Scene 7 Flashcards
How does Stanley’s attitude contrast with the cheerful light-hearted tone of the scene as Stella is preparing for Blanche’s birthday?
Stanley changes the tone immediately with his disparaging tone in his opening interrogative, belittling Stella’s efforts to celebrate her sister’s birthday. Stanley only ever refers to Blanche by the third person pronoun (as Blanche referred to him in Scene 4) showing his dislike of her and distance from her. He mimics her speech, using a sarcastic tone to do so and reinforcing his dislike. He orders Stella to ‘set down’ – his unmitigated imperative demonstrates his control of the conversation and his eagerness to share his information about Blanche.
How does Stanley assert his authority over Stella as he’s relaying his information, condemning Blanche as a liar?
Stanley’s repetition of: ‘and told and told and told’ reflects his growing anger against Blanche. Stella tries to interrupt him, but he uses a discourse marker (‘well’) to take control again. His use of exclamatives (‘But now the cat’s out of the bag! I found out some things!’) suggests a triumphant tone – he’s done what he set out to do which was to discover the truth about Blanche’s past. This triumph continues when he overuses the personal pronoun ‘I’ to indicate his control over the situation.
How does Stella briefly attempt to take control of the situation and restrain Stanley?
Stella, as always, speaks directly and clearly, using politeness strategies. She says ‘now please tell me quietly what you think you’ve found out about my sister. ‘Now’ is a discourse marker – she’s trying to take control; ‘you think’ is quite patronising – it suggests that she thinks he’s wrong – and ‘my sister’ is possessive (‘my’ is a possessive determiner) indicating her desire to protect Blanche from Stanley’s anger.
Summarise Stanley’s obvious attitude towards Blanche using quotes from the scene.
Stanley lists what he’s found, beginning with ‘Lie number one’. The use of the word ‘lie’ is very powerful, as well as suggesting that this is all she is - a liar. Again, he uses the third person pronoun to refer to Blanche and when he does use her name, he prefaces it with the ironic title ‘Sister’ to reinforce his attitude towards her.
How does Stella react to Stanley’s information about Blanche?
Stella’s pauses in ‘what – contemptible – lies!’ reinforces her choice of the word ‘contemptible’ suggesting her anger at Stanley for speaking of her sister in this way. The deliberate pauses either side of the word demonstrate the depth of her disdain for her husband’s actions.
How does Stella’s reaction to Blanche when she comes out of the bathroom emphasise her constant conflict of loyalty throughout the play?
Stella’s inability to do anything more than say ‘yes, Blanche’ (monosyllabic) when she appears from the bathroom indicates how distressed she is at the situation she finds herself in – trapped between her sister and her husband. Foreshadows the way in which she abandons Blanche at the end of the play to save her relationship with Stanley (“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley”)
How does Stella’s attitude towards Blanche differ from Stanley’s?
Here, Stella tells Stanley about Blanche’s husband, giving him information he didn’t know about her. She pauses a lot and she uses emotive, romantic language which heightens the different perceptions of Blanche – Stanley’s language is insulting, Stella’s is much more sympathetic.
What heightens the tension between Stella and Stanley?
Stanley’s revelation that he has told Mitch everything he has found out provokes further tension between the married couple. Stella uses his full name to indicate her anger at his actions and Stanley in return uses colloquialisms to justify himself. Stella interrupts him, however, and her question, ‘is Mitch through with her?’ is in italics emphasising her tone of rage here. Stanley, however, probably angry at being spoken to like this by his wife, continues to goad Blanche by using sarcasm towards her.
