key quotes

Question 1

stage directions:

‘elysian fields’

Answer 1

land of the dead in greek mythology where heroes went to die

ironic - blanche is not a hero

he street name is both a literal street in new orleans and a symbolic resting place - foreshadows blanche’s looming fate.

Question 2

stage directions:

‘white suit with a fluffy bodice and earrings of pearl’

Answer 2

white - symbolises innocence and purity, ironic

out of place in elysian fields - part of the upper class , she is a stranger to this type of setting as opposed to her sister

there is a lack of colour, as blanche is simply wearing white. conveys the idea that the upper class is declining, as it lacks the vivacity of the working class, which williams believes will replace the upper class as the new driving force in america.

exploring the idea of the “white suit” can be linked up to the mid-nineteenth century play la dame aux camélias (1848), where a fallen woman (the play’s protagonist) wears a “white camelias” when she is available to her lovers - blanche appears to be drawn into prostitution

moral chastity

Question 3

stage directions:

‘suggests a moth’

Answer 3

attracted to light - kills them

avoids attention yet secretly wants it

her fate lies in self-destruction

death and darkness is closely related to moths

symbol of change

Question 4

stage directions:

‘she pours half a tumbler of whisky and tosses it down. she carefully replaces the bottle and washes out the tumbler at the sink’

Answer 4

alcohol addiction

secretive - ruin her image

in private she leisurely drinks however in public, her tendency to drink a lot is scraped from her image

disregards stereotypes

Question 5

blanche:

‘i’ve got to keep hold of myself’

Answer 5

reminding herself of her status within society - upper class, must be polite and ‘ladylike’, in a way she sticks to the stereotypes that were present around rich women and reflects stanley in the way that she thinks and incorporates the stereotypes of society into her character.

that it is ‘out of character’ for her to act that way as she comes from a very prestige society as opposed to stella.

anxious

Question 6

blanche:

‘you haven’t said a word about my appearance’

Answer 6

typical southern belle - beauty is part of identity

moth like tendencies

scared of losing her beauty - old south

Question 7

stella:

‘yes. a different species’

Answer 7

machismo male

extremely degrading from stella especially considering she’s talking about her own husband, the person she loves.

could be foreshadowing how blanche finds stanley animalistic

love blinds stella to the social differences between herself and her husband - doesn’t see the compatibility issues that blanche does.

Question 8

stage directions:

‘blanche is bathing’

Answer 8

recurring motif throughout the play

washing away sins

escapes to her fantasy world

Question 9

stanley:

‘how about my supper, huh?’

Answer 9

gender roles

expects everything to be done for him

doesn’t want to go because it is an upper class restaurant and he is proud of his working class origin

old south

Question 10

stella:

‘you’d better give me some money’

Answer 10

men in control of money

women have no way to escape from men

williams was a feminist

old south

Question 11

stanley:

‘in the state of louisiana, we have the napoleonic code’

Answer 11

justify his feelings of entitlement toward stella’s inheritance.

in doing so, he shows that he is ignorant of legal technicalities, because belle reve, located in laurel, mississippi, wouldn’t fall under new orleans jurisdiction.

stanley’s repeated references to the napoleonic code highlight the fact that his conflict with blanche is also a gender showdown.

stanley’s greed reveals his misogyny, or woman-hating tendencies. as a man, stanley feels that what stella has belongs to him.

hates blanche as a woman and as a person with a more prestigious family name, and therefore suspects that blanche’s business dealings have been dishonest.

Question 12

stage directions:

‘fist full of costume jewellery’

Answer 12

putting on an act

trying to make her fantasy seem a reality

not real jewellery

superficial and fake personality

Question 13

stanley:

‘since when do you give me orders?’

Answer 13

wants control

conforming to stereotypes

clash between men and women

Question 14

blanche:

‘love letters, yellowing with antiquity’

Answer 14

old - past

yellow is a symbol of mental illness

youthful colour- stuck in the past

progressively corrupting idea of what love is

shows the downfall of the upper class, as all that is left of blanche’s love is these letters, which are disappearing like a vapor and a mist.

Question 15

blanche:

‘the touch of your hands insult them!’

Answer 15

ruins purity - not clean enough, working class

doesn’t want her romantic depiction of the past to be tainted by corruption of the present

Question 16

stanley:

‘i want no if, ands or buts!’

Answer 16

controlling

wants to know

machismo male

Question 17

blanche:

‘maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost belle reve’

Answer 17

embrace the new south

that her and stella do not belong to the southern elite anymore- trying to convince her sister to leave stanley and live a better and more free life

Question 18

stage directions:

‘blanche crosses into the bedroom and partially closes the portieres’

Answer 18

wants attention - trying not to show it

hamartia

men and women separated

Question 19

stage directions:

‘a chair scrapes’

Answer 19

tension

foreshadows the fight which is about to break out

Question 20

stage directions:

‘stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh’

Answer 20

asserting dominance

machismo male

showing off - possessive and just shows how much power he holds over her to his friends

considered normal - williams trying to show the disgusting reality of the new south

Question 21

blanche:

‘i haven’t noticed a stamp of genius even on stanley’s forehead’

Answer 21

male dominance will get him ahead rather than academia

uneducated working class

Question 22

blanche:

‘i hate beer’

Answer 22

conforming to stereotypes

masculine thing to do

trying to cover up addiction

repressing inner self

Question 23

blanche:

‘white woods’

Answer 23

upper class took pride in their heritage - colonised

true american - sophisticated

romantic france

purity and innocence

wood seems hard to break but is actually flammable

Question 24

mitch:

‘you might teach arithmetic’

Answer 24

not her - masculine

maths has a clear answer - always avoiding this

english

opinionated and well spoken

fictional worlds

Question 25

stage directions:

‘there is a sound of a blow. stella cries out’

Answer 25

off stage - more violent

open for interpretation

reflects williams’ dark childhood

Question 26

mitch:

‘poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women’

Answer 26

blaming the game - toxic masculinity

women shouldn’t be involved in impure things

women should be protected

Question 27

stage directions:

‘one hand rests on her belly, rounding slightly with new maternity. from the other dangles a book of coloured comics’

Answer 27

made the transition to the new south

comic books are childlike - simplicity of the new south

jejune

dumbed herself down for stanley

Question 28

stella:

‘i was - sort of - thrilled by it’

Answer 28

enjoys his violence

has sex too

epitomises stella’s blindness in the face of lust- stanley has her in his firm, psychological grasp, so stella doesn’t want to leave

normal at the time

Question 29

stella:

‘i’m not in anything I want to get out of’

Answer 29

right in living, wrong in loving - women had no choice

major blow to blanche’s world view.

unable to imagine that her sister could be happy with the small flat and brutish husband

this represents the differences between old and new america.

Question 30

stella:

‘there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem - unimportant’

Answer 30

purely sexual relationship - key component in 1950s

paramount to a good life and a good marriage

despite stanley’s violent and abusive nature, the sexual intimacy of the couple, makes the rest of it unimportant and all negative emotions are forgotten.

insufficient financial situations are forgotten during these moments of intimacy too.

Question 31

blanche:

‘he acts like an animal… something -ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I’ve seen in–anthropological studies!’

Answer 31

people like stanley will rule

apes will inherit the earth

his complete disregard for the social morals that she, as a southern belle, has been taught since birth to cherish.

he represents the very thing she’s come to fear above all else- the kind of raw, untamed, uncivilized desire that inspired her promiscuity in laurel, and that brought her to a place close to hell in new orleans as punishment

going back in evolutionary terms - atavism

Question 32

blanche:

‘dont hang back with the brutes!’

Answer 32

don’t give in to animalism

stand for what’s right

picture of progression

stanley represents hanging back is ironic due to the context the play is set in as well as the wider ties between stanley and modernity

illustrates blanche’s illusion, as she is still attached to the values she was brought up in, and sees them as modern despite the fall of the old south.

Question 33

stage directions:

‘ fanning herself with a palm leaf’

Answer 33

upper class

out of touch with the norms of the new south

ironic - symbolise integrity and eternal life

Question 34

blanche:

‘capricorn - the goat’

Answer 34

inks to the devil

fertility and aggression - oversexualised

earth sign, known for being down to earth i.e. reasonable.

the animal goat is also a symbol of greatness and excellence

Question 35

blanche:

‘virgo is the virigin’

Answer 35

ironic

reflects her want to be pure

Question 36

blanche:

‘ i don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick . and i - i’m fading now!’

Answer 36

telling stella - first time she’s not hiding

scared of prostitution

beauty is fading - feels as though she is getting old she is fading with her power, she relies on beauty and validation of men to source her own self worth

Question 37

blanche:

‘men lose interest quickly’

Answer 37

always thinking about men - it’s a man’s world

stella knows she’s acting

shows the stereotypical gender roles in the 1940’s that a woman would change themselves to date a man. as they were the providers and create stability for their wives.

here blanche is expressing her insecurities on the fact she is not financially stable and needs a husband before its too late, this is why she uses mitch

Question 38

stage directions:

‘neurasthenic personality’

Answer 38

frayed

blanche’s inability to enjoy the date despite her attempts points to her deteriorating mental health

the real blanche is coming out

Question 39

blanche:

‘i’m looking for the pleiades, the seven sisters’

Answer 39

in western astrology they represent coping with sorrow

an allusion to a star constellation is it and it is significant for a variety of reasons in this context: , it can be noted that the comment on a specific star constellation demonstrates the notion that blanche is well educated and a cultured woman-as was to be expected of a typical ‘southern belle

stars exist in their own entity even if they are part of a constellation and in this way, it can be commented that blanche is just a small star and a vast universe

her apparent love first or astrology may stem from the idea that blanche is trying to make desperate sense of the vast world around her, linking it to contextual ideas about the ‘old south’ and the ‘new south’- given the constellations to a design to tell a story in this create a dream world to explain normal occurrences

stars symbolise her escape

fate?

Question 40

blanche:

‘i want you to have a drink! you have been so anxious and solemn all evening, and so have i’

Answer 40

reliance on alcohol

wants to create a show - fantasy world

showing herself - lost in fantasy

Question 41

stage directions:

‘she rolls her eyes’

Answer 41

sick of acting

the exhaustions of mental health

fed up with the fantasy she creates in her mind soon before she speaks the truth of her husband’s death

Question 42

stage directions:

‘a locomotive is heard approaching outside. she claps her hands to her ears and crouches over’

Answer 42

doesn’t want to acknowledge the past

the intrusion of the outside world and thus the inability of the characters to create a safe haven where they are protected by the world.

journeying into regions of the psyche that are unexplored

desire for connections spiritually

Question 43

stage directions:

‘blanche is singing in the bathroom a saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapunctally with stanley’s speech’

Answer 43

mashup of sound

stanley reveals blanche’s fictional world

emphasises unity of space, time and action

sings to romanticise herself - southern belle archetype

stanley and blanche can not co exist harmoniously - old and new south and upper and working class

Question 44

stanley:

‘blanche is no lily! ha ha! some lily she is!’

Answer 44

innocent and pure

flowers associated with beauty

weak and silly

sees through blanche’s façade

also symbolise death and are typically associated with funerals, symbolising that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death ironic use of the title ‘sister’

Question 45

blanche:

‘it’s only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea’

Answer 45

flying away

truth coming out simultaneously

easily destroyed and unstable nature of her fantasy

moon is a symbol of the rhythm of time

speaker in the song says that if both lovers believe in their imagined reality, then it’s no longer make-believe

Question 46

stanely:

‘downright loco - nuts’

Answer 46

euphemism for mental issues

lacked understanding at the time

sister lobotomised

williams suffered too

notoriously for all the wrong reasons

Question 47

stage directions:

‘the view through the big windows is fading gradually into a still golden dusk’

Answer 47

reflects blanche - ending is pending, descent into madness - illusion/ fantasy is fading

façade is slipping

ecological awareness of williams, the dissatisfaction of industrialisation and the desire of going back to natural world

‘golden’ implies what once was and what has been lost

Question 48

blanche:

‘i must run through my repertoire!’

Answer 48

going through her acts

delusional

Question 49

stanley:

‘every man is a king! and I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!’

Answer 49

gender roles

he’s superior - different species

dehumanising them

no coherence between new south and old south

the working class are the future, not the rich

ironic - his actions are awful

huey long became the governor of louisiana in 1928, then went on to become a senator in 1932. championed the rights and living standards of the poor white population; himself coming from an impoverished background, he put into action a wide program of road and bridge construction, widened state university facilities and created a state hospital, affording these measures through heavier inheritance and income taxes. largely maintained his power through intimidation – taking personal control of all civil service positions in louisiana by 1934. stanley seems to echo the exact man long aimed to inspire with his policies, and long’s control over louisiana indeed parallels stanley’s patriarchal, new-money position

Question 50

stanley:

‘i am not a polack’

Answer 50

effects of ww2 - fought for america - became heroes of the country

williams demonstrates racial and cultural shifts in society

demonstrates the sad reality wherein some believed they had more of a claim of this identity than others and reflects the racial divide between peoples during the 40s. (made ironic through the setting of new orleans, one of the more diverse and integrated communities in america at the time.

irony is further heightened as new orleans is a french colony, emphasising blanche’s inability to adapt to the social changes taking place in america- something stanley interprets as prejudice, but we, the audience, come to learn is a result of deep seating trauma causing her to cling to the safety of her past

Question 51

stanley:

‘i pulled you down off them columns’

Answer 51

spatial deixis

old south must come down from its height ideals in order to live in the new world

alternatively, stanley ‘pulled” stella ‘down’ to his lower status as an immigrant representative of new america

Question 52

stage directions:

‘the varsouviana is heard’

Answer 52

played when blanche’s husband died

circus - jarring music, crazy

gets us into blanche’s mind

out of place music

Question 53

blanche:

‘el pain de mais, el pan de mais,
el pain de mais sin sal.
el pain de mais, el pain de mais,
el paid de mais sin sal…’

Answer 53

possessed - southern gothic tropes

fantasy - french

spanish - losing grip on reality

bread without salt - poor food

nothing to do with what’s going on in the play

delusional

echolalia of street sellers - impact of her surroundings

Question 54

stage directions:

‘he stalks into the bedroom’

Answer 54

predator like - mirroring stanley

mitch becomes him

williams’ highlights the dangers of male influence

Question 55

mitch:

‘i don’t think i’ve ever seen you in the light’

Answer 55

metaphorically and literally

never seen the truth or under her façade

ashamed of her behaviour

Question 56

stage directions:

‘he tears the paper lantern off the lightbulb’

Answer 56

destroying her façade

destroying the old south

no longer believes her lies

the light and mitch himself suggest realism. his action can also be seen as a form of violation foreshadowing the physical rape that will happen in the next scene

blanche fears the light because of the harsh realism she will be forced to face which will cause her happy fantasies (being young and beautiful) to be shattered. denial and stubborn statement that she doesn’t want realism shows how strongly she does not wish mitch to know the truth.

Question 57

blanche:

‘i don’t tell the truth, i tell what ought to be the truth’

Answer 57

new south is violent, although it is accepting

no morals compared to the old south

shouldn’t be like this - it should be better

Question 58

stage directions:

‘crumpled white satin evening gown

Answer 58

pure - parallels scene 1

façade ruined like clothes

mentally unstable

Question 59

stage directions:

‘slams the mirror down with such violence that the glass cracks’

Answer 59

can’t even look at reality

can’t bear the sight of her true self

trying to distort her view of reality?

Question 60

stanley:

‘well, it’s a red letter night for us both’

Answer 60

danger, love , anger

night of celebration - foreshadows stanley celebrating blanche being sent away in scene 11?

Question 61

blanche:

‘i have been foolish - casting my pearls before swine’

Answer 61

biblical reference

sad - people don’t care about personality, only beauty

uses this allusion to describe what she sees as her own actions - sees herself as generous, and though she is monetarily poor, she is rich in spirit, her mind beautiful

wasting their time by offering something that is helpful or valuable to someone who does not appreciate or understand it

swine = lower class - has to show people she’s better than them

Question 62

stage directions:

‘the night is filled with the inhuman voices like cries in a jungle’

Answer 62

foreshadows inhuman, animalistic events

police could’ve helped

mirror the outside world

Question 63

stage directions:

‘the barely audible blue piano begins to drum up louder’

Answer 63

dynamic between the old south and the new south

hard to stop the new south

drums symbolise it getting more intrusive

Question 64

stage directions:

‘blanche appears in the amber light of the door, she has a tragic radiance in her red satin robe following sculptural lines of her body.’

Answer 64

contrapuntal sound

power/ tragedy rather than seduction

added that description to show how her end is almost near – parallel to a greek tragic hero at elysian fields

sculptures are usually made after a tragic hero’s ending - greek mythology

Question 65

blanche:

‘i don’t want to pass in front of those men’

Answer 65

contrasts scene 3 when she would’ve done this eagerly

can’t be part of that world

Question 66

blanche:

‘i shall die of eating an unwashed grape’

Answer 66

fantasising about her death

it won’t go like this - mental hospital

more trauma

delusions have grown more romantic and literary as she retreats further into madness.

given up on trying to reconcile her visions with reality and surrendered completely to fantasy.

wants to cleanse herself with the ocean

Question 67

blanche:

‘please don’t get up, i’m only passing through’

Answer 67

old south manners fading

realising they’re gone

contrasts scene 3

Question 68

stage directions:

‘stella accepts the child, sobbingly’

Answer 68

made the transition to the new south

innocence and purity

accepts the new south now blanche is gone

Question 69

steve:

‘this game is a seven card stud’

Answer 69

last used at poker night

lack of morality