stanley Flashcards
‘he heaves the package at her. she cries out in protest but manages to catch it: then she laughs breathlessly’
stanley is the breadwinner of the family
reflects his animalistic nature which stella has adapted to - his masculinity excites her
display gender roles expected of them at the time
stanley does not care much about the needs of stella; he cares only for himself and his image with his friends and so he treats stella as if she is an asset that he has gained in order to make his friends idolize him or be impressed.
‘yes. a different species’
machismo male
extremely degrading from stella especially considering she’s talking about her own husband, the person she loves.
could be foreshadowing how blanche finds stanley animalistic
love blinds stella to the social differences between herself and her husband - doesn’t see the compatibility issues that blanche does.
‘he sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind’
anarchic sexual energy
symbolises the new south
this will reflect the way in which he reacts to blanche
‘how about my supper, huh?’
gender roles
expects everything to be done for him
doesn’t want to go because it is an upper class restaurant and he is proud of his working class origin
old south
‘now let’s skip back a little bit to where you said he country place was disposed of’
materialistic
insensitive - typical, stereotypical man
‘in the state of louisiana, we have the napoleonic code’
justify his feelings of entitlement toward stella’s inheritance.
in doing so, he shows that he is ignorant of legal technicalities, because belle reve, located in laurel, mississippi, wouldn’t fall under new orleans jurisdiction.
stanley’s repeated references to the napoleonic code highlight the fact that his conflict with blanche is also a gender showdown.
stanley’s greed reveals his misogyny, or woman-hating tendencies. as a man, stanley feels that what stella has belongs to him.
hates blanche as a woman and as a person with a more prestigious family name, and therefore suspects that blanche’s business dealings have been dishonest.
‘genuine fox fur-pieces, a half a mile long! where are your fox-pieces, stella? bushy snow-white ones, no less! where are your white fox-pieces?
enraged by the fact that blanche, a woman, is living better off then himself.
repetition of the same question incites his anger not just towards blanche but to stella - tries to make her feel bad about herself not having “white fox-pieces”
narrative enigma to audience of stanley’s true intentions, is he with her for her inheritance or love?
‘since when do you give me orders?’
wants control
conforming to stereotypes
clash between men and women
‘stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh’
asserting dominance
machismo male
showing off - possessive and just shows how much power he holds over her to his friends
considered normal - williams trying to show the disgusting reality of the new south
blanche
‘i haven’t noticed a stamp of genius even on stanley’s forehead’
male dominance will get him ahead rather than academia
uneducated working class
‘he stops short at the sight of blanche in the chair. she returns his look without flinching’
uses his aggression and intimidating ways to get what he wants, although this does not work on blanche, which is similar to her charms that we have seen do not work on him
assertion of dominance that neither will back down from; unafraid of stanley; strong sense of this by the phrases of movement - emphasised for audience
gender clash
‘my baby doll’s left me’
can’t cope without sex
needs someone to asset dominance over
machismo male
first time showing emotional side
‘stell-llahhhhhh’
mating call
animalistic
epitomises the psychological hold he has on her
machismo
blanche:
‘he acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! there’s even something - sub-human-something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! yes, something -ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I’ve seen in–anthropological studies!
people like stanley will rule
apes will inherit the earth
his complete disregard for the social morals that she, as a southern belle, has been taught since birth to cherish.
he represents the very thing she’s come to fear above all else- the kind of raw, untamed, uncivilized desire that inspired her promiscuity in laurel, and that brought her to a place close to hell in new orleans as punishment
going back in evolutionary terms - atavism
‘he jerks open the bureau drawer, slams it shut and throws shoes in a corner. at each noise blanche winces slightly’
lost battle over stella
scared - gender roles becoming more evident
blanche:
‘capricorn - the goat’
links to the devil
fertility and aggression - oversexualised
earth sign, known for being down to earth i.e. reasonable.
the animal goat is also a symbol of greatness and excellence
‘they kicked her out of that high school before the spring term ended-and I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken! a seventeen-year-old boy - she’d gotten mixed up with!’
revenge
enjoyed telling people this
husband died young - why she’s a pedo
’ you’re goddamn right i told him!’
williams believed deliberate cruelty was a sin
abusive and toxic man
‘don’t ever talk that way to me! ‘pig - polack -disgusting - vulgar -greasy!’ - them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here! what do you two think you are? a pair of queens? remember what huey long said - ‘every man is a king!” and I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!’
gender roles
he’s superior - different species
dehumanising them
no coherence between new south and old south
the working class are the future, not the rich
ironic - his actions are awful
huey long became the governor of louisiana in 1928, then went on to become a senator in 1932. championed the rights and living standards of the poor white population; himself coming from an impoverished background, he put into action a wide program of road and bridge construction, widened state university facilities and created a state hospital, affording these measures through heavier inheritance and income taxes. largely maintained his power through intimidation – taking personal control of all civil service positions in louisiana by 1934. stanley seems to echo the exact man long aimed to inspire with his policies, and long’s control over louisiana indeed parallels stanley’s patriarchal, new-money position.
‘it’s gonna be all right again between you and me the way that it was. you remember that way that it was? Them nights we had together? god, honey, it’s gonna be sweet when we can make noise in the night the way that we used to and get the coloured lights going with nobody’s sister behind the curtains to hear us!’
relationships purely based on desire
uses sex to manipulate stella
boldness of sex in the new south
‘i am not a polack. people from poland are poles, not polacks. but what i am is a one hundred percent. american, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a polack’
effects of ww2 - fought for america - became heroes of the country
williams demonstrates racial and cultural shifts in society
demonstrates the sad reality wherein some believed they had more of a claim of this identity than others and reflects the racial divide between peoples during the 40s. (made ironic through the setting of new orleans, one of the more diverse and integrated communities in america at the time.
irony is further heightened as new orleans is a french colony, emphasising blanche’s inability to adapt to the social changes taking place in america- something stanley interprets as prejudice, but we, the audience, come to learn is a result of deep seating trauma causing her to cling to the safety of her past
ticket! back to laurel! on the greyhound! tuesday!’
a
blanche didn’t really do anything wrong
doesn’t care about people’s emotions - typical masculine trait
williams believed intentional cruelty was unforgivable
revenge for her hypocrisy
exclamatory demonstrates how stanley thinks he’s won
peripeteia (turning point) of the play
‘when we first met, me and you, you thought I was common. how right you was, baby. i was common as dirt. you showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. i pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going! and wasn’t we happy together, wasn’t it all okay till she showed here?’
spatial deixis
old south must come down from its height ideals in order to live in the new world
alternatively, stanley ‘pulled” stella ‘down’ to his lower status as an immigrant representative of new america
‘well, it’s a red letter night for us both’
danger, love , anger
night of celebration - foreshadows stanley celebrating blanche being sent away in scene 11?
‘the silk pyjamas i wore on my wedding night!’
smashed things - dressing for violence
silk is a symbol of power
‘i’ve been onto you from the start! not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes! you come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into egypt and you are the queen of the nile! sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor!’
he has never allowed himself to be manipulated by the lies that were in the darkness (since he is constantly connected with the light-and there seem to be light wherever he is)
exposes blanche
williams’ symbolism here is transparently shakespearean. like shakespeare’s cleopatra, blanche, dressed in her queenly robes and crown, is preparing herself for the tragic encounter with a ritualistic death delivered at stanley’s hands. of course, blanche’s cleopatra is in a french quarter style.
‘tiger - tiger! drop the bottle-top! drop it! we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning’
new south and old south can’t co exist
flip of the animalistic language onto blanche – so far exempt as stanley prowls around licking his lips – which gives her some blame for what is to happen. she (allegedly and implicitly by this line) tempted stanley into his actions
metaphor for fate: the necessary end to the primal struggle of their opposing forces
battle for dominance
‘put it in english, greaseball’
derogatory term
stanley hates being called a polack
winning - uses an imperative
hypocritical - he is not english either
‘you left nothing here but spilt talcum and old empty perfume bottles - unless its the paper lantern you want to take with you . you want the lantern?’
deliberate cruelty is unforgivable
already broken illusion
