Breakfast at Tiffany\'s and A Streetcar Named Desire
College aantekeningen
Breakfast at Tiffany's/Streetcar Named Desire Comparison
564 keer bekeken 5 keer verkocht
Vak
Breakfast at Tiffany\'s and A Streetcar Named Desire
Instelling
OCR
Boek
Breakfast at Tiffany\'s
Comparison between Breakfast at Tiffany's (Capote) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Williams), specifically "human relationships". I used this for my English Literature A Level coursework, OCR exam board. These documents contain the main quotes I used from the texts, with comparisons between the two, ...
Breakfast at Tiffany's and A Streetcar Named Desire
Alle documenten voor dit vak (1)
Verkoper
Volgen
abbiecotterrill
Voorbeeld van de inhoud
A Streetcar Named Desire Quotes
CHARACTERS
BLANCHE
“Her expression is one of shocked disbelief” - can’t believe where her sister is living; class differences
“Suggests a moth” - Williams wants this; moths are attracted to light (contrast); not quite a butterfly (less
attractive); delicate
“Tightly clutching” “stiffly” - tense when she enters Stella’s home; out of her comfort zone
“Startled gesture” - easily startled
“Washes out the tumbler” - hiding the fact she’s been drinking
“Your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard” - even though we see her relying on alcohol throughout the play
“Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe could do it justice!” - english teacher; educated; implies Stella is living in almost a
horror show
“One’s my limit” - lies to Stella
“The Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep”
“Blanche is bathing” - she has a lot of baths throughout the play, TW: ‘plastic theatre’ = things representing
other things, i.e. washing away guilt?
“When she comes in be sure to say something nice about her appearance” - Stella is aware of Blanche’s
fragility
“Epic fornications” - blames male ancestors for acting immorally → loss of Belle Reve
“How do I look?” - feels need to get attention and approval of the men at the poker night
“Blanche moves back into the streak of light” - doing it on purpose; men can see her undressing
from the other room → attention seeking; normally avoids the light, only in the light when looking for sexual
attention
“She looks right and left as if for a sanctuary” - looking for some kind of safety; feels unsafe → out of her
comfort zone
“A notebook of quaint little words and phrases I’ve picked up here” - acting more prestige than others;
acting as if in another country, another world
“What have people been telling you about me?” - paranoid; thinks Stella is going to judge her; thinks she
has heard rumours
“You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I-I’m fading now”
“I have to admit I love to be waited on…”
“A girl alone in the world, has got to keep a firm hold on her emotions or she’ll be lost” - sex before
marriage; ironic B was a prostitute; virginity was valued until marriage
“Let’s leave the lights off, shall we?” - doesn’t want Mitch to see her
“Voulez-vous couchez avec moi ce soir?” - french history of new orleans (Belle Reve); using her
intelligence, Mitch most likely doesn’t understand french
“It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow” - light
imagery; simile: the idea of love gave her a light (light at the end of the tunnel?); opened her eyes to
something → new perspective; B + light = beauty, hiding from the light because she is losing her beauty
“I didn’t know that … I didn’t know that” - repetition emphasising how she was clueless, oblivious, not in the
wrong (?) → protecting her reputation
“He was in the quicksands and clutching at me… I was slipping in with him” - metaphor: he was falling and
dragging her in at the same time; Hart Crane suicide- sank into water; husbands suicide led to the start of
her guilt, sinking in guilt ever since
“She claps her hands to her ears and crouches over” - key, horrible moment in her past → fear,
overwhelming, shocking
“A few moments later-- a shot!” “the Polka stops abruptly” - her whole life stopped for a moment
“You disgust me” “the Polka music increases”
, “It wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me” - song about another person transforming life; last scene
seen was Mitch embracing her; song interspersed between Stanley’s comments about her lies → harsh
reality vs dreaming illusion
“The Varsouviana is heard… she is drinking to escape it”
“A distant revolver shot is heard. Blanche seems relieved” - Varsouviana stops when gunshot is heard,
death of husband
“I don’t want realism. I want magic!”
“I tell what ought to be truth”
“I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan- intimacies with strangers was all I seemed
able to fill my empty heart with” - searching for intimacy for protection (from the world / from herself / from
the past and her memories)
Mexican Woman: ““Flores para los muertos” [the polka tune fades out]” - mexican woman singing song to
advertise flowers used for the dead; intertwining B’s words; death of husband → death of hope, love, her
soul
“The opposite is desire” - escaping death via desire; mitch to escape memory of Allan; Stella’s baby = life
and hope, Stella and Stanley have a passionate rship = what B has been looking for
“Soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown” “scuffed silver slippers” - imperfections; wants to escape to
her ‘fantasy’ world / old south
“Slams the mirror face down with such violence that the glass cracks”
“Mr. Shep Hungtleigh. I wore his ATO pin my last year at college” - invents story of the ‘wire’ from Shep;
insanity/fantasy world
“A cultivated woman, a women of intelligence and breeding” - describing what she thinks she has
“I have all of these treasures locked in my heart” - metaphor of ‘treasures’ she has within herself, while
physically covered in fake treasures (rhinestones)
“I have just washed my hair” - links to bathing, trying to wash out memories of the assault, washing her hair
→ appearance
“A tragic radiance” - TW wants us to see her as a tragic figure, or victim; fatal flaw: insecurity, promiscuity,
memory? Become a victim of everyone, of her own past, of the system and of history- out of place, out of
her time
“I have just washed my hair” - bathing, trying to wash out memories of rape
“A look of sorrowful perplexity as though all human experience shows on her face” - overwhelmed, victim of
the whole world
“This place is a trap” - feels trapped in the house with Stanley; rships are possible traps: Stella married to
an abusive rapist
“It’s Della Robbia blue. The blue of the robe in the old Madonna pictures” - virgin mary; dichotomy of
attitudes towards women: virgin vs whore; mother figure; she is cultured- references art
“Those cathedral bells - they’re the only clean thing in the Quarter” - religion: feels something unclean about
this part of New Orleans; everything is tainted, she wants innocence/cleanliness → innocence of youth,
cleanliness (bathing)
“A very young one” - idolising youth
“Big silver watch” - money
“Her soul to heaven” “an ocean as blue as my first lover’s eyes” - remembering Alan; romanticising her
death → fantasy
STELLA
“Looks slowly down at her hands folded on the table” - sadness and/or guilt
“It’s your poker night” - aware that is is a male gathering, patriarchal
Voordelen van het kopen van samenvattingen bij Stuvia op een rij:
Verzekerd van kwaliteit door reviews
Stuvia-klanten hebben meer dan 700.000 samenvattingen beoordeeld. Zo weet je zeker dat je de beste documenten koopt!
Snel en makkelijk kopen
Je betaalt supersnel en eenmalig met iDeal, creditcard of Stuvia-tegoed voor de samenvatting. Zonder lidmaatschap.
Focus op de essentie
Samenvattingen worden geschreven voor en door anderen. Daarom zijn de samenvattingen altijd betrouwbaar en actueel. Zo kom je snel tot de kern!
Veelgestelde vragen
Wat krijg ik als ik dit document koop?
Je krijgt een PDF, die direct beschikbaar is na je aankoop. Het gekochte document is altijd, overal en oneindig toegankelijk via je profiel.
Tevredenheidsgarantie: hoe werkt dat?
Onze tevredenheidsgarantie zorgt ervoor dat je altijd een studiedocument vindt dat goed bij je past. Je vult een formulier in en onze klantenservice regelt de rest.
Van wie koop ik deze samenvatting?
Stuvia is een marktplaats, je koop dit document dus niet van ons, maar van verkoper abbiecotterrill. Stuvia faciliteert de betaling aan de verkoper.
Zit ik meteen vast aan een abonnement?
Nee, je koopt alleen deze samenvatting voor €8,66. Je zit daarna nergens aan vast.
