These are factfile revision notes for A Streetcar Named Desire from the English A level curriculum, also suitable for other exams or degrees.
I got an A* in English and these really helped me remember quotations/ analyse paying attention to devices and themes. I've just finished my undergrad at...
Sc Quotation Theme Analysis Device
en
e
1 Elysian Fields Death The final resting place of the souls of the
heroic and the virtuous in Greek
mythology and religion. Ironic because the
play ends up in hell
1 Tender blue Suggests sensuality
1 Atmosphere of decay
1 Music of Negro Slightly awkward from a modern
entertainers perspective - almost fetishistic, but
Infatuated fluency of Williams is trying not to be racist and
brown fingers instead embraces this ‘melting pot’ of
culture
1 ‘blue piano’ Blues music, melancholy.
1 One white and one Racial harmony. A very unusual and
coloured striking image for a 50’s audience
1 Relatively warm and Suggests that there is still tension, as we
easy intermingling of will see later in the play (‘Polack’,
races ‘greaseball’)
1 St Barnabas would Saint of peace - the first line is ironic as the
send out his dog to play is violent. Could be sexual - New
lick her Orleans was a town of freer sexual morals
1 Four Deuces Brothel/ bar
1 Red hot! Red hots! Race Tamales - Mexican food
Colour imagery contrasts with ‘blue’, could
foreshadow some conflict
Represents passion, sex, hell, blood and
danger
1 a date Romance Interesting as the sailor may be an outsider
to NO, like Blanche. Mirrors how Mitch
goes out on dates with Blanche, only to
discover that, like the prostitutes, she is
not clean or pure at all
1 blue denim work Contrast between blue and red: passion,
clothes violence.
Red-stained package
1 blue denim work Immediately shows that they are working
clothes class
1 Red-stained package Shows that he is the hunter-gatherer and
Heaves the package bread winner of the family - an alpha male.
at her Also suggests that he is violent. Phallic.
Sexual innuendo, especially with Stella’s
Cries out in protest
reaction
, Laughs breathlessly
1 Hey there! Stella, Infantilising her. Short, monosyllabic
Baby! sentences contrast with Stella’s reproach
1 First-floor landing Parody of the balcony scene in Romeo and
Juliet
1 A gentle young Class Introduction to Stella.
woman
Of a background
obviously quite
different from her
husband’s
1 Mildly Don’t holler at Stella’s first words in the play are a
me like that reproach to her husband. Could initially
portray her as somewhat powerful, but
this is undermined by how she only speaks
‘mildly’ and William’s portrayal of Stanley
as a hunter-gatherer
1 already started back Stella is needy and worshipping of Stanley
Can I come watch? as she needs permission from him to do
things. She is perhaps making sure that he
is not visiting other women. Interesting
that he is structurally introduced just after
the ‘Four Deuces’
1 poor boy’s sandwich Eunice contrasts with Stella who is
worshipping of her husband
1 Blanche ○ Could suggest a blank page waiting to
be written on
○ ‘To blanch’ means to turn white with
shock
○ Also suggests unnatural, traumatic or
violent processes such as boiling in
cooking
■ Blanche constantly takes hot
baths
○ In botany it means to turn a plant
white by depriving it of light
■ Blanche hides from light
○ In coinage it means a method used to
whiten metal
○ Could also be a sickly colour to her skin
○ Colour of innocence contrasts with the
lack of purity in New Orleans
○ French name is upper-class and
suggests WASP origins
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