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Summary A Streetcar Named Desire Scene 11 notes
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A Streetcar Named DesireScene 11 notes
Opening stage directions
Sounds of water can be heard running in the bathroom
Bathroom has always been a recluse for Blanche but, here, bathing
is different as it is an attempt to wash away Stanley’s recent
violation
The atmosphere of the kitchen is now the same raw, lurid one of
the disastrous poker night
Poker games emphasise male dominance of 1940s-ultimately
present working class men as crude and primitive
STANLEY: You know what luck is? Luck is believing you’re lucky
Repetition of ‘luck’-reflects developing capitalist views of USA in
1940s-people rewarded for hard work rather than born into wealth
and power-reflects deteriorating aristocratic society and growing
industrialised middle class
Conversation between Eunice and Stella
EUNICE: I always did say men are callous things
Adjective-suggests callousness and lack of empathy is characteristic
of masculinity
EUNICE: Sleeping like an angel
Simile-innocence of child contrasts with ugliness of the events of the
play
STELLA: She’s got it mixed in her mind with Shep Huntleigh
Blanche no longer trying to create a fantasy but is literally living it in
her mind-extent of her insanity now blatant caused by rape
BLANCHE opens the bathroom door slightly
Adverb-while in previous scenes she went out of her way to get
attention, she now avoids it-rape as a traumatic experience which
has tainted and changed her completely
STELLA: I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley
Female reliance on men in 1940s-Stella doesn’t discount the fact
Stanley may have raped Blanche but makes a conscious choice not
to believe it
Stella is particularly dependent on Stanley not that she has his child
EUNICE: Don’t ever believe it. Life has got to go on
Stella, like Blanche, is also stuck in a fantasy-refuses to
acknowledge the excessive violence that comes with her life with
Stanley-although Blanche is ultimately trapped in her fantasies,
, Stella doesn’t truly understand the grittiness of reality to the same
extent as her sister
BLANCHE: Please close the curtains before I come out
Avoidance of light-in previous scenes she avoids light to prevent
others from seeing reality of her fading beauty-now it is about
avoidance of her harsh reality
BLANCHE appears in the amber light of the door. She has a tragic
radiance in her red satin robe
Adjectives emphasise Blanche’s tragic downfall
Colour symbolism-passion and attraction to danger has led to
Blanche’s tragic downfall
BLANCHE: (accepting the compliment)
Unlike her diminishing of compliments throughout the play-rape has
significantly and fundamentally altered her character
MITCH’S arm supporting his cards has sagged and his gaze is
dissolved
Verbs-Mitch completely unnerved by Blanche’s madness-also
suggests he feels a sense of guilt and shame, perhaps believing it
was his own attempted rape of Blanche which pushed her over the
edge
She makes a shocked gesture, forming his name with her lips
Blanche’s actions emphasise her mental fragility and the extent to
which she has been hurt
A look of sorrowful perplexity as though all human experience
shows on her face
Hyperbole emphasises extent of Blanche’s suffering and her
understanding of the harsh nature of reality
STANLEY shoves back his chair as if about to rise
Verb-violence and continued aggression-suggests Stanley feels no
guilt for his actions
Conversation between Blanche, Stella and Eunice
BLANCHE: Why are you looking at me like that? Is something
wrong with me?
Blanche questions emphasise her confusion / disorientation with
reality
BLANCHE: I’m anxious to get out of here – this place is a trap!
Repeated reference to Kowalski house as a trap; however, it is Stella
who is truly trapped as she is fully dependent on Stanley
BLANCHE: The blue of the robe in the old Madonna pictures
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