Document with essay plans for the following themes: desperation, death, social class, discrimination, inner lives of characters, relationships,
A level english literature, paper 1 (drama)
A Streetcar Named Desire. Notes for Essay Planning on a Variety of Themes
Death:
Death is portrayed by Williams as a catastrophic, given the death of his own close lovers and
the death of his sister’s mind (Rose). Death of all of Blanche and Stella’s relatives – is
mentioned by Williams in scenes one and two – suggesting the death of the old Antebellum
South and the ushering in of a new brash urban America (represented by Stanley)
· Williams crafts Blanche’s death monologue (Blanche – long walk to the graveyard: “I, I, I”,
in the middle she utters “I saw, Saw! Saw!” and in the end cries “I let the place go!, I let the
place go?”) in the early scene of the play in order to suggest that Blanche will find it difficult
to extract herself form such a dying old genteel world. (Blanche is already dead inside)
· Williams, through Blanche, portrays death as ugly compared with funerals (scene 1)
· Death causes new opportunity for Stella and economic and emotional ruin for Blanche:
Blanche states - “I took the blows in my face and body…Farther, Margret, Mother…had to be
burnt like rubbish.” Whereas Stella is reminded of the "colored lights" of her sex life
together with Stanley and of the happiness with him. She also states “there are things that
happen between a man and a woman in the dark – that sort of make everything else seem –
unimportant’ (Scene Four). The “dark” is not the death-like end that Blanche fears, but a
place of intimacy and pleasure.
· Williams portrays the death of Blanche’s dreams, much as he does the death of his sister
Rose’s life aspirations (see Blanche’s wistful and longing descriptions of her dreams and
hopes of a gilded life in the scenes where she mentions Shep Huntleigh and in the early
scenes where she mentions Belle Reive)
The death of Allan is portrayed as an escape for him, rather than a sad slow demise
– like Blanche’s relatives - Allan’s death, which marks the end of Blanche’s sexual
innocence, haunts her ever since (scene 6 – note how the moment of her discovery
of Alan – and his subsequent suicide – is described through Blanche’s narrow lens).
Long dead by the time of the play’s action, Allan never appears onstage.
From the deaths at Belle Reie, to the death of the south, to the reference to
cemeteries, Allan, Mitch's dead girlfriend and the Mexican woman selling flowers for
the dead, death pervades the drama and reminds us of Blanche’s inability to live in
the new world.
, Desperation:
· Williams portrays Blanche as so desperate when it's clear she won't get what she craves. She
gives up and is portrayed as insane (see the final scene 12). Gets taken away by the doctor and
matron. Society’s lack of understanding of Blanche’s desperation (to be loved; to be wanted – see
her interactions with Mitch in scene 6 – the Varsouviana music reminds her of her desire or
desperation to be desired, among other things )
Williams was desperate to be noticed as an artist – after small successes and before the
production of his first major successful play (The Glass Menagerie in 1944) he struggled.
Blanche’s artistic leanings and her overly affected behaviour are given some sympathy by
Williams. Like the playwright – she’s desperate to be noticed and taken seriously as an
appreciator of art
Stanley is desperate to assert his masculinity and his worth as an all-American alpha male:
he is desperate to therefore control Stella in his own image; he survives on his own terms
(self sufficient but poor) as a working class second generation immigrant with a strong sense
of pride: “I am not a Polack. People from Poland are Poles, not Polacks. But what I am is a
one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country on earth and proud
as hell of it, so don’t ever call me a Polack.” (Scene eight) . Williams loathed his father but
grew to appreciate him somewhat after deciding in therapy as an adult that his father had
given him his tough survival instinct.
The choral (peripheral) characters such as Steve and Eunice are desperate to be loved: the
violent arguments and bickering (Scene Five) – evoke a passionately turbulent relationship
whereby one character cannot live without the other: Stella’s third person commentary on
their reconciliation after the fight suggests that their fight also underscores the notion that
Stella and Stanley’s violent love is the norm in these parts. Lovers have a desperate need to
be violently passionate? By contrast Blanche cannot openly express her desperation
because – in her world view – it is NOT lady-like; she’s a victim of her own hubris and
SUPPOSED prudishness.
· Song is symbolic of Blanche’s desperate attempt to construct a reality in her own image: In
Scene Seven, Blanche sings this popular ballad while she bathes. The song’s lyrics describe the way
love turns the world into a “phony” fantasy. The speaker in the song says that if both lovers believe
in their imagined reality, then it’s no longer “make-believe.” These lyrics sum up Blanche’s approach
to life. She believes
· Williams portrays Blanche as essentially destitute: she goes to Stella and stays with her even
though she doesn’t like the area and thinks its beneath her but she cant afford a hotel room/has
been kicked out of hotels
She is desperate to find a man who can solve her problems so flirts with everyone whether
that’s mitch, a possible partner or the ‘young man’
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