A Streetcar Named Desire Verified A+
Dramatic irony ️️the audience knows something the tragic heroine does not. scene 7: "Blanche is
singing... contrapuntally with Stanley's speech" Williams enhances the audience's empathy for Blanche
by audibly juxtaposing her ignorant bliss with Stanley...
Dramatic irony ✔️✔️the audience knows something the tragic heroine does not. scene 7: "Blanche is
singing... contrapuntally with Stanley's speech" Williams enhances the audience's empathy for Blanche
by audibly juxtaposing her ignorant bliss with Stanley's savage attacks. While Blanche enjoys her fantasy
world obliviously, Stanley destroys it.
Freytag's narrative structure ✔️✔️exposition (introduces characters, setting, actions: Blanche arrives),
complication (problem arises: Stanley begins to suspect Blanche), climax (actual crisis: Stanley uncovers
Blanche), resolution (outcome of decisions made to resolve crisis: none!), denouement (ties up loose
ends: Blanche is sent away)
Aristotle's catharsis ✔️✔️feeling of intense fear/ pity which purifies the emotions felt by the audience.
scene 10: combination of expressionist theatre in "blue piano" and Stanley's pretadory movements "he
takes a step towards her" emphasise to the audience how Blanche cannot escape the harshness of life.
She is attacked by both her own past life, and those around her in her present life.
speaker's accommodation ✔️✔️diverging or converging to make other speaker feel comfortable.
scene 8: following being stood up by Mitch, the audience's sympathy for Blanche is built by Stella's
obvious attempt to accomodate her, using honorific mode of address "Mr. Kowalski" to adopt Blanche's
sociolect. Given that Stanley then erupts and destroys any tranquility that Blanche may have gained
from this action, the audience see how Blanche is completely unable to gain any solace in society.
upwards convergence ✔️✔️to raise the lexical proficiency of one's language. scene 2: Stanley
advances his lexicon, "merchant", "acquaintance", "appraisal" to assert his dominance over his wife
when referring to legal matters. Accentuates territorial character.
upwards divergence ✔️✔️move away from lexical proficiency of other characters. scene 10: Blanche's
escape to the imaginary world is evidenced by her upwards divergence from Stanley, when saying "a
cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man's life - immeasurably!". By
raising her lexical proficiency, her languages mirrors her spiritual escape from this basic New Orleans
society.
, downwards divergence ✔️✔️move away from lexical proficiency of other characters. scene 10:
Stanley asserts his power by deferring from lexis that would be understandable for a cultured woman
such as Blanche, by exclaiming "Oh! So you want some rough-house!". He makes Blanche incongruous
with her surroundings.
dramatic heroine ✔️✔️character who undergoes dramatic fall from grace. Blanche.
chorus ✔️✔️character that breaches gap between audience and thoughts of characters. Expressionist
theatre. Stella.
how to establish characterisation, and how these elements are shown ✔️✔️appearance, background,
behaviour, speech style: shown by stage directions, dialogue, and observations
hegemonic masculinity ✔️✔️the prevalent view of what it is to be a man. scene 2: Stanley shows
hegemonic masculinity by demanding that "what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband", showing
his territorial, possessive nature.
hegemonic femininity ✔️✔️the prevalent view of what it is to be a woman "baby", "catch!", "why
don't you women go up and sit with Eunice?" accusative pronoun. in this society, the woman is the
subservient role. they are weak and depend on men.
diminutive mode of address ✔️✔️the informal, disrespectful form of a name: "baby" stanley to Stella
throughout the play. emphasises how he sees her as weak, nothing more than an infant. also, suggests
he only considers her to be worthy of the respect an infant would receive.
honorific mode of address ✔️✔️the formal, respectful form of a name "my Rosenkavalier!" (knight of
the rose) scene 5. Blanches honorific mode of address to describe the working class man shows how she
allows herself to be taken away by her imagination. hints towards descent into madness.
where does Blanche and Stanley's power shift ✔️✔️scene 2 and scene 10
dysphemism ✔️✔️substitution of a more offensive or disparaging word or phrase for one considered
less offensive.
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