streetcar

Question 1

melodrama features

Answer 1

• highly emotional themes
• music and stage effects used to heighten emotional atmosphere
• plots including failed romance, strained familial situations, illnesses, suffering protagonists, villianous antagonist

Question 2

tragedy features

Answer 2

-tragic hero w/ elevated social position and tragic flaw
- tragic hero not in full control of their fate
- anagorisis- as tragic hero suffers, they begin to understand their own destiny and nature more clearly
- catharsis- towards end of play, powerful emotions are purged

Question 3

southern gothic features

Answer 3

• often portrays old aristocratic family who are losing fortunes
• characters experience forbidden desires
• literature reflects racial and sexual tensions of old south
• sense of evil lurks through ghosts/ living dead
• edgar allan poe was southern gothic writer

Question 4

realism features

Answer 4

• characters are believable
• costumes are authentic
• characters are often working/ lower class
• realistic speech used

Question 5

hesitations

Answer 5

mostly used by blanche and stella to show their subordination

Question 6

grice’s maxim of quality

Answer 6

= saying the truth, blanch breaks this when lying to protect her image

Question 7

politeness strategies

Answer 7

e.g. approbation, stella uses politeness strategy of approbation to reassure blanche about her insecurities

Question 8

hedges

Answer 8

used when characters are avoiding speaking openly and directly

Question 9

additional speech features

Answer 9

face threataning acts, interruptions, minimal response

Question 10

dramatic techniques

Answer 10

costume, music, lighting, stage directions

Question 11

decline of old south and emerging new america

Answer 11

reflected through stanley and blanche’s relationship

Question 12

patriarchal society

Answer 12

reflected in stella and stanley’s relationship as well as steve and eunices

Question 13

immigration to america from europe at start of 20th century

Answer 13

stanley being from poland

Question 14

williams context

Answer 14

• williams was gay and promiscuous
• williams as an alcoholic
• his dad was an alcoholic and had an abusive temper
• williams grew up in the old south so loved his traditions and memories but recognised its flaws
• williams sister was taken to a psychiatric hospital for schitzophrenia

Question 15

stanley critical viewpoints

Answer 15

• stanley is a realist who trusts only his senses
• stanley is a territorial animal defending its lair

Question 16

stella critical viewpoints

Answer 16

• like many battered women, stella is genuinely in love with her husband
• stella is a refined girl who has found a kind of salvation or realisation but at a terrific price

Question 17

blanche critical viewpoints

Answer 17

• blanche is dangerous, she is destructive
• the play presents ‘the destructive power of society on the sensitive non-conformist individual’

Question 18

symbol of moth

Answer 18

represents blanche’s hamartia of being fatally drawn to desire as well as her fragility

Question 19

symbol of belle reve

Answer 19

french translation for ‘beautiful dream’. is the only illusion of blanche’s which is actually real, yet it disintigrates into oblivion as blanche’s facade crumbles. dramatic irony as it represents death.

Question 20

symbol of elysian fields

Answer 20

derived from greek mythology, meaning ‘land of the dead’. creating dramatic irony since blanche sees this as her place for a new start but it represents her resting place

Question 21

symbol of paper lantern

Answer 21

links to theme of fantasy and illusion. it creates the illusion of youth and reflects desire to escape from reality by inhabiting fantasy world blanche can control

Question 22

symbol of shep huntleigh

Answer 22

symbolic of fantasy world and illusion

Question 23

symbol of baths

Answer 23

have a dramatic function- symvolise blanche’s desire to purge herself of her simple past

Question 24

symbol of allan’s letters

Answer 24

remind blanche of her innocent, romantic past self

Question 25

symbol of alcoholism

Answer 25

represents blanche's desire to escape the present. drinking becomes more prominent as blanche's facade crumbles

Question 26

symbol of flower lady

Answer 26

blanche is familiar with death and it follows her

Question 27

varsouviana

Answer 27

represents blanche losing her tenuous grip on reality

Question 28

blue piano

Answer 28

becomes a motif that symbolises all blanche has lost

Question 29

symbol of the baby

Answer 29

stella's life is moving further from belle reve. birth in final scene cements dtella's loyalty to stanley

Question 30

symbol of the cokes

Answer 30

shows how stella is willing to invest in keeping others happy

Question 31

symbol of the birthday party

Answer 31

pretence of tragic climax is created by stella, creating conflicting senses of support and betrayal

Question 32

symbol of meat

Answer 32

portrays stanley as a masculine hunter gatherer

Question 33

symbol of caveman

Answer 33

represents conflict between civilised and primitive (blanche and stanley)

Question 34

symbol of rooster

Answer 34

represents stanley's sexual magnetism and pride in appearance

Question 35

symbol of mitch's mother

Answer 35

represents mitch's traditional values which aid and ruin his relationship with blanche

Question 36

symbol of cigarette case (scene 3)

Answer 36

represents how blanche and mitch both lost someone they love which they bond over

Question 37

symbol of dancing bear (scene 3)

Answer 37

whilst mitch is in awe of blanche's elegant world, he will always fail to fit into it because of his social class

Question 38

symbol of plaster statuette of mae west

Answer 38

presents mitch's working class, popular culture background

Question 39

symbol of cleft in rock

Answer 39

represents blanche's desires to be protected by mitch

Question 40

scene 1

Answer 40

blanche comes to elysian fields and tells stella about belle reve

Question 41

scene 2

Answer 41

napoleonic code, stanley lets it slip that stella is pregnant and looks through blanche's papers

Question 42

scene 3

Answer 42

poker scene, blanche and mitch start talking, stanley hits stella

Question 43

scene 4

Answer 43

blanche tells stella she needs to leave stanley

Question 44

scene 5

Answer 44

blanche writes a letter to shep huntleigh, stanley discusses the flamingo with blanche, blanche kisses paper boy

Question 45

scene 6

Answer 45

mitch and blanche come back from amusement park and agree they both need someone

Question 46

scene 7

Answer 46

blanche's birthday, mitch doesn't attend

Question 47

scene 8

Answer 47

stanley smashes a plate and gives blanche a bus ticket to laurel

Question 48

scene 9

Answer 48

mitch rips off paper lantern, flores para los muertos

Question 49

scene 10

Answer 49

rape scene

Question 50

scene 11

Answer 50

blanche is taken by doctor and nurse to asylum and stella is with her baby