Streetcar named desire Flashcards
Violence - Stanley throughout the play, domestic abuse, Mitch’s rape attempt, rape of Blanche
“hurls,” “jerks” and “stalks”
“snatches” and “yellowing with antiquity”
boldness of Poker Night - dangerous masculinity
“tosses the instrument out of the window”
“sound of a blow”, “sons of bitches”
“purposefully”, “tries to turn her about”
“cries out and strikes”
“wildly” “scratches”
Fate of Outsider - Blanche at the beginning, Relationship with Mitch, Mistreatment from Stanley, Tragic Ending
“incongruous to the setting”
“pearl, white gloves”
“hunched”, “legs pressed close together”
“romantic” and “awkward imitation like a bear”
“tosses the instrument out of the window”
“Dame Blanche”
“seizes and tearing”, “clutching”
“inhuman abandon”
Illusions vs Reality - Blanche’s lies, Stanley’s masculinity, Stella’s manipulation, Mental Asylum ending
“pearl, white gloves”
“swindled under the Napoleonic code”
“tribute from an admirer of mine”
“everything that I own is in that trunk”
“shut up”, “get off”
“narcotised tranquility”, “good as a lamb”
“Varsouviana” and “blue piano”
“I didn’t lie in my heart”
“inhuman voices like cries in a jungle”
Desire is destructive - Blanche’s flirting, Blanche’s lies to Mitch, Stella and Stanley, Blanche and the boy
“lordly composure”
“may I have a drag of your cig?”
“epic fornifications”
“I want my baby”
“heaven splitting violence”, “low, animal moans”
“they’re crazy about each other”
“calm”, “leisurely”
“brutal desire - just desire”
“I want to deceive him enough to make him want me”
“honey lamb”, “keep my hands off of children”
No hope for future relationships - Blanche and Allan, Blanche and Mitch, Stella and Stanley, Stella and Blanche
“stalks”, “throws” “gaudy seed bearer”
“sound of a blow”, “heaven splitting violence”
“stuck a revolver in his mouth and fired”
“Varsouviana”
“good as a lamb”
“I didn’t lie in my heart”
“I hate a naked lightbulb”
“Don’t turn the light on”
“What have I done to my sister?”
“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers”
Passion and violence - Stella and Stanley, Blanche and Stanley, Mitch and Blanche
“sound of a blow”
bold Poker night
“tosses the instrument out of the window”
“heaven splitting violence”, “I want my baby”
“low, animal moans”
“good as a lamb”
“kicks”, “seizes”, “stalks”
“clutching”, “cries out and strikes”
“Four Deuces sound loudly”
“purposefully”, “tries to turn her around”
“lunges and strikes at Stanley”
Self destructive nature of Blanche reason for her downfall? - Alien to setting, Stanley’s violence, Lies, Destitution, Racism
“pearl, white gloves”
“incongruous” to “melting pot of cultures”
“rips, tears, jerks”
“cries out”, “clutched”, “inert”
“soiled”, “crumpled”
“I didn’t lie in my heart”
“Shep Huntleigh”
“I said what ought to be”
“Survivor of the Stone Age” “primitive”, “caveman”, “subhuman”
“springs”, “biting”
“epic fornications”
“everything I own is in that trunk”
Robert Bray
The transfer of documents from Blanche to Stanley represents the transfer of power from Old South to new Industrial USA
Sean McEvoy
Williams’ female characters are projections of gay personal and social crises that William has to portray through them due to society’s intolerance to homosexuality
Albert Wertheim
Baby represents the future, Kowalski future, Blanche removed, symbolic of Industrialisation taking over
Benjamin Nelson
Mexican women example of manifested tragedy, presages Blanche’s downfall and living death in asylum
Harold Bloom
Williams builds up archetypes and destroys our notions of them, Blanche’s purity and Stanley as machismo
J.H Adler
Stanley’s rape is an attempt to dominate Blanche’s Southern aristocracy
McGlinn
Stella is deluded too - happy in her life with Stanley
Mary McCarthy
Blanche symbolises art, veils herself from the truth and is different from those who exist purely in the “Elysian Fields”
