A Streetcar Named Desire flashcards
TO ADD:
‘In this dark march towards whatever it is we’re approaching’
● “Her linen needs changing” “Yes, Mother”
● The name Belle Reve
● Stanley winning at poker at the end
● ‘a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in’
● Kowalski victory – the new baby, continuance of the Kowalski line
1. How does Williams ● Blanche’s opulent costume locates her within the American gentry: ‘fluffy
present Blanche as a bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and a hat’
relic of the Old South? ● Williams shows Blanche asserting her gentility, walking into a room of men
playing poker, saying ‘Please don’t get up.’
2. How does Williams ● New Orleans is far from pristine, described as ‘rickety’ and having ‘an
present the setting of atmosphere of decay’.
New Orleans? ● It is vibrant and animated, as hinted at through the personified river: ‘the
warm breath of the brown river’.
● It is socially progressive and accepting of change, as shown through
Williams’s description of the ‘easy intermingling of races’ and the ‘blue
piano’ (jazz) being played ‘with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers’.
3. How does Williams ● Blanche’s pristine and opulent costume starkly contrasts with the ‘rickety’
convey Blanche’s buildings, the ‘atmosphere of decay’ and the ‘brown river’.
incongruity to the ● Blanche’s traditional costume suggests her sense of superiority and positions
setting of New her within society’s elite, whereas New Orleans is progressive.
Orleans?
4. How does Williams ● Blanche tells Stella that ‘the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our
show that death is doorstep!’
ever encroaching ● Blanche’s life in Belle Reve was surrounded by death: ‘blood-stained pillow
upon Blanche? slips’, ‘I used to sit here and she used to sit over there and death was as
close as you are’.
● The imagery of death recurs when the Mexican vendor arrives at her door
selling ‘flores para los muertos’.
5. How does Williams ● The Kowalski apartment is set in ‘Elysian Fields’, the eternal resting place of
present Blanche’s the Greek Gods.
downfall as ● Williams uses the motif of trains and streetcars, all running along a
inevitable? predetermined track, throughout. As Blanche tells Stella not to ‘hang back
with the brutes’, ‘outside a train approaches’, then ‘another train passes.’
● In the stage directions as Blanche first appears on stage, Williams describes
her ‘uncertain manner’ which ‘suggests a moth’. [metaphor - moths are
drawn towards - but also killed by - light - making their deaths almost
, inevitable]
6. How does Williams ● When Blanche first arrives at the Kowalski apartment, she tells Stella, ‘And
use symbolism of turn that over-light off! Turn that off!’ [exclamatives - repetition -
light? desperation - hysteria]
● Blanche explains to Mitch about her relationship with Allan Grey: ‘It was like
you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been
half in shadow’ [light symbolising the power of love - the clarity and meaning
it brings - she associates light with Allan]
● When he died, it was like ‘the searchlight which had been turned on the
world was turned off again’, leaving light no stronger than this ‘kitchen
candle’.
7. How does Williams ● First appears when Stanley asks, ‘you were married once, weren’t you?’
use the motif of the [symbolises her haunting grief / guilt / loneliness]
Varsouviana? ● Builds as she tells Mitch about Allan
● Stops when Mitch says, ‘You need somebody. And I need somebody too.
Could it be--you and me, Blanche?’ [symbolic - Mitch can end her loneliness -
Mitch can stop her from living in the past by giving her a future – chance of
redemption]
8. How does Williams ● Stanley is irritated by Blanche’s wealth, fearing he has been ‘swindled’, going
present the building to her trunk and ‘jerks out an armful of dresses.’ [violent disturbance of
tension between Blanche’s personal privacy - foreshadowing]
Blanche and Stanley? ● They both try to use their power - Stanley his physicality, Blanche her
sexuality - to gain control. When Stanley questions Blanche about Belle Reve,
‘she sprays herself with her atomizer; then playfully sprays him with it. He
seizes the atomizer and slams it down on the dresser.’
● During the Poker Night, Stanley is angered that Blanche is encroaching on his
territory by playing music: ‘Stanley jumps up and, crossing to the radio,
turns it off.’ ‘She returns his look without flinching’, turns it on again, then
‘he tosses the instrument out the window’. [stage directions - tension -
foreshadows conflict]
9. How does Williams ● ‘He heaves the package at her. She cries out in protest but manages to
establish the strength catch it; then she laughs breathlessly’ - every interaction is infused with
of the connection sexual energy - ‘heaves’ ‘package’ ‘breathlessly’, [imagery of consummation
between Stanley and as he gives and she receives]
Stella? ● Stella tells Blanche that when Stanley returns after time away, ‘I cry on his
lap like a baby…’ [simile - suggesting dependence - she needs him]
● After Stanley hits Stella, ‘they come together with low, animal moans’
[‘animal’, ‘moans’ - their attraction is primal, instinctive]
● Then, ‘He falls to his knees on the steps’ [submission - contrasts with
Stanley’s usual dominance - conveys his need for her]
● Then, ‘Her eyes go blind with tenderness’ [‘blind’ - connotations of
powerlessness, dependency]
10. How does Williams ● When justifying the loss of Belle Reve, Blanche cries, ‘I stayed and fought for
