A Streetcar Named Desire themes (EDUQAS A LEVEL ENGLISH LITERATURE)

[gentle young woman...mildly]

[outside is the sound of mens' voices]

'meat'- Stanley

Scene 1: femeninity

'burned like rubbish'-Blanche

'parade to the graveyard'-Blanche

'the grim reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep'-Blanche

'struggle for breath and bleeding'-Blanche

'breathing is hoarse...rattles...cry out...hold me'-Blanche

Scene 1: death

'they're something like Irish aren't they'-Blanche

'i'm going to be honestly critical about it! Never, never, never in my worst dreams'-Blanche

'you know i haven't put on one ounce in 10 years'-Blanche

[laughs nervously and glances at Stella for reassurance]

'this-can this be- her home?'-Blanche

'what i meant was i'd like to be left alone'-Blanche

'just water baby'-Blanche

'he had those when you met him?'-Blanche

Scene 1: southern belle

[her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light]

[suggests a moth]

[white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat]

'no I rarely touch it' 'some people rarely touch it but it touches them often'

'you were married once, weren't you?'-Stanley

Scene 1: fantasy and illusion

[practically always just around the corner...blue piano]

[warm and easy intermingling of races]

[incongruous to the setting]

[brown river beyond the warehouses with their faints redolences of bananas and coffee]

Scene 1: old vs new

'they told me to take a streetcar named desire and then transfer to one called cemeteries'-Blanche

'Red hots! Red hots!'-Street vendor

'I cry on his lap like a baby'-Stella

Scene 1: desire

[animal joy... rough humour]

[red stained package]

'meat'-Stanley

[blue denim work clothes... bowling jacket]

[giving and taking... richly feathered male bird among hens]

[gaudy seed bearer]

Scene 1: masculinity

[inner rooms fade to darkness]

'everything I own is in that trunk'-Blanche

Scene 2: loss of place and identity

[red satin robe]

[playfully sprays him... slams it down]

'some buttons in the back'-Blanche

'Red hots!'-Street vendor

'love letters yellowing with antiquity'-Blanche

'the blind are leading the blind'-Blanche

Scene 2: danger and desire

'I'll inquire if she is acquainted... you've been swindled... I'm swindled too... I don't like to be swindled'-Stanley

[stalks... pulls... jerks]

'since when did you give me orders'-Stanley

'I don't care if she hears me. Lets see the papers'-Stanley

'let me enlighten you on a point or two baby'-Stan

'give me some money'-Stella

'fathers and uncles and brothers exchanged their land for epic fornications'-Blanche

'acquaintance that works in a jewelry store'-Stan

'big, capable hands'-Blanche

'that was all i could tell about you'-Blanche

'napoleonic code'-Stan

'strong, bold colours'-Blanche

Scene 2: male vs female

[Blanche is bathing]

'brand new human being'-Blanche

'treasure chest of a pirate'-Stanley

'didn't know she was good looking or not without being told'-Stanley

'hollywood glamour stuff'-Stanley

'go there on a rocket that never comes down'-Blanche

'sister Blanche cannot be annoyed with business details'-Stanley

'solid gold dress''fox pieces''bushy,white''diamonds''pearls'-Stanley

'would you think it possible that i was once considered attractive'-Blanche

Scene 2: fantasy and illusion

'not the sort that goes for jasmine perfume'-Blanche

'simple, straightforward, honest... primitive'-Blanche

'big, clumsy fingers'-Blanche

'big, capable hands'-Blanche

'no ands ifs or buts'-Stanley

[blue piano and hot trumpet]

Scene 2: new America

'i'll burn them'-Blanche

'love letters yellowing with antiquity'-Blanche

'little boy'-Blanche

'fathers and uncles and brothers exchanged their land for epic fornications'-Blanche

Scene 2: old America

'don't make no difference in the quarter'-Mitch

'so much confusion in the world'-Blanche

'could i kibitz?'-Blanche

Scene 3: old vs new America

[sweep up their winnings on the way out]

'i haven't noticed the stamp of genius even on Stanley's forehead'-Blanche

Scene 3: societal corruption

'i shall but love thee better after death'-Mitch

'i gotta sick mother'-Mitch

[shyly... embarrassed laugh]

'piggy bank his mother gave him for christmas'-Stan

'five dollar bills in his pants pocket folded up tight as spitballs'-Pablo

[awkward... like a dancing bear]

'let the girls have their music'

Scene 3: gentler masculinity

'poker should not be played in a house with women'-Mitch

'nothing an a poker table but cards, chips and whiskey'-Stanley

'nobody's going to get up so don't be worried'-Stan

[peak of physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colours]

[lurid, nocturnal brilliance... raw colours of the chidlhood spectrum... yellow, vivid green]

[tosses it out the window]

Poker is symbolic of b+s relationship-male power and intense competition, only one can win

Scene 3: violent masculinity and danger

chicken joke- desire and chasing women is driving force

[with heaven-splitting violence]'STELL-LAHHH'-Stan

[low tone clarinet moans]

[low animal moans...presses his face to her belly]

'you just blew your top'

[paper doll, slow and blue]

'their first discovery of love'-Blanche

[Blanche moves back into the streak of light]

'seven card stud'-Stanley

[loud whack of his hand on her thigh]

'same as last time'-Mitch

Scene 3: desire and domestic abuse

'so mad when he does that to me'-Stella

[the bedroom is relatively dim]

'you hens cut out that conversation'-Stanley

[light blue satin kimono]

[she returns his look without flinching]

Scene 3: femininity

'white woods'-Blanche

'two is the limit'-Blanche

'i can't stand a naked lightbulb anymore that i can a rude remark or vulgar action'-Blanche

Scene 3: fantasy and illusion

'his poker night- you call it'- Blanche

[licking his lips]

'sub-human' 'not quite to the stage of humanity yet' 'ape-like' 'anthropological studies' 'Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the stone age' 'swilling and grunting and hulking'- Blanche

Scene 4: animalism

'people have go to tolerate each other's habits'- Stella

'what other can i be?'- Stella

[knuckles nervously to her lips] [moaning cry]

[hysterical tenderness]

[calm and leisurely]

'men are drinking and playing poker anything can happen'- Stella

Scene 4: new america

'superior attitude is a bit out of place'- Stella

'brutal desire, the name of that rattletrap streetcar that bangs through the quarter'- Blanche

'only way to live with a man like that is to go to bed with him'- Blanche

[narcotized tranquility]

'it brought me here- where i'm not wanted and where i'm ashamed to be'- Blanche

'happen between a man and a woman in the dark' 'make everything else seem unimportant'- Stella

Scene 4: sexual desire

[choral chant]

'on Biscayne Boulevard, Christmas eve, about dusk'- Blanche

'shuffling about and mumbling'- Blanche

'smashing the lightbulbs with it'- Stella

'got to get hold of a bromo'- Blanche

Scene 4: fantasy and illusion

'mechanics at Fritz don't know their can from their third base'- Stanley

[undershirt and grease-stained seersucker pants]

'Stanley doesn't give me a regular allowance'- Stella

'get hold of some money-that's the way out'- Blanche

'good as a lamb'- Stella

loud, modern train symoblises Stanley, it covers his entrance and permits eavesdropping

Scene 4: masculinity and femininity

'chinese philosophy'- Blanche

'cling to and hold as our flag'- Blanche

'long way from being made in God's image' 'some progress has been made' 'finer feelings'- Blanche

[sheet of Kleenex and an eyebrow pencil

Scene 4: old southern values

[blue piano and trumpet and drums is heard]

[embraced him][grins]

'just those curtains between us'- Blanche

'dark march towards whatever it is we are approaching' 'don't hang back with the brutes'- Blanche

Blanche's confusion links to the broken tower in the epigraph- reflects the broken society she finds herself in

Scene 4: marginalisation in a corrupt society

'hotel called the flamingo'- Stanley

'trick'- Blanche

'keep my hands off children'- Blanche

[it foams and spills over]

'you must've gotten pretty close if you could smell it'- Stanley

Scene 5: sexual corruption

'soft people have got to court the favour of hard ones' 'put on soft colours' 'colour of butterfly wings'- Blanche

'shimmer and glow- put a paper lantern over the light'- Blanche

Scene 5: softness and fragility

'temporary magic'- Blanche

'trick'- Blanche

'shimmer and glow- put a paper lantern over the light'- Blanche

'virgo is the virgin'- Blanche

'young prince out of the arabian nights'- Blanche

'i'm compiling a notebook of quaint little words and phrases'- Blanche

'that stuff you use is expensive?'- Stanley

'some have homes on the gulf and there has been a continued round of entertainments, teas, cocktails and luncheons'- Blanche

Scene 5: fantasy and illusion

'wet in the shower'- Blanche

'its temperamental?'- Blanche

[shakes his head violently... hastily up the steps]

[she is sobbing luxuriously and he is cooing love words]

'the goat'- Blanche

'Rosenkavalier'- Blanche

'lots of banging around in the army... treat inanimate objects with such fury'- Blanche

'a little bit of eternity'- Blanche

Scene 5: desire and flirting

'i'm not 'putting out''- Blanche

'i want his respect'- Blanche

'i won't hang around until he throws me out'- Blanche

Scene 5: respectable traits

[lightning... cackling hysterically]

[murmur of thunder]

[green and scarlet silk bowling shirt]

[Blanche winces slightly]

Scene 5: violence and danger