Quotes Flashcards
“I think I’m going to have to smash you, Brindsley” - Harold
BC - after the Buddha breaks.
“The lower classes think they can behave exactly as they want” - Carol
BC - After Schuppanzigh
“We’ve had this date from the beginning” - Stanley
SC - Before he rapes her
Black Comedy
By Peter Shaffer (a farce)
A Streetcar Named Desire
By Tennessee Williams
“Well - if you forgive me - he’s common!” Blanche to Stella
SC in regards to Stanley
“There’s something downright - bestial - about him!” Blanche to Stella
SC
Stage directions: “men as the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colours.”
SC - Poker Night III
“I don’t want realism. I want magic!” - Blanche to Mitch
SC
“He acts like an animal, has animal’s habits!” - Blanche
SC
“I can’t stand the naked light bulb….” Blanche
SC
Stage directions: “Her appearance is incongruous to this setting. She is faintly dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district. She is about five years older than Stella. Her delicate beauty must avoid the strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth.”
SC
“She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice”
“She is about five years older than Stella”
“Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”
“As well as her white clothes, that’s suggests a moth”
“I’ve never met a millionaire. I’ve always wondered if they felt different from us. I mean their actual skins” - Miss Furnival
BC
Brindsley: Not so rare. [He kisses CLEA again] Not so rare at all. [He leads her softly past the irritated CAROL, towards the stairs]
BC - He is hiding his other life like Stella is
Carol: When was the last time you saw her?
Brindsley [Evasively]: I told you… Two years ago.
BC
Carol: Daddy’s absolutely right! Ever since the Beatles, the lower classes think they can behave exactly as they want.
BC
Colonel: Hold your tongue, sir, I’m talking. Do you know what would have happened to a young man in my day who dared to teat a girl the way you have treated my Dumpling?
BC - Contrasts to Stella + Stanley
“…it would look much better to him if he found me exactly as I really am: a poor artist.” - Brindsley
BC
Model Thesis Statement
In both Tennessee Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and Shaffer’s ‘Black Comedy’, the playwrights are preoccupied with aspects of human nature, as revealed through their responses to events, whether comic or tragic. This is particularly evident in the characters of Blanche in the former play and Brindsley in the latter, who are presented a victims of events beyond their control. In the two works, the playwrights use the characters’ responses to these events to present aspects of their characters. However, while ‘Black Comedy’ does expose Brindsley’s weakness, through Shaffer’s use of the farce style, the tragic events of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, do not reveal strength in Blanche, but rather a weakness, which leads to her ultimate collapse and downfall.
