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Exam questions A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
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Section A: Post-1900 drama Section A is based on the study ofone post-1900 drama text from the list below:
Tennessee Williams: A Streetcar Named Desire (Penguin Modern Classics)
Candidates are required to answer one question from a choice of two. Each question will be presented
in two parts:
part (i) is extract-based and focuses on close language study;
part (ii) requires an extended response relating to the rest of the text. Candidates must use appropriate
literary and linguistic methods of analysis, adopting accurate and precise use of related terminology to:
analyse closely the language of the extract
use integrated linguistic and literary approaches
analyse how meanings are shaped in their set text
show knowledge and understanding of relevant language levels
use accurately a range of linguistic and literary terminology
demonstrate an understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which texts are
produced and received
organise responses in a clear and effective academic style and register with coherent written
expression.
THEMES
Desire and fate
Desire has brought Blanche to the point where she has to move in with her sister, and she
literally arrives on a streetcar ‘named Desire’.
Sexual passion keeps Stella with Stanley, so that she says ‘I’m not in anything I want to
get out of’ (Scene Four, p. 42).
Despite being newly married to Blanche, Allan allowed himself to succumb to his illicit
desire for another man.
Desire and fate combine when Blanche stops resisting Stanley; he says: ‘We’ve had this
date with each other from the beginning!’ (Scene Ten, p. 97).
, Death
Blanche has been traumatised by her husband’s suicide, so that she now ‘hears’ the music
that was playing at the time, then the gunshot.
Blanche tells Stella, then Mitch, about the family deaths she endured at Belle Reve,
saying that ‘funerals are pretty compared to deaths’ (Scene One, p. 12).
Mitch carries a cigarette case given to him by a dying girl, inscribed with lines by
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, about love after death.
A blind Mexican woman sells ‘ Flores para los muertos ’ (flowers for the dead) (Scene
Nine, p. 88).
Madness
Blanche recognises her own mental instability and says that because of it she cannot be
left on her own (Scene One, p. 10).
Blanche suffers repeated hallucinations relating to her husband’s suicide.
Blanche’s preference for fantasy over reality is, arguably, always on the edge of madness.
Blanche is eventually driven over the edge into madness when she is raped by Stanley,
and is led away to a mental institution.
Social class
Blanche and Stella are from a once wealthy plantation-owing family, though Stella has
happily accepted a lower social status with Stanley.
Blanche calls Stanley an ‘ape’, but she may have a valid point in speaking out for tender
feelings and the arts, which she feels are beyond him.
Stanley seems to need to feel that even if he does not know about something – such as
jewellery – he knows someone who does.
Stella thinks that Blanche is too snobbish, and says ‘don’t you think your superior
attitude is a bit out of place?’ (Scene Four, p. 46).
Gender
Blanche expects men to treat her with old-fashioned courtesy, despite her shady past.
Stanley rejects the idea that women should be treated with any special respect, and would
never get up because a woman had entered the room.
Stanley annoys Stella by treating her in a sexist way in front of other men – for example,
slapping her thigh.
Mitch is prepared to treat Blanche with the courtesy she demands, until he learns about her
past. Then he thinks she no longer deserves it.
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