Literary links Flashcards
The Glass Menagerie Dates
1944
Desire and Escape
Blanche desire to escape her past and live a more glamorous life.
Laura desires to no longer be trapped by her physical and emotional limitations.
Similarities of Desire and Escape
All three characters dreams are unattainable leading to frustration and loss.
Role of family
Stella tries to maintain peace but is tied to her husband who’s brutal realism contrasts with Blanche’s idealism.
Amanda is overbearing in her desire to control her children’s futures.
Symbolism and imagery
The Glass Menagerie is a symbol of Laura’s fragility.
Blanche’s imagery of light and motif of streetcar.
Laura’s Glass Menagerie meaning
Delicacy of the glass represents Laura’s vulnerability and her desire for a perfect world.
Blanche’s light meaning
Symbolic of her attempt to hide the past.
Motif of streetcar
Represents inescapable forces driving the characters.
Cat in a hot tin roof dates
1955
Family Dynamics and dysfunction
Blanche, Stella and her abusive husband Stanley.
Brick’s strained relationship with his dad. Tension between Maggie and her in laws.
What is the dysfunction in Streetcar?
Clash of Blanche’s aristocratical ideas and Stanley’s working class aggression.
Social class and expectations
Blanche fails to maintain her dignity and high social class status. Clashes with Stanley’s working class values leading to mental collapse.
Maggie’s desire to secure the family’s fortune. Big Daddy’s wealth is shown to be an illusion which can’t buy happiness.
Endings and Resolution
Streetcar ends with Blanche’s mental breakdown. Delusions collapse and she is taken away to a mental institution.
Ends with ambiguity. Maggie is desperate for Brick’s love and future together but is unresolved.
Hart Crane dates and type of poet
1930
Modernist poet
Bridge and Streetcar
Crane uses the bridge for human aspiration and an enduring symbol of separation specifically human isolation.
Streetcar is a metaphor for Blanche’s journey both physical and mental. Streetcar show destructive nature of desire and inescapable path it leads to.
American Dream
The bridge symbolises aspirations for modern America striving for progress and greatness. Disillusionment with industrial and culture development.
Highlights failure of American Dream especially for women and those of a lower class. Stanley Kowalski is more grounded to the brutality realities.
Glass Menagerie context
Laura takes inspiration from Rose.
William’s own longing for freedom and desire is reflected in Tom’s pursuit to leave home and own dreams.
Cat in a hot tin roof context
Tension in Brick’s character who struggles with issues of sexuality. Reflection of William’s own internal conflicts.
