IB English A Streetcar Named Desire Literary Devices and Quotes

Blue Piano

(Stage Direction) This blue piano expresses the spirit of the life which goes here. (Blue piano is used repitetivly to set the atmosphere and strengthen the action)

(Also stands for depression, loneliness and her longing for love for Blanche)

Stage directions about characters

Short for all but Blanche

Difference between Stella and Stanley

of a background obviously quite different from her husband's

Blanche imagery

(her appearance and manners) that suggests a moth

Blanche vs Setting

(Stage directions) incongruous to this setting

(Blanche) This - can this be - her home? (unable to comprehend Stellas new life)

(Stella) Then don't you think your superiour attitude is a bit out of place?

Streetcar Parallel

They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields! (In Life one first is in the loop of desire, before dying and resting in the underworld)

Blanche and alcohol

(Blanche) your sister hasn't turned into a drunkard

Stanley

(Stella) Yes. A different species!

(Stage Directions) Animal joy in his being

(Stage Directions) He sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications

Stella and Blanches Past

(Blanche) you left! I stayed and struggled!

(Blanche) The long parade to the graveyard!

(Blanche) And funerals are pretty compared to the deaths.

Alcohol

(Stanley) Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often.

Money

(Stella) you'd better give me some money (She is dependand on Stanley)

Blanche Bathing

(Blanche) Here I am, all freshly bathed and scented, and feeling like a brand-new human being!

Blanche Past

(Blanche) I'm not young and vulnerable any more

Loss of Belle Reve

(Blanche) exchanged the land for epic fornications

Blanche's Streetcar

(Blanche) I was flirting with your husband, Stella!

Blanches Diction

(Stella) this is Mr Gonzales and Mr Hubbel (otherwise always first name)

Blanche Light

(Blanche) I can't stand a naked light-bulb

(Stage Directions) Fearfully

Stanley about Stella

(Stanley, Screaming) I want my baby! (When Stella flees to Eunice)

Blanche Help

(Blanche) I need kindness now (She needs Mitch, as she can not live on her own)

Blanche about Stanley

(Blanche) You're married to a madman.

(Blanche) Stella! I can't live with him!

Blanche and Mitch

(Blanche) I want to deceive him enough to make him - want me

Varsouviana

Reminds Blanch of Allans death (represents death and immanent disaster -> either past or present (When she gets the bus ticket))

Blanche in Laurel

(Stanley) and she goes on to another, the same old lines, same old act, some old hooey!

Blanche Illusion

She sings the song Paper Moon, and wishes that others would believe in her lies so they can be reality.

Stanley Background

(Stanley) But what I am is a hundred percent American

Blanche's wish

(Blanche) I'll tell you what I want. Magic!

Rejection of Blance

(Mitch) You're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother

Blanche About Herself

(Blanche) A women of intelligence and breeding

Blanche Reaction about Truth

(Blanche) Oh! (Repeated, unable to find a response)

Visuals at Climax

(Stage direction) The shadows are of a grotesque and menancing form

(Stage Direction) The inhuman jungle noices rise up

Implied rape

(Stage Directions) and carried her to the bed

Reaction to truth

(Stella) I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley.

Inhuman State

(Doctor) Nurse, bring her out.

Blanche End

(Blanche) I have always depended on the kindness of strangers

Blanche DuBois name

-Blanche: White (purity in illusion)

- Du: Aristocratic (her past)

- Bois: Wood (wants to be strong)/Jungle (uncovering her past is difficult)

Belle Reve

- Blanche clings to this illusion

- Stands for the american dream

- Incorrect conjugation (belle-femine, reve masculin) indicates broken nature

Stanley Speech

Ungrammatical (Little education)