ASND themes

death vs desire

• inevitable self destructive power of desire

  • “brutal desire - just desire! - the name of that rattle trap street car” “a streetcar named desire and change at one called cemeteries” “haven’t you ever ridden on that streetcar”

  • “we’ve had this date from the very beginning” “picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed”

  • “her eyes go blind” “blind are leading the blind” “narcotized tranquility”

• sex and death intricately and fatally linked

  • “my looks are slipping” “coloured paper lantern” “i can’t stand a naked light” “a seventeen year old boy - she’d gotten mixed up with” “young man! young young young”

  • “turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow” “a few moments later - a shot”

  • “flowers for the dead” “picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed”

outsiders

“her appearance is incongruous to the setting” “her white clothes, that suggests a moth” “fluffy bodice” “white gloves”

“two rooms” “folding bed” “one of those collapsible things”

“

family

relationships

justice

• cruel inversion of justice in the restoration of the equillibrium

  • twoness motif - “two rooms” “folding bed” “one of those collapsible things”

  • blanche as stanley’s antagonist - “sub human” “ape-like” “he acts like an animal” “sprays him with it”

  • rape as hellish punishment - “lurid reflections move sinuously as flames” “biting his tongue which protrudes between his lips” “inert figure” “we’ve had this date from the very beginning”

• a world void of justice in the cyclical return to order

  • “empty perfume bottles” “seizes paper lantern” “blue blanket” “this game is a seven card stud”

violence

“heaves the package at her” “sizes women up at a glance” “gaudy seed bearer” “loud whack of his hand on her thigh” “coloured lights going” “he stares at her for a count of ten” - sexual violence

“he smashed all the light bulbs with the heel of my slipper” “he seizes the atomizer and slams it down” “he hurls a cup and saucer” “with shouted oath, he tosses the instrument out the window” - destruction of the setting

“animal joy” “drunk- drunk- animal thing, you” “forced, pinioned by the two men” “throws his head back like a baying hound” “like cries in a jungle” - primitive violence

masculinity vs femininity

“sprays the atomizer” “slams it down” “sprinkle the place with powder” - feminisation of the setting

“pulls open the wardrobe trunk” “jerks out an armful of dresses” “furs” “jewellery - trunk prop

“powerful as the primary colours” “men at the peak of their physical manhood” - poker night

“every man is a king! and i am the king around here” “he hurls a cup and saucer” “I pulled you down off them columns” - male aggression

“gaudy seed bearer” “sizes women up at a glance” “richly feathered male bird among hens” “fingers find the opening of a blouse” vs “red satin robe”

madness

“rapid feverish polka tune” “flowers for the dead” “the glass cracks” “lurid reflections” “a prostitute roles a drunkard”

“singing in the bathroom” “a moonlight swim” “don’t come up till tomorrow” “i am going to die at sea” “get OUT of the bathroom” “stanley goes into the bathroom”

“everything I own is in that trunk” “pulls open” “jerks” “hurls”

“divested of all the softer properties of womanhood”

reality vs illusion

“her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light” “that suggests a moth” “I can’t stand a naked light” “put a paper lantern over the light” “got to shimmer got to glow” “seizes the paper lantern”

“ill tell you what i want. magic!”

“I want to get in touch with Mr Shep Hunleigh”

“white fluffy bodice” “costume jewellery”

“a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in”

“I want to deceive him enough to make him want me”