Lecture notes
A Streetcar Named Desire - Conflict between Stella and Blanche notes
- Module
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Institution
- OCR
Quotes and analysis to show the conflict between Stella and Blanche in A Streetcar named Desire.
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Main idea - Blanche & Stella keep secrets from each other which is the main flaw in theirrelationship and means that they don’t trust each other.
What: Blanche’s insecurity & Stella’s fear of judgement by Blanche
- Shows Blanche as wanting compliments (shows contrast between Stella who
“dutifully” compliments Blanche & Stanley who openly doesn’t & dodges her
flirtation).
- There’s still insecurity - nervous & looking for Stella’s acceptance.
- By Blanche maintaining a facade in front of Stella & not revealing anything of her
true reality, Blanche guards herself from criticism that, if she was looking upon
herself, would receive.
- “[During the pause, Blanche stares at her. She smiles at Blanche.]” - verb “stares”
seems intense following a disagreement between the sisters (Blanche may be trying to
read whether she has insulted Stella too much as Stella is Blanche’s last hope - trying to
maintain control of Stella). Verb “smiles” has connotations of love & support (hints that
Stella is aware of Blanche’s mental instability). Paralanguage shows an unspoken
interaction - Blanche is the dominant sister who seeks support & acceptance from Stella
& Stella gives her that support. Earlier in scene 1 - “For a moment they stare at each
other.” when they first see each other - up to directors & actors with the length of this
look - could be love, tension, confusion. “She feared for either of them to stop and think”
- contrast with “stares” - Blanche knows that there is a tension between the sisters &
wishes to hide this reality with the hysterics of seeing each other. “[She laughs but her
glance at Blanche is a little anxious]” - adjective “little anxious” (doesn’t want to worry
Blanche / question her - both sisters try to almost read each other's minds without
speaking - polite to not burden oneself with one’s problems - aren’t as close as they
make out to be / pretend to be). Stella remains passive & hides emotions as she would
do with Stanley (only starts to stand up to Stanley when Blanche arrives). “[She smiles at
him radiantly]” - shows contrast between sisters - Stella’s smile was perhaps supportive
& loving however Blanche’s seems flirtatious. Adverb “radiantly” shows Blanche has
pretending to be realistic (she later says that she likes bold colours and not wishy-washy
people) - like usually symbolises realism therefore Blanche is setting herself up to be
truthful about Belle Reve to Stanley. However, it could be used to show that that the real
Blanche is flirtatious & that when she is using her sex as a form of power, she seems
radiant & full of life (theme of death vs desire as Blanche uses desire to escape death -
youth). When the young man leaves in Scene 4, Blanche is described as looking
“dreamily” which reinforces the idea that when she is using her sexual power, she is a
complete contrast to when she is “nervously tamping” & sitting “stiffly”. Similarly, at the
beginning of scene 4, after Stella has slept with Stanley - “Her face is serene in the early
morning light” - which shows that she too is empowered by sex however she is far more
traditional - sex between a husband & wife only. “Narcotized tranquility” again shows that
she is almost in a drug-like state similar to how Blanche looked “dreamily”
-
Where: Blanche - how she lost her job, Shep Huntleigh, drinking & Stella - pregnancy, Mitch
doesn’t arrive at the birthday meal, the living conditions
, - Blanche lies about her drinking & relies heavily on it to blur reality & allow her to more
easily depend on illusions that, at this point on the play, are arguably still seen as
illusions to Blanche but as the play goes on the line between reality & illusions begins to
blur more and more. “[looking down at her glass, which shakes in her hand]” - Blanche
looks to alcohol before she tells Stella that she’s “all I’ve got in the world” which could
show that she hasn’t accepted the dependence she has on alcohol as it is something
she has in the world that will remain as long as she has control (complete antithesis of
what alcohol does to Blanche). Verb “shakes” shows that Blanche is more dynamic
when she’s had alcohol - seems to be like a stimulant to Blanche to maintain her facade
& power her. This action could be her acting as she wants Stella to feel sympathy
towards her in the hope that she will let her stay longer than Stella is perhaps imagining
at this point in the play. “[She drinks quickly.] Oh, this buzzes right through me and feels
so good!” - Stage direction - Blanche uses this as a way of changing the topic of
conversation. Adverb “quickly” shows that she knows that she needs to maintain her
facade & by drinking, it becomes easier for her to do so. She doesn’t want to let slip the
truth - this shows that Blanche was perhaps a truthful person when she was younger
however this changed after Allan’s suicide as he wanted her to not tell the truth about
what she had seem (him with another man) yet she does & she expresses her true
opinion, resulting in him killing himself - perhaps Blanche is scared of telling the truth as
she doesn’t want to hurt people - one should not burden someone else with their
problems. Audience is shown the real Blanche here ( or perhaps not as telling lies may
pain Blanche yet she doesn’t know how to tell the truth & maintain her high class facade)
as alcohol is shown to boost her mood. Adjective “good” is arguably an understatement -
she still has some control over her facade. She may say this so she is offered another
drink which she can turn down to prove to her sister that she does have some control
over her drinking. Verb “buzzes” has connotations of electricity which again shows that
alcohol almost brings Blanche back to life. The exclamative is used to end the
conversation as Blanche raises the volume of her voice to prevent Stella saying any
more about Blanche’s job. Although Blanche is trying to show her control over alcohol,
she quickly contradicts this in a matter of a few lines. “I never had your beautiful self-
control. I am going to take just one little tiny nip more, sort of to put the stopper on …
Then put the bottle away so I won’t be tempted.” - adjective “beautiful” doesn’t seem fit
to describe “self-control” however Blanche knows that she doesn’t have self-control &
control seems to be something that a Southern Belle would need to have over alcohol.
Blanche doesn’t seem to have this self-control from the beginning & complains about
how her looks are slipping yet she uses her looks to flirt with Stanley & attract Mitch in
the middle of the play. Towards the end of the play (scene 10), Blanche says that she
has “beauty of the mind” which contradicts the idea that she says she doesn’t have the
beauty of self-control in scene 1. This shows Blanche’s mental deterioration. Adjectives
“little tiny” (synonyms) makes the drink seem insignificant as if Blanche is trying to
rationalise it to herself & Stella, making it seem small. Early on in the play, Blanche is
already lying to herself & others as she has already told Stella “one’s my limit.” & through
the use of dramatic irony, the audience knows that Blanche has been drinking prior to
the drinks that Stella has seen her have. This shows that there are many secrets that the
sisters don’t know about each other & only the audience see Blanche throughout the
play. “The stopper” hasn’t stopped Blanche previously & it foreshadows that it won’t stop
Blanche later in the play. “[Nervously tamping cigarette]” the noise & movement of the
character at this point could be used to distract Stella about what Blanche is about to say
“I was on the verge of - lunacy, almost!” In some productions of the play, Blanche is
shown as having the cigarette in her mouth while she says these words which again
would disguise the words as it would be harder to say. Blanche could also be doing this
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