Stanley quotes and critics Flashcards
Stanley and his job
“A master sergeant in the engineers’ Corps”- working class, American dream
Stanley as primitive and animalistic MOTIF
“Animal joy” “Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle!”- Blanche
Stanley’s unapologetic male gaze
“He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind”- Alpha male. Animal effect of seizing prey
Stanley and light
“He holds the bottle to the light to observe its depletion”- light foreshadows revealing the truth.
Stanley’s misogyny
"Every man is a king"- establishes his power by using the patriarchy as his weapon-male privilege "what do you two think you are? A pair of queens?"-class insecurity. Feels threatened by their class dominance
critics from a natural selection lens (critic)
argue Blanche and Stanley are to types of animals striving for the survival of their own kind, supported by jungle sounds and animalistic motifs.
Stanley as an animal MOTIF
“ape like” “like one of the pictures I’ve seen in anthropological studies” “a survivor of the Stone Age”- Blanche others the lower class through the use of animalistic imagery suggesting upper class prejudice against working class from marxist lens
Stanley exposing Blanches fantasy
“you are the queen of the nile!” “swilling down on my liquor”- Stanley. He addresses her delusions and reminds her that she is dependant on him by using his liquor.
Stanley and Napoleonic code
“have you ever heard of the napoleonic code?”- Napoleonic code is an archaic law which allows men to have full control over his wife’s assets.
Stanley as an alpha male
“hold this bone headed cry baby”- Stanley to Mitch
Stanley as a victim (critic)
some critics viewed Stanley as a victim due to Blanches attack on his masculinity. Rape scene was seen as justified due to her flirting
Robert Brustein
“The conflict between Blanche and Stanley allegorises the struggle between effeminate culture and masculine libido”
Stanley as insecure
calls himself “one hundred percent American” and “smashes his plate” over Blanche’s use of insulting terms- marxist view.
presentation of male dominance in the opening
men dressed in “blue denim work clothes” carrying a “red-stained package”. Lurid colours juxtapose Blanche’s “white suit” and “white gloves”. Fading colours connote women’s lack of power and deteriorating old south
J.M McGlinn
Stanley wishes to make Blanche realise that she is the same as he is, a sexual animal
