General notes and ideas

Question 1

a play where almost all characters have exaggerated personalities and egos

Answer 1

is there room for them to love eachother truly? love is important to the play as one of the most universal literary themes of all time. baggage-laden love is the primary kind explored in Streetcar.

Question 2

opposites attract…

Answer 2

while this initially seems to be true of Stella and Stanley, the couple seem to share a fundamental similarity in their love for the other being based on what they themselves lack. the so-called ‘sources’ of love below double as reminders of what one lacks and can never acquire through their own efforts:

• Stella loves Stanley for his unbridled energy and primal dynamism; these are precisely the qualities she lacked in her old life at Belle Reve
• Stanley is drawn to Stella as a Southern Belle with a higher social standing than himself who flatters his ego.

Question 3

Blanche’s need for male validation

Answer 3

Blanche desperately seeks out male attention and validation because her own sense of self is crippling fragile. Her upbringing in the Southern heartland, where conservative gender ideologies normalised female dependency on male partners, means that she doesn’t know a better alternative to prop her sense of identity up in times of misfortune.

Question 4

quote from David Whyte’s Consolations

Answer 4

‘The hope for unconditional love is the hope for a different life than the one we have been given.’

Question 5

light symbolism in relation to appearance/reality and old/new

Answer 5

“candles burn out […] and after that happens, electric light-bulbs go on and you see too plainly…”

Question 6

name of liquor Blanche finds in scene 9

Answer 6

“Southern Comfort”