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A Streetcar Named Desire : Example Answer
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An example answer to a practice question for the English Language and Literature A-Level.
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Refer to scene 2Beginning, “What’s all this monkey doings?” and
Ending, “You’re damn tootin’ I’m going to stay here.”
This interaction occurs near the begging of the scene. Stanley argues with Stella about Blanche and
her past life.
Referring to these lines and other parts of the play, examine how and why Williams presents
conflict between men and women.
Plan:
Blanche vs Mitch: 52,
Answer:
Within scene 2 and the wider play, Williams presents conflict between men and women through the
differing values and rights of men and women throughout the play.
An example within this scene can be seen through the use of stage directions and imperatives
between the men and women in the scene. ‘Blanche is bathing. Stella is completing her toilette.’ And
‘What’s all this monkey doings?’ displays a clear conflict in ideals and values between the women
and Stanley within this scene. The use of the declaratives ‘Blanche is bathing. Stella is completing her
toilette’ depicts a feminine scene in which stereotypically feminine activities presented through the
noun ‘toilette’ and the verb ‘bathing’ are taking place to create a serene and feminine environment.
This femineity is also reflective of Blanche and Stella’s upbringing in Belle Reve where the
aristocratical lifestyle of the old south would include such activities for women. In contrast to this
however, the interrogative ‘What’s all this monkey doings?’ from Stanley, shows how he does not
appreciate or understand the value of feminine activities to the women in the house and thinks of
them as foolish which we can infer from his use of ‘monkey’ as a modifier for the activities the
women are doing. This shows how Stanley is also representative of the new southern values in which
feminine activities such as bathing are less appreciated.
In addition to this scene, we also see William present conflict between men and women in the wider
play through Stanley and Stella’s power struggle and relationship. Within scene 3 Stanley is
presented as dominative and disrespectful to Stella through the use of stage directions such as
`Stanley gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh’ The modifier and onomatopoeia ‘loud whack’
displays Stanley as being physically more powerful and therefore dominative over Stella. This action
also represents the fact that husbands owned their wives within the early 1900s which also included
their bodies. We see a similar scene in scene 11 at the end of the play where Staley ‘kneels beside
her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse’ this takes place as Stella is mourning the loss of
her sister as she is taken away to the mental hospital. The verb ‘find’ and the noun ‘the opening of
her blouse’ depicts a scene in which Stanley is taking advantage of Stella thus showing dominance
and possession over her.
Another scene in which we see conflict between men and women being portrayed within the play
can be seen in scene 10 where Stanley rapes Blanche. The exclamative imperatives and declarative
‘Drop the bottle-top! Drop it! We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning’ and the stage
directions ‘she moans. The bottle-top falls. She sinks to her knees.’ Displays an imbalance in power
as Stanley physically takes advantage of Blanche, displaying how men had possession over women
with the early 1900s and those women were viewed as the weaker sex. Wiliams presents Stanley as
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