FEMALE ENTRAPMENT Flashcards
“Easy Intermingling of races”, “Blue piano”
SCENE 1: IRONY
Cultural melting pot, however hides the racism and sexism lurking underneath. New Orleans is a ripoff!!
“My head is swimming!”
SCENE 2: EXCLAMATORY, IDIOM
Stella is uneducated about the Napoleonic Code - which authorizes women’s property as their husbands
‘White suit’ ‘Earrings of pearls’
SCENE 1: PROLEPTIC IRONY, COSTUME
Outcast of setting, “incongruous” = she is tainted by the society. ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY.
Meaning of Blanche = bleach white - NOT FULLY WHITE
“I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick. It isn’t enough to be soft. You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I-I’m fading now!”
SCENE 5: FRAGMENTATION, EXCLAMATIVE
Fading is an allusion to beauty expectations
“Had this date with each other since the beginning”
SCENE 10: CLIMAX
Correlates to fate/destiny, Blanche could never escape it.
“Perhaps Blanche could of never been saved, but I certainly think it should look that way for the moment with Mitch.”
ARISTOTELIAN TRAGEDY; ELIZA KAZAN
“Turn that over-light off! […] I won’t be looked at with this merciless gaze!”
Blanche’s dependency on her vanity.
“Fading” correlates to her age
[To the young man]; “It would be nice to keep you”
SCENE 5: PAST TENSE
Infers her past affairs with young men, flirting is a masculine trait. She’s trying to regain her power through a FTA
“Inert figure”
SCENE 10: STAGE DIRECTION
Blanche’s resignation and conformity to gender expectations. Blanche is punished for her non-conformity
“Gentle Young Woman[…] a background obviously quite different from her husband’s.”
SCENE 1: CHARACTERIZATION, STAGE DIRECTION
Use of PREMODIFIERS ie quite heightens their different social backgrounds - ironic for a ‘cultural melting-pot’
“This is my house and I will talk as much as I want to!”
“Drunk - drunk - animal thing”
SCENE 3: FRAGMENTATION, EXCLAMATIVE
Stella doesn’t know how to handle the power, henceforth why her speech is fragmented - however she tries to reverse the power dynamic
“STELLAAAHH!”
SCENE 3: ONOMATEOPOEIC
Animalistic imagery, mating call
“Remember what Huey Long had said - every man is a king! And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!”
SCENE 8: FTA, EXCLAMATIVE
Stanley shifts the power dynamic by using his gender
“Fingers find the buttons of her blouse”
SCENE 11: STAGE DIRECTION
Stanley rules over Stella by his sexuality
“Yes,” “Did you?” “Sit down,” “Please, Blanche,”
SCENE 11: MONOSYLLABIC DIALOGUE
Stanley has convinced her and won, Stella conforms
“I couldn’t believe her story and continue living with Stanley”
SCENE 11: STELLA CHOOSES STANLEY
(STELLA) “escaped her old life only to create an exact version of it with Stanley”
EXTRA READING, CRITIC - ENTRAPMENT
(BLANCHE) “Delicate and sensitive woman pushed into insanity by her surroundings”
BLANCHE WAS RUINED BY THE ENVIRONMENT, HAROLD CLUMAN
“And if that’s sinful, then let me be damned for it! - Don’t turn that light on!”
IMPERATIVE, EXCLAMATIVE - BIBLICAL ALLUSION AND THEMATIC
