These are revision documents that I used for my A* in English A'level, summarising and analysing key parts of the Streetcar text. These really helped my exam answers, and got me the grades I needed for Cambridge - hopefully these will help you too!
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Sc Quotation Theme Analysis Device
en
e
4 confusion of street Different sounds - not just music - used for Sound
cries like a choral dramatic effect
chant
4 lying down Race Use of the metaphor? ‘Eastern idols’
serene Desire perhaps verges on being problematic.
narcotized Shows the power of sex - it tranquilises
tranquillity that is in her. However, this could be criticised as it
the faces of Eastern renders her ‘narcotized’ and perhaps
idols means that she is unable to make good
decisions or leave the abusive marriage.
Stella, like Blanche is addicted to sex - but
this is in a marriage, and not with random
or underage men.
The contemporary audience would
therefore perhaps have criticised her less.
4 one hand rests on A contrast which verges on being
her belly, rounding uncomfortable between the pregnancy
slightly with new that results from sex and the childish,
maternity innocent ‘coloured comics’. Contrast with
Blanche who reads ‘Edgar Allan Poe’ and
coloured comics ‘Elizabeth Barrett Browning’. Shows that
Blanche is perhaps more educated and
cultured than her sister. Comics are also a
symbol of modernity - they were a
relatively new genre - which contrasts with
the 19th century literature.
4 sloppy with remains Stella does not conform to the traditional
of breakfast expectations of a 1950’s woman. Shows
debris of the the power of sex
preceding night
4 sky of summer Pathetic fallacy?
brilliance
4 sleepless night Blanche contrasts with Stella
appearance entirely
contrasts with
Stella’s
4 knuckles nervously Williams perhaps turns Blanche into a
to her lips parody of Stella - the sexual imagery ‘lips’,
moaning cry ‘moaning cry’ and ‘tenderness’ mimic
Stella’s and her ‘hair loose about her
hysterical tenderness
throat and shoulders’ and the ‘clarinet
moans’ in S3. This could highlight their
similarities but also Blanche’s impending
madness.
4 Baby, my baby sister! Infantilising her, like in earlier scenes.
, drawing away from However, we notice that Stella starts to
her stand up to her. The ‘drawing away’ from
her sister could foreshadow the betrayal in
the last scene.
4 you must have slept Contrast in their behaviours.
with him!
calm and leisurely
way
4 when men are Echoes Mitch - ‘poker should not be played
drinking and playing in a house with women’
poker anything can
happen
4 a powder-keg Shows masculinity and violence. Elia
(referring to men Kazan. 'Every bar in the country is filled
playing poker) with Stanleys ready to explode'
4 as good as a lamb Contrast with the predatorial imagery Animalistic
previously used to portray Stanley imagery
4 very, very ashamed Perhaps excusing his behaviour
of himself
4 Stanley’s always Innuendo?
smashed things Shows the ‘powder-keg’ erupting.
The intensifier ‘always’ is interesting as it
portrays it as inevitable - Stella has
accepted this.
4 wedding night The dramatic pauses could show Stella’s
smashed all the light- desire yet perhaps also her shame for
bulbs with the heel feeling it.
of my slipper Stanley is perhaps portrayed as destroying
laughs things that Blanche values
I was - sort of -
thrilled by it
4 Didn’t run, didn’t Italics (or stressed words) convey
scream? Blanche’s shock and horror
4 madman Perhaps ironic as she will be mad by the
end of the play
4 slowly and Shows Stella’s assertiveness. This is the
emphatically scene where we witness her growing
I’m not in anything I power and resistance to Blanche, although
want to get out of she
4 (poker parties) Not particularly cultured compared to
it’s his pleasure, like Blanche
mine is movies and
bridge
4 People have got to Like the self-interview The World I Live In
tolerate each other’s
habits, I guess
4 Chinese philosophy Race Dramatic pause could show Blanche’s
you’ve - cultivated? disgust and perhaps racism
4 Are you deliberately Reverting to controlling and even bullying
shaking that thing in her sister
my face?
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