Scene One

Question 1

Key quotes from scene one

Answer 1

-“A cosmopolitan city, where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races”
-“Funerals are quiet, with pretty flowers”
-“The power and pride of a richly feathered male bird…gaudy seed bearer”
-“When he’s away for a week I nearly go blind”
- “A different species”

Question 2

Plot summary of scene one

Answer 2

• Blanche arrives at Elysian Fields and is reunited with her sister
• First impression of Blanche established, Blanche argues with Stella about leaving Belle Reve
  -Stella leaves crying
  -Blanche reveals Belle Reve is lost
• Stanley and Blanche meet, flirt and he figures she has stolen his alcohol
• Blanche reveals her young husband died

Question 3

What does John McCrae say about scene one? (AO5)

Answer 3

• Play of atmosphere that appeals to all senses of the audience
  -Blanche’s appearance is likened to a moth (which was a working title for the play)
• Multi-culturalism in NO is established through stage directions and characters rather than explicitly said, implied contrast between Belle Reve.
• Ironic ref to Elysian Fields (Blanche’s nightmare place to exist)
• Blanche (loss of identity) has to impose on her sister and her husband rather than getting married and living in Belle Reve.
• SK and BD - a relationship of power vs. vulnerability.

Question 4

Contextual notes on scene 1 (AO3)

Answer 4

• Fading Southern Aristocracy represented through Blanche (how incongruous she is to the setting)
• Outdated but exclusive Southern lifestyle clashes with new immigrant working class culture presented in NO.
• Southern Gothic shown through the loss of Belle Reve/multiple members of BD’s family

Question 5

Notes on structure and stagecraft in scene 1

Answer 5

• Decay and death represented through the reference to Elysian Fields, contrasted to the time it was made (hope and new beginnings)
• Lack of space/ bustling multiculturalism in contrast to spacious, aristocratic BR.
• SK meat/ bowling jacket (establishes working class background, sexual magnetism, animalistic danger) - predator
• BD costume - white ironically symbolises innocence/ virginity - how she’d like to present herself. Fragility of the moth in comparison to SK. Cat scream establishes her jumpy nature.
• Hiding liquor establishes deception
• Polka, we are unaware that it’s only in her head but it’s so out of place against the rhymical jazz, we understand that she is haunted by her past.

Question 6

Links across literature in scene 1 (AO4)

Answer 6

• BD could perhaps represent society’s unrealistic expectations of women, and although she is no longer one, the tradition of the Southern Belle.
• Eros and Thanatos - Freudian Theory - Eros is the idea of survival via sexual desire; Thanatos is desire which drives us toward self- destruction and death. Conflict between them is seen in BD - BD and SK represent two opposing forces, this is also shown in the two streetcars (Desire and Cemeteries).