SCND

Question 0

Characterisation of Stanley,

• how he sees/treats women
  
  • gender roles
  • sexuality
• animalistic

Answer 0

• “He (Stanley) sizes women up at a glance; with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind, and determining the way he smiles at them”
• “he’s like an animal. He has animal habits”

Question 1

Blanche Du Bois

• turns to strangers for comfort
• lives in fantasy world

Answer 1

“I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers”

Question 2

Stella

• self-deluded and strives off survival instinct to trust Stanley
• mediating point between Stanley and Blanche

Answer 2

“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley”

Question 3

Mitch

• lacks southern class Blanche pretends to uphold
• Mitch and Blanche are drawn together through mutual need of companionship

Answer 3

“You need somebody. And I need somebody. Could it be - you and me, Blanche?”

Question 4

Relationship between sex and death

- indulging one’s desire in the form of unrestrained promiscuity leads to forced departures and unwanted ends

Answer 4

• “They told me to take the streetcar named Desire, transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields”
• “death, the opposite of desire”

Question 5

Dependence on man/masculinity

Answer 5

Maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost belle reve

Question 6

Themes of drugs and alcohol

1. ) means of escape for Blanche (embarrassed by ‘addiction’)
2. ) casual and leisure for males
3. ) linked to aggression and violence

Answer 6

1. ) now don’t worry your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard
2. ) nothing belongs on a poker table but cards, chips and whiskey
3. ) drunk drunk animal thing you

Question 7

Appearances

- high importance to Blanche

Answer 7

I still have that awful vanity about my looks

Question 8

The Varsouviana

• inside the mind of Blanche
• when she feels remorse or emotionally threatened
  - can’t forgive herself for Allen’s death
  - theme: guilt and madness
• symbolises decent into madness

Answer 8

“Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion.”

Question 9

Fantasy vs reality

• Blanche represents fantasy
  
  • lies to others and self in order to create own reality
  • shield from harsh circumstances/reality
• Stanley is firmly grounded in the physical real world
  
  • unravel Blanche’s fantasy
• reality triumphs over fantasy in SCND

Answer 9

“I don’t want realism… I’ll tell you what I want,magic!”

Question 10

Symbolism: naked light bulb and paper lantern

• reality/ revealing
• doesn’t want to see truth
  
  • age but also circumstances
• paper lantern is shielding Blanche’s harsh reality of which she doesn’t want to see or experience

Answer 10

• “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more that I can a rude remark or a vulgar expression.”
• “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in the light. That’s a fact!”

Question 11

Theme: Love

• symbolism of light
  
  • bright: innocence, dim: sexual maturity
• Blanche and Allen had perfect love until she caught him with another man , confronted him cruelly and he committed suicide. Resulting in Blanche’s guilt and ultimate decent into madness

Answer 11

• Falling in love: “you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that has always been half in shadow”
• death of love: “the searchlight which had been turned on the world had suddenly been turned off”
• maturity: “never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this - kitchen candle…”

Question 12

Blue piano

• used for dramatic intensity and themes (lust and passion)
• invoked by scenes with great passion (intimate moments with Kowalski’s)

Answer 12

“Expresses the spirit of life that goes on here”

- stage directions

Question 13

What does the locomotive represent and why is it important?

Answer 13

• used for dramatic intensity (sound effect)
• represents:
  
  • relentless fate
  • Stanley: masculine, powerful, modern, brutal

Question 14

What themes do the human silhouettes and cries convey/symbolise?

Answer 14

• symbols of human cruelty
  
  • “deliberate cruelty is unforgivable”
• shows inside Blanche’s head
  
  • terror and madness
• used for dramatic intensity

Question 15

What is the importance of Blanche’s long baths?

Answer 15

• represent efforts to “cleanse” herself
  
  • unspoken desire to be cleansed of guilt and promiscuous past
• can’t erase the past hence bathing is never done
• themes: sex/desire vs. death

Question 16

What is the importance of the poker night with regards to:

1. Colours/ artwork
2. Stanley’s character
3. Introduction of Mitch (quote)
4. Mitch and. Blanche

Answer 16

1. Van Gogh’s “The Night Cafe”
   
   • primary/raw colours to represents primal nature of Kowalski’s union and masculine stereotype
2. cements Stanley’s role as the “villain”
3. Contrasts Mitch with the other males
   
   • “that one seems superior to the other… I thought he had sort of a sensitive look”
4. Initial attraction between Mitch and Blanche is in contrast to the ‘bestial’ relationship of the Kowalskis

Question 17

What is the importance if the Mexican vendor and why is she used?

Answer 17

• used for dramatic intensity
• “Flores para los muertos” (flowers for the dead)
  
  • sign of respect to deceased
• foreshadows Blanche’s figurative death (mentally and physically)
  
  • mentally: loss of reality
  • physically: no longer young or chances of marital happiness

Question 18

What is the significance of Blanche’s wardrobe and what is it used for??

Answer 18

• Used for characterisation of Blanche
• protection from horrifying reality
• hold on to past: create illusion that she is still young, innocent and admired by many
  
  • “oh, in my youth I excited some admiration”

Question 19

Significance of Blanche’s name

Answer 19

• used to oppose Blanche’s true character
• “it means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white wood, like an orchard in the Spring!”
• white: innocence she has lost
• spring: youth, new life

Question 20

Significance of the title if the play

Answer 20

“Take a streetcar named Desire”

• theme: sexual desire vs. death
• play is centred around incidents of desire
• brought to New Orleans by promiscuous past (desire)
  
  • not just a streetcar
  • “it brought me here where I’m not wanted and ashamed to be”
• runs all the time
• turn to sex for happiness

Question 21

Example of dramatic irony

Answer 21

Stanley over hears Stella and Blanche talk about him rudely

Question 22

Example of importance of clothing as a symbol

Answer 22

Blanche uses her “fancy” clothes to hold onto youth

Question 23

Example of uses of lighting/colour as a symbol

Answer 23

Stanley’s red pjs = desire

Question 24

Example do significant music or sound

Answer 24

- Varsouviana: shows madness - blue piano: desire or passion - locomotive: fate (foreshadowing)