Streetcar - Class and division Flashcards
Division at beginning of the play
Setting
‘L and N tracks’
‘Two-storey building’
The building contains ‘two flats, upstairs and down.’
Quite to show Blanche is educated
‘Only Poe! Only Mr Edgar Allan Poe!’
Belittling Stella
Context
The old ways of the southern cotton fields were fading, whilst the American dream resulted in the working-class achieving more respect and equality.
What was Williams inspired by (multicultural)
His own time in the French quarters of the new Orleans; a culturally diverse place
Stanleys polish ancestry…
Stanley’s Polish ancestry make some part of the new diverse post-World War II America
Old South Vs New South
Stanley represents the new America whilst Blanche represents the old Southern aristocracy
Blanche’s fate against Stanley can be represents the decline of aristocratic families traditionally associate with the South at the cost of the rise of the new South.
Old south refers to aristocracy, land of plantations and slave owners
What does Blanche represent?
Similarly to Amanda Wingfield in Williams’ other play ‘The Glass Menagerie’, Blanche represents a faded Southern Belle.
Characteristics of a southern belle
Reliant on steady income from cotton plantation utilising slave labour
Perfect southern bella married, fulfilled husbands needs and reproduced
Blanche about Stanley
‘He’s common’
Blanche southern belle
‘I love to be waited on’
Maybe:
‘Bow to me first!’ - to Mitch
‘She curtsies low’
Quotes when Mitch and Blanche get back from date to suggest they are outsiders
‘Outer wall’
‘Upside down plastic statue’
Blanche playing the role of a southern belle when Mitch flirts with her
What is page 63 about ??
‘Unhand me sir’
‘No reason why you shouldn’t behave like a gentlemen’
‘I have old fashioned ideals’
Her voice sounds ‘gently reproving’ (means expressing blame/disapproval)
No privacy in the apartment
Portières
Stanley underwear
Bathroom door
Commonness
‘Portières between the two rooms’
‘Stalks through the bedroom in his underwear’
‘I have to ask him to close the bathroom door’
‘That sort of commonness isn’t necessary’
Stanley disliking the way Stella does everything for Blanche
‘Run and get her cokes’
‘Serve ‘em to her majesty in the tub’
Contemporary vs modern perspective when Blanche is in the bathroom and Stanley yells at her to get out
Modern - disrespectful of Stanley, too brutal
Contemporary - sympathise with Stanley; he is the man of the house
