Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present (4.2)
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Summary AQA English Literature A-level - A Streetcar Named Desire - Quotes
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Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present (4.2)
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AQA
My quote-bank for the core drama set text, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, I used to get an A* in my 2023 A-level.
Includes many quotes for the setting, symbolic techniques, and all characters & analysis. Also includes detailed notes on context (AO3) - of the author and historical; many literar...
Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present (4.2)
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Scene breakdowns =
1 - Blanche arrives & scene w Stella / 2 - Stanley asks about Belle Reve & goes through Blanche's clothes / 3 - Poker scene / 4 - Stella forgives Stanley &
Blanche writes to Shep / 5 - Eunice+Steve fight / Stanley exposes Blanche / she kisses young boy / 6 - Blanche & Mitch come back from amusement park / 7
- Stanley (vulnerable) tells Stella everything as Blanche bathes / 8 - Blanche's birthday & Stella goes into labour / 9 - Mitch confronts Blanche / 10 - Stanley
rapes Blanche / 11 - Blanche is taken to an asylum
QUOTES =
Belle Reve - "A great big place with white columns" - Means Beautiful Dream
- "Plantation" - Symbolises & romanticises the aristocratic Old South before its decline
- Stella: "Belle Reve? Lost, is it? No!" - Built on the exploitation of poor minorities
- "Without Belle Reve to protect us" - Eunice is fascinated by it due to her lower class
- Stanley: "I pulled you down off them columns" - Is a big part of Stella & Blanche's past, so losing the home represents the
loss of the Old South
- Was security financially & physically for the sisters
- Stanley metaphorically took Stella down a peg
- Undiverse culturally in Laurel
French - 'Elysian fields' - Elysian fields is a place where the souls of heroes went in Greek mythology,
Quarter of - 'The section is poor' Blanche attempts to run away from death
New Orleans - 'Houses are mostly white frame, weathered grey' - Not innocent / more realistic
- 'Easy intermingling of races' - Multicultural
- 'Voices of people on the street can be heard - The journey from the train station to the Kowalski apartment is an
- "They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer allegorical version of her life up to this point in time. Her illicit pursuit of
to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off her sexual “desires” led to her social death and expulsion from her
at—Elysian Fields!' hometown of Laurel
- ‘Streetcar’ is a symbol of life – it keeps plodding along its tracks just as
women must in their lives. If they stick to the conventional positions, even
though it causes them to be vulnerable – they will survive in society.
Music - 'Blue piano' expresses the spirit of the life which goes on here' = Intro to New Orleans & when Stella + Stanley reunite in Scene 3 / yet unhappy
when Mitch + Blanche fight in scene 9
- Varsouviana Polka = Blanche and Allan danced to this, plays whenever Blanche is asked about her relations, background in scenes to do with
Blanche to remind the audience her memory of Allan is everywhere - audience have insight into being in her mind
- Blanche sings in the bath oblivious of all outside her, emphasises her bittersweet situation
- Paper Moon by Ella Fitzgerald - means romance is an illusion & turns the world into fantasy, like the paper lantern
,Blanche Name: Blanche means white - ironically symbolising innocence and purity & Du Bois means 'wood' which is something solid again ironic as she is unrealistic
DuBois and its unlike Blanche's nervous state = conflicting like her + the play
Description: 'appearance is incongruous to this setting' / doesn't fit, emphasises by asyndetic listing of 'daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice,
necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as though she was arriving at a summer tea in the garden district'
Dominant over Stella:
● "I'd forgotten how quiet you were" / "Oh, Stella, Stella, you're crying!" = un-self aware
● "[Stella] you haven't said a word about my appearance"
● "I'll expect you to be understanding about what I have to tell you"
● When Stella doesn't say "a [complimentary] word about.. [Blanche's] appearance", Blanche brings herself up and highlights how she hasn't "put on one ounce in ten
years" while puts down Stella who has "put on some weight", patronisingly using the dehumanising animalistic simile of "as plump as a little partridge!"
● nitpicking at her appearance - suggesting she change the weight around her "hips" and "hair - … [she] ought to cut… in a feather bob" - it can be inferred this is a
deflection of her own negative feelings about her own appearance.
● with her sister Stella who she is only 'about five years older than', Williams has Blanche dominate and dictate the conversation "never… [giving Stella]... a chance to
say much" both in the past and presently. Williams frequently uses imperatives, commands and exclamations when Blanche talks - for instance "let me look at you",
"now you talk", "I said stand up!" and "the subject is closed!" - which shows she is in control.
● uses rhetorical questions, manipulation and guilt tripping to get the answers she wants. For instance, the repetition and ellipsis in "you left Belle Reve. The summer
Dad died and you left us…" is an attempt to make Stella feel bad, prompt an apology
● hyperbolic, emotive language in "fought for it [Belle Reve], bled for it, almost died for it!" reflects how hurt Blanche is that Stella, in her eyes, chose the easier route of
"[coming to] New Orleans and looked out for yourself!" and succumbing to the working class.
● subverts conventions of being a Southern Belle, as like Stanley she enjoys the stereotypically male drink of "whisky"; wants to play "poker"; has a job teaching; and is
not a virgin
● employs a double standard, as when Stanley visually judges her she doesn't like it so "[draws] back from his stare" and when Blanche feels judged by Stella about
losing Belle Reve, her tone and rising intonation becomes angry: "(springing up) You're a fine one to sit there accusing me of it!" - even though Stella didn't accuse her,
defensive
● "I'll take to the streets" = hyperbolic, melodramatic, but actually the truth
● "The only way to live with such a man is to - go to bed with him! And that's your job - not mine!" - in her loneliness is jealous of Stella's relationship based on sex
Cares about Stella:
● "How lovely to have a baby! (she embraces her sister)"
● "I want my sister's clothes! We'll go to that woman's upstairs!"
● "And you - you let him? Didn't run, didn't scream?"
● "Where is my little sister Stella? Stella? Stella?", "I'm terrified"
● "Pull yourself together and face the facts" - idiom
● "Why do you [Stella] look at me with that pitying look?"
● goes out of her way to buy "nice clothes to meet all… [Stella's] lovely friends in", which while this shows her materialism and how she values first appearances over
the person, it also suggests she wants to make a good first impression as she is socially insecure too
● nervous tone when questioning "Will Stanley like me, or will I just be a visiting in-law…? I couldn't stand that" suggests she cares about validation from others, on the
other hand it reflects that she cares about Stella as she wants Stella's husband to like her
● alliterative and sibilant "Stella, oh, Stella, Stella! Stella for Star!"
, Stanley - good:
● Feels self conscious that she hasn't "washed or even powdered my face"
● "I was fishing for a compliment Stanley"
● "May I have a drag on your cig?", "big, capable hands", "I was flirting with your husband!", "(she smiles at him radiantly) Would you think it possible that I was once
considered to be - attractive?, "When you walked in here last night, I said to myself - 'My sister has married a man!'", "Now the buttons", "You may enter! (He crosses
through drapes with a smouldering look) How do I look?" = attracted to Stanley, fishes for his attention, openly flirts with him while Stella can hear - all plays a role in
Stella's scepticism about the rape
● "Little boy" / "the boy" - calls both Mitch, Stanley & Allan it, her way of flirting as attracted to youth
Stanley - bad:
● "But there's no door between the two rooms, and Stanley - will it be decent?" / "He stalks through the rooms in his underwear at night"
● 'Blanche closes her eyes as if faint. Her hand trembles' = when Stanley asks about the flamingo
● "He hates me"
● "Does that mean we are to be alone in here?"
● 'Coughing, gagging sounds are heard' when Blanche gifts bus ticket
● racist derogatory slur of "Polack!", for both his lower class and ethnicity of being Polish
● bravery in defending herself against Stanley by commanding him to "Stay back!" & 'smashes a bottle on the table and faces him' even though she is aware of the
violence he is capable of
● "Everything I own is in that trunk" = symbol of her past, Stanley treats it violently & curious of what's in it like how he treats her past
Mitch:
● 'dark red satin wrapper' = femme fatale to Mitch
● "I want to deceive him" = presents herself as innocent to him as that's what he desires
● "Voulez vous couchez avec moi ce soir" = joke at his expense as doesn't understand french
● "Old fashioned ideals! (she rolls her eyes)"
● "I didn't lie in my heart"
● "He hasn't gotten a thing but a good night kiss"
● "Fire! Fire! Fire!" = implies she's had an experience like this before, screaming assault doesn't get attention
● "Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable… I have never, never been guilty'
● "Then marry me, Mitch!" = desperate to be married even after Mitch forces himself upon her
Insecurity:
● "How do I look?"
● 'Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light', "Leave the lights off" - repeated motif represents how she is conscious of her appearance and how she doesn't want it
scrutinised, as she is getting older and her "looks are slipping"
● self aware of her narcissism and "awful vanity about my looks even now that my looks are slipping!"
● so obsessed with her appearance as it is one of the only things she can control.
● Adjective 'delicate beauty' denoting fragility. Hence, she is self deprecating about her looks, hyperbolically comparing them to "a ruin" which shows the extent of her
self consciousness.
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