Stanley

Question 1

Stanley’s first lines to Stella + stage direction

Answer 1

‘Hey there! Stella, baby’

‘Bellowing’

Question 2

First description of Stanley’s appearance (stage directions)

Answer 2

‘Bowling jacket’

‘Red-stained work clothes’

Question 3

How is Stanley described by Stella at the start when talking to Blanche?

Answer 3

‘A different species’

Question 4

How a Stanley looks at women quote

Answer 4

‘Sizes women up with a glance’

‘Crude images flashing into his mind’

Question 5

Stanley altering his persona depending on who he is around

Answer 5

‘Crude images flash into his mind’
Which

‘Determine the way he smiles at them [women]’

Question 6

Stanley asserting dominance in the apartment after Blanche has arrived

Answer 6

He asks her ‘do you mind if I remove my shirt’ and before she replies he ‘starts to remove his shirt’

Showing his ‘strongly and compactly built’ figure, asserting physical strength as well as dominance

Question 7

Stanley describing Blanche and Stella

Answer 7

Doing ‘monkey doing’s’

Question 8

By marrying Stella….

Answer 8

By marrying Stella, a women with a background ‘obviously quite different from her husbands’, Stanley transcende boundaries and represent the new classless southern society.

Question 9

Animalistic descriptions

Answer 9

‘Animal joy’
‘Stalks into the bedroom’ - stage direction
‘Animal thing’
‘Charges at Stella’
‘Animal force’
‘Something downright bestial about him’ (Blanche says)
‘Trots’
‘Spear his fork into the remaining chop’ which he ‘eats with his fingers’ (violent, primitive, manifestation of anger at Blanche at her birthday party)

Question 10

Stanley physical description

Answer 10

‘Strongly compactly built’

Question 11

Stanley lust

Answer 11

‘Pleasure with women’ is the ‘centre of his life’

‘Sizes women up with a glance’

Question 12

Stanley threatened by Blanche

Answer 12

‘I don’t care if she hears me’
‘Swindled’ (repetition)
‘Napoleonic code - ‘what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband’
‘I don’t like to be swindled’

Question 13

Stanley aggressive

Answer 13

‘Hurls the first to the daybed’

‘With heaven splitting violence’

Question 14

Derogatory towards women

Answer 14

His insults ‘shut her (a woman) up like a clam) - derogatory, misogynistic, shocking to a modern audience

Question 15

Manipulative

Answer 15

To find out the truth about Belle Rêve he plays with Blanche’s emotions:

‘Especially now she’s going to have a baby’ - emotional leverage, hoping this will make her crack

Question 16

Stanley outside hearing Blanche’s hyperbolic monologue

Answer 16

‘Stands unseen’

‘Under cover of the train noise’

Question 17

Stanley reaction to hearing Blanche’s monologue

Answer 17

Makes out he doesn’t know (deceit)
‘Grins at her’
‘’Grins through the curtains at Blanche’

Question 18

Stanley on Blanche’s lying

Answer 18

She’s been ‘feeding us a pack of lies’

Question 19

Stanley found out about Blanche’s past quote

Answer 19

‘Found out some things’

Question 20

Stage directions when Stanley says to Stella he has ‘found out some things’ about Blanche

Answer 20

‘Blanche is singing in the bathroom’
A ‘ballad used contrapuntally with Stanley’s speech’

Singing ‘blithely’

Analysis:
Blanche present and oblivious whilst he tells Stella her lies makes the moment more poignant - she’s so unaware - indicative of her mental state losing touch with reality - too caught in fantasy world to know what’s going on in the real world

Question 21

Stanley revelling in fact he is one up from Blanche and knows about her past

Answer 21

‘It’s not my souls I’m worried about’

‘Laughs harshly’

Question 22

Reaction to Stella insulting his eating

Answer 22

‘Hurls the plate’
‘Seizes her arm’
‘Every man is a king around here’

Question 23

Patriotic

Answer 23

‘I am 100% American, born and raised in the greatest country on Earth’

Question 24

How does Stanley react when Stella tells him off for giving Blanche the ticket

Answer 24

‘Stalks into the bedroom’

‘Rips of shirt’ to reinforce physical strength and masculinity

Question 25

Stanley’s description of Blanche after he gives her the bus ticket

Answer 25

‘Delicate piece she is’

Question 26

Modern audience reaction to Stanley giving Blanche bus ticket

Answer 26

Struck by his lack of sensitivity

Question 27

Stage directions leading up to rape scene

Lurid
Jungle
Telephone

Answer 27

Lurid reflections

Night filled with inhumane voices like cries in the jungle

clicking becomes audible from the telephone - cyclical - links to ‘tapping on shutters’ of prostitute at beginning of play

Question 28

Blue piano just before Stanley rapes Blanche

Answer 28

‘Drums louder’

Question 29

Why does Williams make Stanley talk about luck in last scene ?

Answer 29

Stanley talking about himself as ‘lucky’ used as device to contrast against Blanche who has run out of all luck