Desire/sexuality Flashcards
“They told me to take a streetcar named desire, transfer to one called cemeteries and ride six blocks to Elysian Fields”
- allegory/extended metaphor for blanches journey to Elysian Fields- her desire for her student and the death of family led her to Elysian Fields
-greek mythology: Elysian Fields is a resting place for heroes(ironic)- this is blanches resting place
“Since earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women, with power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens”
-stage direction of stanley(first description we get of him)
-metaphor of him as a bird shows his animalistic tendencies
-male birds commonly must woo the females by showing of their brightly coloured feathers(like Stanley’s bright clothing)
-“power and pride”- bilabial plosives create overpowering character
“Red satin robe”
- colour connotation of red-lust and sexuality
-satin: royal, romantic, sexual material
“In the spring it’s touching to notice them making their first discovery of love!”
-euphemism for their sexual awakening
-foreshadows the revealing of blanches affair with student
-links to idea of her constantly trying to find youthful love to stay young and to recapture love with Allan grey
“The low clarinet moans…then they come together with low, animal moans…her eyes go blind with tenderness”
-“low tone clarinet moans”: assonance creates sound of instrument, personification reflects the pain or passion the couple feel.
-“animal moans”: animalistic nature of their romance
-“her eyes go blind with tenderness”: blinded by her love for Stanley- Williams romanticised the violent nature of the relationship to show how Stella ignores his bad treatment
“Brutal desire-just-Desire!”
-brutal connotes violence and animal nature like Stella and Stanley’s relationship
-capitalised Desire in middle of sentence could show the power/strength of desire
“Capricorn, the goat!”
-in Greek mythology and astrology the goat represents intense sexuality and masculine behaviour much like Stanley’s character
-also suggests animalistic nature
“Have got to be seductive-put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings and glow, make a little temporary magic…shimmer and glow”
-euphemism that Blanche was a prostitute
-“soft colours”, “butterfly wings” and “glow” suggest an ethereal nature and how Blanche Prehaps sees sex and desire as a false reality/ performance.
“Young man. Young young young young man! I want to kiss you…but I’ve got to be good and keep my hands off children.”
-repetition of “young” suggests that Blanche is attracted to young people Prehaps to recapture her youth of youthful love with husband
-she kissed the boy with out consent showing she is morally bankrupt
-the ending sentence foreshadows the revealing information that she had an affair with a child.
“It was like you turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in the shadows”
-simile for her discovery of love and sexual desire.
-“blinding light”- motif of light
“It’s gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night the way we used to and get the coloured lights going”
-euphemism for sex
-shows sex is the basis of their relationship
-coloured lights metaphor for sex
“Intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with”
-“intimacies”- euphemism for sex
-only alluded to as Blanche still wants to keep up her reputation and not speak so blatantly
-context- deemed taboo to talk about sex especially women’s desire
“He springs towards her”
-Stanley’s animal and sexual desire to over power Blanche even through rape
“He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse”
-even when Stella is upset the first thing Stanley does is try and have sex with her
-their relationship is based on desire and sex
