilled by it’
- tongue protrudes between his teeth… (softly) maybe you wouldn’t be so bad to- interfere with’
triumph of brute materialism of new South over decaying grandeur of old South

Question 3

what are the quotations for paragraph 3?

Answer 3

cruelty as an intrusion of intimacy:
- Stanley=main perpetrator
- ‘ hurls the furs to the daybed… jerks open the drawer… grabs a fistful of costume jewellery’
- the idea that he intrudes her spiritual refuge in which she performs ritualistic purification: ‘(mimicking) soaking in a hot tub’
- Plastic theatre:’ locomotive glares as it thunders past’
Context: locomotive is a symbol of materialism- quashing of old south by urbanisation and materialism.

Question 4

what are the quotations for paragraph 4?

Answer 4

sadism and deliberate cruelty:
- following the unfurling of Blanche’s past, Stanley’s ‘prodigious’ self-satisfaction perpetuates- unnecessary cruelty that can be said to be sadistic
- ‘boy oh boy! I’d like to have seen dame Blanche in the office… trying to squirm’
- ‘It’s a bus ticket! Back to Laurel!… coughing, gagging noises are heard.’
Context: the effects of deliberate cruelty on mental health?

Question 5

What are the quotations for paragraph 5?

Answer 5

Cruelty in the sisterly relationship dynamic between Stella and Blanche:

• Blanche openly flirts with Stella’s husband ‘I was flirting with your husband’
• Stella has abandoned Blanche to cope with the ‘loss of Belle Reve’,
• ‘you didn’t dream. But I saw. Saw-saw! Where were you. In deb with your- Polack!’
• Williams draws upon personal experience- avoided the gravity of his sister’s schizophrenia and escaped to university, during which time she was lobotomised
• expression of guilt and exploration from the other perspective.

Question 6

What are the points I want to make for cruelty?

Answer 6

1. ) Cruelty and physical violence
2. ) Cruelty and sex
3. ) cruelty as an intrusion of intimacy
4. ) deliberate cruelty
5. ) cruelty in the sisterly relationship dynamic