A Streetcar Named Desire MOMENT BANK

“Elysian fields”

P1

• Mythological allusion to the Greek place of rest, mirroring Blanche’s yearn for a place of sanctuary to reflect on her past whilst continuing to conceal the trauma within it

• Could also contextually link to the romanticised and triumphant atmosphere of New Orleans, America in the 20th century is rebuilding itself passionately and moving on- this brings a jovial atmosphere, perhaps Blanche can attempt to transgress with the rest of society from her troubles, that depends if she chooses to follow or continue to spiral into self destruction

Blanche’s moth-like beauty and delicate attire

• Poignant extended metaphor of a moth perpetuated throughout the play, encapsulating her fragility and detrimental tendency of self-destruction

• Symbolism of moths represent innocence and new beginnings, yet also death and misfortune, these are 2 sides of the same coin for Blanche, she is in New Orleans for a new beginning, yet her melancholic misfortune still follows her

• Her dainty and delicate appearance in her white clothes suggest innocence, divinity and aristocracy- yet this directly alienates her in the colourful and humble setting of New Orleans. She clings onto her elitist past of a Southern Belle, attempting to use it to deceive others into thinking her life is stable, yet her inability to adapt to her surroundings is a clear indication of her instability, she is not able to keep up with the changing times

Blanche’s anxiousness and alcohol addiction

P5

• Emphasises how integral stage directions are to the play, Williams displays her as timid and distressed, frantically attempting to comfort herself with a drink of whisky, yet in doing so, she only deepens the void of addiction she is already trapped in

• The lighting is a light blue, almost replicating a suffocating atmosphere of a mental asylum or hospital, intensifying the intimacy of the scene, hinting at her mental derangement

• Naturalistic theatre, by Williams showing us her hysteric disposition instead of having her immediately express it into words, we are led to question the reason for her discomfort more deeply or even judge her for it

Literary allusion to Edgar Allan Poe

P7

• Allan Poe is a popular gothic writer, known for his novels revolving around madness and the supernatural, perhaps Williams purposely embeds this in Blanche’s comparison of the apartment to foreshadow how living in the apartment will soon lead to the tragic cascade of her sanity

Blanche’s reference to weight

P8

• Another one of Blanche’s frantic attempts to cling to her past, her physical appearance is a trophy to her as it is the only thing she believes gives her any sort of relevance in the patriarchal society

• Williams purposely portraying this evidently self conscious side of her to expose the adversities of women living in the 20th century society, consumed by misogynistic ideals that their worth is in their body rather than their person

Music of blue piano, and Blanche’s explanation of the downfall of Belle Reve

P12

• Semantic field of death and misery intensifies the tragic downfall of Belle Reve and the DuBois family’s name, they have lost their materialism and consequently lost their elitism in society

• Structurally a long passage, highlighting Blanche’s franticness, further exposing the absence of her clear state of mind, she is burdened and haunted by the loss of her past and continues to lament it instead of move past it

• Metaphor of the Grim Reaper

• Her accusatory tone towards Stella for not being their to aid her with the dilapidation of their materialism illuminates her feelings of envy towards her- Stella has moved on and built a family, yet Blanche belittles her digression merely to the means of sexual desire in attempt to make herself look more mature

Stanley’s first appearance

P13

• Animalistic imagery, metaphors of feathered male birds among hens, illustrating the predatory disposition of Stanley

• Plosive ‘p’ sound in ‘power and pride’ foreshadows the volatility of Stanley’s emotions, his ability to erupt and dominate at any time and anywhere

• Stanley is the epitome of the capitalist America, this figure of the future harshly contrasting Blanche being a figure of the past

• He removes his shirt in front of Blanche, crystallising his lustful and ignorant nature, this dismissal of Blanche’s feelings in this slightly uncomfortable situation marks only the start of his crude treatment of her

Blanche’s frequent bathroom breaks to bathe

P16 +more

• Blanche’s frequent breaks to bathe highlights not only her unhealthy obsession with her vanity (conditioned by society), yet also serves for the purpose of symbolising her tendency to drown in her sorrows and anxiety. Although she claims it later on as a coping mechanism and a means to heal, it only becomes another one of her addictions, craving a sense of temporary relief rather than making a change to herself in the long term

“The touch of your hand insults them”

P23

• Stanley’s domineering character putting pressure on Blanche to give up the papers of Belle Reve as part of the ‘Napoleonic code’, she resists yet eventually gives in

• Stanley gets a hold of one of her love letters, yet she personifies them, insulted by the touch of Stanley, perhaps she is repulsed by him for 2 reasons: she perceives him as dirt due to him being a broody Polish man (as a result of racism at the time), or this could be due to another theme, the clash between past and future, her once innocent love is too pristine to be infected by the changing masculinity of the present

Blue piano sounds louder… “Yes! I was flirting with your husband Stella!”

P25

• Blanche is unashamed of her addiction to seduce, her causality in confessing her act of disloyalty to her sister reveals how love or desire has never been genuine to her, only a means to validate that she is still attractive, and therefore still relevant in society

• Exclamation emphasise her frantic state

• She then speaks about how Stanley is the man needed to protect Belle Reve, Williams establishes the prominent gender roles in society, and how women are deemed to be not suited for ‘serious’ matters like money or assets

• Her attention is quickly averted to the sky, and how she ‘ought to go there on a rocket that never comes down’, highlighting her yearn for an escape, yet never in a realistic way, she perceives her chance of rest to only be a fantasy

Start of scene 3, setting the poker scene

P29

• Semantic field of bold, fierce colours creating an almost suffocating, lurid and hell-like atmosphere

• Plosive ‘p’ sound underscoring the power behind their overwhelming, primitive masculinity. Williams is attempting to communicate if this vicious masculine environment were to clash with female entrance, can and will lead to terrible consequences

First meeting of Mitch and Stanley’s story

P28

• Mitch is much unlike the others, he is soft and sentimental, much more caring and compassionate than the other men, the antithesis of Stanley- this compassion he is mocked for

• Stanley’s story describes a rooster chasing after a hen, perhaps a metaphor used by William to reflect the predatory dynamic between men and women, men dominate them in every way, shape or form- furthermore, the metaphorical representation of women as hen is also significant in the way that hens are animals used for their ability to reproduce and lay eggs, perhaps unmasking the unhealthy perception of women’s only significance in society is to reproduce

• Stanley insults Stella by smacking his hand on her thigh, a vulgar way of him perhaps ‘marking his territory’

Blanche keeps on revealing herself in the light behind the curtain

P31

• Blanche’s contradictory relationship with light is persistently showcased by Williams throughout the play, in this scene, she calculating lay ‘stands in her pink brassiere and white skirt in the light through the portieres’, a pertinent and significant stage direction executed by Williams to highlight her craving for attention

• She manipulates the light to create a portray herself as seductive towards the men

• Light is a double edged sword for Blanche

Blanche’s first encounter with Mitch and her lies

P32

• She lies about her hating beer, and fixates on his “pretty case”. They then learn that they both have unfortunate pasts with romance, and bond over it, strengthening this connection for their shared love of a poem- this draws a sense of sympathy for the both of them, but also a sense of pity for Mitch, as he is now all the more susceptible to the lies of Blanche

• Blanche tells Mitch about her last name, and tells her to remember it like “an orchard in the spring”, Williams create as strong sense of dramatic irony as an orchard suggests innocence and fruitfulness, yet Blanche is the opposite of these things, she craves desire instead of innocent love, and she is not fruitful as she hasn’t started a family yet, she has no children nor the ability to nurture and nourish

• She uses a lantern to cover the light in an attempt to conceal her aging, her desperate attempt to remain young and alluring. Williams purposely has her attitude to light constantly fluctuate to demonstrate the struggles of women in the 20th century, profusely conscious of their outward perception. Furthermore, the material of the lantern has its own kind of significance, it is made of paper, mirroring the fragility of her and her lies, she is just barely grasping onto them

End of scene 3, Stanley’s violent eruption

P38

• Semantic field of violence and chaos in the household, Stanley’s primitive rage has erupted on Stella, he attacks her and smashes all objects around him, highlighting his animalistic behaviour, he has gone crazy

• Williams exposing how common abusive relationships were in the 20th century

• His turbulence is swiftly contrasted by a paradoxical transformation of character, he later screams vulnerably for Stella, begging to see her again, almost like an animal roaring for their mate- yet everyone but Blanche perceives this as casual, perhaps Williams utilises Blanche’s disagreement of this behaviour to voice his own opinion of how this relationship dynamic is completely unacceptable

Start of scene 4, choral chant and Stella’s deluded forgiveness

P40

• William’s pertinent stage direction, describing the outside busyness as a ‘choral chant’ alludes to the idea that life goes on after these adverse situations, and people must not be left behind

• Also alludes to choral commentary, often featured in Greek tragedies, combining this with our previous point, perhaps communicating how tragic it is that people are expected to move on from these intolerable situations without sorting them out properly

• Blanche questions Stella’s casual perception of the situation, Williams reveals how they both of them are deluded in their own ways, unfortunate products of the patriarchal society they live in- they are 2 sides of the same coin

• Blanche is characterised as the sane one here, interesting

• “He was as good as a lamb when he came back” simile

Shep Huntleigh

P43

• Big question, is Shep another one of Blanche’s fantastic fabrications, or is he a real sense of hope to her

• Shep could be a symbol of her loneliness, she seems to rely on a figure of her past rather than her surrounding characters such as her own sister

“The only way to live with such a man is to - go to bed with him! And that’s your job - not mine!”

P45

• Significance of the referral of sex as a job, perhaps revealing that she perceives it as a transaction more than an act of love

• She also perceives it as a way to remain intimate with a man whilst simultaneously keeping them tame, putting women out a harm’s way- incredibly toxic

Blanche’s outburst of Stanley to Stella

P46

• Blanche mocks Stella’s love for Stanley, she tells her not to say it was ‘one of those electric things between people’. Blanche summarises their love into a cliche, evidently depicting how the concept of genuine love is foreign again, she describes it fictionally, another example of her failing to grasp the boundary between fantasy and reality

• She describes Stella’s love as ‘brutal desire- just- Desire!’, illuminating how Blanche recognises that Stella’s and Stanley’s love cannot possibly be pure, but out of hopeless lust. Additionally, perhaps the capitalisation of the first letter of ‘Desire’ was a pertinent choice made by Williams to almost personify it, everyone has had an encounter with ‘Desire’ at some point in their life, it can live inside of people

• ‘Once- twice- three times when the devil is in you’, Blanche metaphorically expresses how you must be possessed to have a baby with a man like that, could this be William’s views shining through, challenging the concerning relationship norms of the time

• Blanche calls Stanley common, her elitist and aristocratic attitudes seeping into her judgement

Animalistic Stanley

P47

• ‘There is something downright - bestial - about him!”, bestial in italics, Williams attempting to highlight to the audience that the treatment of women like Stella in relationships is monstrous and inhumane

• Blanche calls him ‘sub-human’ and ‘ape-like’, accentuating how no normal human being should treat women like this, semantic field of the primal age and animals, ‘Stanley Kowalski - survivor of the Stone Age! Bearing the raw meat home from the jungle’ is a direct parallel to the start of the play, structurally significant and intentionally done by Williams to reveal to the audience how easily it is to miss these moments of misogyny- some people may have interpreted the meat scene at the beginning of the performance as playful, but now after adding some further context from this passage, it is crystallised that Stanley’s treatment of Stella as always been domineering and animal-like

• Train passes outside and Stanley licks his lips- train is a sexual symbol in this play, an indicator of Stanley’s presence

Blanche’s reaction to Eunice’s violence

P50

• “Did he kill her?”- is this signifying Blanche’s newly rounded indifference to this behaviour, or is it because she cares less about Eunice, this scene is casual and accepting

Blanche and star signs

P51

• Blanche attempts to use star signs to seduce Stanley, yet she again makes a fool of herself, ‘Virgo is the virgin’

Blanche’s past and hotel flamingo

P53

Blanche’s yearn for security

P55

Predatory Blanche and her fantasies

P57-58

Blanche and Mitch’s dynamic

P61