Scene One Flashcards

1
Q

New Orleans

A

Interracial, diverse society. Blanche struggles to adapt. Former French colony with an embedded French identity.

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2
Q

Elysian Fields and L and N tracks

A

Greek mythology- a resting place for soldiers.
Post WW2- loss of soldiers’ life, reduced to poverty.
Railways- working class, movement, industry.

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3
Q

‘Mostly white frame, weathered grey’

A

Decay, the failure of the American dream.

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4
Q

‘Bananas and coffee’

A

Slavery embedded into society, claustrophobic community.
Gritty reality of casual racism in society.

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5
Q

‘Always around the corner’

A

Instability and inevitability.

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6
Q

‘Above the music of the blue piano’

A

Fragmente, socialism realism feeling.
Musical motif, shapes the soundscape of the town.
Chaotic, busy dynamic with overlapping dialogue; drinking, music, freedom.

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7
Q

Stanley and mitches ‘blue denim work clothes’ and the ‘red-stained package from a butchers’

A

Symbolise working class men, Kowalski means ‘blacksmith/ commoner. Denim was invented for work.
Heteronormative bread- winner, Stone Age, gender roles.
Male dominated gambling.

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8
Q

‘And of a background obviously quite different from her husbands’

A

She has socially adapted, she is malleable.
Social Darwinism, Blanche and Stanley don’t adapt.

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9
Q

‘Get him a poor boy’s sandwich cause nothings left here’

A

Reversal of stereotypes, exploration of 2 different marriage dynamics.

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10
Q

About Blanche ‘her expression is one of shock and belief’. ‘Her appearance is incongruous to this setting’

A

Lack/ inability to adapt to her surroundings.
Blanche is an anomalie to the area, symbolism of white as pure which depicts her mental state before her decline.

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11
Q

Blanche as a ‘moth’

A

Fragile, self- destructive as moths fly to a flame (forebodes Blanche’s storyline), facade, negative in comparison to a butterfly, attracted to light despite Blanche’s ironic aversion to light.

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12
Q

Stage directions: faintly hysterical humour.

A

Hyperbolic/ oxymoronic. Connotations of ‘hysterical’ as lunatic.

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13
Q

Blanche “Cemeteries” “Elysian fields”

A

Cemeteries reflects her social death as she descends to a lower class, Blanche’s literal journey is symbolic of her mental journey.
Symbolic narrative.

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14
Q

Blanche “Stella DuBois… I mean- Mrs Stanley Kowalski”

A

Social etiquette.
Loss of stella’s identity, ‘Kowalski’ translates to common man, DuBois means woods. Social Darwinism depicted through the names.

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15
Q

Stage directions, “The surrounding areas dim out as the interior is lighted”

A

Architectural insecurity, the place closes in, depicted through the imagery. Creates a semantic field of suffocation, claustrophobia. The “dim” suggests she is shielded from the outside world. “Lighted”, light introduced as a motif.

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16
Q

Blanche- “Belle Reve?”

A

Gives exposition of Blanche’s life in the old South, Privileged slave owners through inherited wealth. The failure of belle reve symbolises the dissipation of the American dream.

17
Q

Blanches’s characterisation in the stage directions- “the blind look” “a cat screeches”

A

Refusal to recognise Stella’s descent to the lower classes, “blind” she is shielded from everything out of her own private world.
The cat is an expression of her mental state, reinforces her constant alertness and insecurity.

18
Q

Blanche’s stage direction “a wild cry”

A

First indication of the environment impinging on her person, class descent. “wild” has connotations to something feral, uncivilised, animalistic. Loss of her etiquette.

19
Q

Blanche “Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare”

A

Appearance and vanity, light motif. “merciless” personifies the light as reckless, ruthless, no humanity.
Imperatives depict her as a dominant personality- immediate character clash with Stanley.

20
Q

Blanche “Precious lamb”

A

Infantilising language, the innocent symbolism of the lamb, “lamb to the slaughter.”

21
Q

Stage directions “She is shaking all over and panting or her breath as she tries to laugh”

A

Depicted as feral, unhinged, earlier signs of her mental departure.

22
Q

Stella “You sit down and let me pour the drinks”

A

Confirms Stella’s class descent as she becomes the help in the upper class servant dynamic rather than the one being served.

23
Q

Blanche “Only Poe” Only Mr Edgar Allan Poe!” “ghoul-haunted woodland”

A

Literary reference- Gothic writer, intertextual reference to The Tell-Tale Heart. The character is driven to insanity through the heartbeat like Blanche is driven to sanity through the sound of the Piano. Classism.
“ghoul”- the people who inhabit Elysian Fields are socially dead in Blanche’s eyes, classist interpretation.

24
Q

Blanche “I weigh what I weighed the summer you left Bell Reve.”

A

Stuck in stasis whilst everything else as moved on; socially delayed, isolated.

25
Q

Blanche- “highbrow”

A

Casual racism towards Stanley.

26
Q

Blanche- “Polacks” “Heterogeneous”

A

Uses racist term like its second nature, casual derogatory. Eugenic language. Trying to justify racism through scientific reluctance.

27
Q

Stella refers to Stanley as “a different species”

A

Gentle avoidance, detachment of Stanley from Blanche and Stella- classism despite Stella’s social Darwinism.

28
Q

Stella talking about when Stanley goes to work “I nearly go wild.”

A

Stella’s utter infatuation with Stanley, “wild” shows the social Darwinism as she too refers to herself with animalistic connotations.

29
Q

Blanche “I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it.”

A

Battle-like semantic field, ignorance to who really fought for the upkeep of Belle Reve.
Demonstrates how intertwined the Old South is with Blanche’s character.

30
Q

Blanche’s expressionist monologue.
“I,I,I took the blows in my face and my body.”
“Why, the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep!… Stella. Belle Reve was headquarters.”

A

Highly poetic quality depicted through the metaphor, doesn’t feel realistic.
All dramatic deal, semantic field of fight and battle.
Broken syntax, indicates Blanche’s fragile well-being.

31
Q

Steve: “Playing poker, tomorrow night?”

A

Gambling metaphor, poker is a game where you have to lie. Stanley vs Blanche.

32
Q

Eunice- “I made the spaghetti dish and ate it myself.”

A

Demonstrates the homosocial setting, the men have autonomy were as the women are simply reduced to the domestic sphere.

33
Q

Stanley’s “Animal joy in his being implicit in all his movements and attitudes.

A

Characterisation of him as primitive, frantic, motivated by desire.
Exploration of male vs female desire.
AO5 Williams: Stanley and Blanche are “two sides of the same character.”
Stanley represents the modernity of the American man and Blanche represents the Old South.

34
Q

Stanley as a ‘gaudy seed-bearer’

A

Reinforces the social mobility of men and the social restrictions imposed on women, a metaphor for affair.