Notes for Streetcar

1. Notes for Streetcar

2. Blanche Tragic figure;out of place both geographically and temporally (that is, she's stuck in the wrong time). lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her own fantasies.

3. Her Retreat From Reality • difficult to distinguish between when she has lost her grip on reality, when she’s simply imagining a better future for herself, and when she’s immersed in fiction and indulging in romantic fantasies. • Many lies (reason for dismissal; shep== all about keeping up appearances • Williams allows the audience to see inside her head (polka music, shadows) so we know she’s loosing her noodle

4. “_____________________________” (9.59) • she spent so long lying to everyone else that she eventually believed her own lies. • the death of all her relatives at Belle Reve – as another cause of her mental illness. After all, she is most haunted by that scene of Allan’s death, brought to us by the polka-music-and-gunshot memory. • Does this contribute to the pathos?

5. Then, there’s the tipping point to Blanche’s wavering between sanity and madness – the rape. Stella foreshadows this when she tells her husband, • “ • Stanley’s abuse that forces Blanche to continue her path of change – to retreat further from the reality that so clearly destroys her.

6. Blanche the Elitist • essentially living off Stanley • acts like the Queen of the Nile (long hot baths, Stella fetches her cokes “___________________________”) • Her treatment of Stanley (ape, Polack) • Her put downs about apartment

7. Blanche, Desire, and Tragedy • Blanche uses sex to seek refuge from destruction tragic irony is at the heart of her character, as shown by that famous last line of hers: _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (11.123). • Back in Scene Nine when Blanche finally admits to Mitch what she did back in Laurel. “Yes,” she says, “I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of Allan – intimacies with strangers ____________________________” (9.55). Blanche turns to strangers for comfort. These strangers weren't offering her kindness, as she deludes herself into thinking at the end of the play. It was simply “brute desire” – the same emotion by which she accuses her sister of being consumed. • _______________________________________

8. Blanche and Stanley • the constant proximity of Blanche to Stanley and Stella’s bed, which is more tension for all. • Stanley rifles through the personal things in Blanche’s trunk, it’s as though he’s violating her as well. • unable to relate to men in a non-sexual way • “_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________” (4.90). Is Blanche jealous? She envies Stella the security and safe haven of her marriage while she, Blanche, was dealing with the loss of Belle Reve: “_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________” (1.185).

9. Stanley tells Blanche that they’ve “____________________________________________________________________________________________________” (10.81).

10. Stanley • Traditional gender role (provider, pack of meat thrower, description in secondary text) • Relates to women through sex • Problems arise when Blanche shows up and disrupts the order of the house

11. Stanley and His Romantic Relationship With Stella • one of the most important aspects of their marriage. Although Stella and Stanley fight, their physical relationship is the way that they make up and forgive each other. • “_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(4.103). So essentially, Stanley's way of showing his wife that he loves her tends to happen through physical intimacy.When Blanche shows up, their mechanism for maintaining the peace in their relationship is disrupted.

12. Stanley's strong sexuality is a parallel to Blanche's. Both have a hard time relating to the opposite sex in anything but a sexual way, even when it's inappropriate to do so. Stanley and Blanche have some serious tension going on – he's taking off his shirt, she's flirting with him. • Bad news-- Stanley uses his sexuality and aggression to assert his dominance in his household, and Blanche seeks comfort when she's feeling bad through sexual interactions _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________(11.123)). As a result= explosive situation in which Stanley ends up raping Blanche.

13. His soft side • The complete turn-around he pulls in Scene Three from a raging, abusive drunk to a tender, loving husband certainly leaves our heads spinning. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________--When he and Stella reunite at the bottom of the stairs, it’s a touching and incredibly tender moment. • As Stella tells Blanche the next day, _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14. Stella • mediating point between Blanche and Stanley. conflict between Stanley and Blanche as a territorial battle over who gets Stella’s love and affection. • “__________________________________________________” (11.24)Interesting! Stella says she can’t believe the story if she wants to go on living with Stanley. She doesn’t say that she thinks Blanche is lying; rather she’s consciously choosing to think Blanche is lying so her life can continue without interruption. • Does this sound like self-delusion? A retreat into a world of fantasy in order to avoid dealing with reality? Does this sound like (gasp!) the very same thing Blanche is doing?

15. Or, as Stella's neighbor Eunice says, “_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________” (11.25).Survival instinct– Stella has no other options! • Compare this Blanche’s tirade against Stanley in Scene Four, when she tells her sister that Stanley represents ape-like primitivity, the law of the jungle, and that Stella should move forward and progress with the world out of sub-human darkness

16. Mitch • ______________________________________________________________________________________________”(6.121).Co-dependant relationship with Blanche out of lonliness • Mitch is a bit slow, definitely awkward, and way inexperienced with women. This is in part why it’s so easy for Blanche to manipulate him

17. Blanche’s real motives comes when Stella asks her, “____________________________________________” and she replies, “_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________” (5.86-7).

18. Symbols • Flowers: flowers are the perfect symbol of this odd pairing of lust and destruction. End of Scene Five, when Mitch brings Blanche roses. He’s using flowers to court Blanche – desire, right? • Scene Nine, when the Mexican Woman comes around selling florespara los muertos, or "flowers for the dead.“ Desireto death in three scenes using one symbol. STELLAYou are as fresh as a daisy.BLANCHE________________________________________________Stella means to suggest that Blanche is attractive (desire), but Blanche feels as though she’s past her prime (death).

19. Music • Importance of secondary text!!! • Williams uses music to establish the mood of many different scenes in Streetcar. It’s basically like watching a movie, where the music is fast-paced during a chase scene, tender in a love scene, etc. • "Varsouviana” (polka) important, since those watching the play instead of reading it don’t have the benefit of Williams’s commentary. If he wanted the audience to know the tune, he had to place it in the dialogue of one of his characters. It sounds a bit like merry-go-round music, which you can imagine is eerie to hear in a Gothic-type drama on the stage. Sets the mood of Blanche being unstable and imagining creepy music that no one else can hear

20. Paper Moon "BLANCHE (singing) "Say, it’s only a paper moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea—But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me![…] It’s a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be— But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me! […]Without your love,It’s a honky-tonk parade!Without your love,It’s a melody played in a Penny arcade…[…]It’s only a paper moon, Just as phony as it can be— But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me![…]It’s a Barnum and Bailey world, _______________________________________."(9.30-45)

21. Lightbulbs / paper laterns • "I don’t think I ever seen you in the light. That’s a fact! [..] You never want to go out in the afternoon. […] You never want to go out till after six and then it’s always some place that’s not lighted much. […] _______________________________________________________________________________________________________" (9.28-36). • "you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it struck the world for me" (6.120) • the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this — ki_________________________________________" (6.120). • "There has been some progress since then! Such things as art—as poetry and music—such kinds of new light have come into the world since then! […] In this dark march […] don’t — don’t hang back with the brutes!" (4.118). • Stanley describes the sex with his wife as "having them __________ going" (8.55). • light was a form of love for Blanche, it’s innuendo for sex for Stanley • It’s also important that the lights are colored, which is in contrast to Blanche (whose name means "white")

22. Motifs • Masculinity: The sheer animal force of Stanley Kowalski ;masculinity means aggression, control, physical dominance, and even violence. Accompanying these traits are a general lack of refinement, manners, and sensitivity. Is brute masculinity primitive and sub-human or it is attractive and sexually appealing? • Marriage a tumultuous combination of hero-worship, aggression, sexual attraction, and a difficult class difference between husband and wife; never doubt for a moment the intensity of love these two feel for each other. There’s something primitive or almost animal in the ferocity of their interactions; definitely see traditional gender roles of a dominant husband who brings home the money and pays the bills; and the doting housewife who is responsible for making dinner, cleaning up, and raising a child.

23. Society and Class A Streetcar Named Desire deals with class differences in New Orleans during the 1940s. One point of view is that of a fading Southern belle, with outdated ideals about the socially elite and those she considers "beneath" her social rank – like second or third-generation immigrants. Contrast this with the opposing, more modern (at the time) of view that Americans are Americans, and that immigrants are the foundation of the U.S. • Sex -Sex is essentially a destructive force and takes a variety of forms, including literal death, physical violence, mental degradation, the sullying of a good reputation, and even financial ruin. It’s very much tied to physical aggression, both in the sexual relations between husband and wife, but also in the play’s rape scene.

24. Drugs and Alcohol • Alcohol is used as a means of escape in A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche uses booze to distract herself from reality and to retreat further into a world of fantasy . Habitual drinking isn’t ideal for a woman’s reputation in the 1940s, so the habit is often hidden or disguised. For the male gender, alcohol is very much tied to____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • Appearances For main character and fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois, appearances are important. They’re also generally fake. Consumed with the need to appear younger and more innocent than she actually is, every personal interaction is a series of machinations and contrivances designed to reveal the truth, regarding both looks and reputation.

25. Madness A Streetcar Named Desire features a gradual descent into madness, brought about by loss, depression, financial ruin, and the cruelty of others. At first, this so-called "madness" is just an attempted escape from reality – an altered self-image and a polished persona that doesn’t accurately reflect the character below. As the play progresses, however, this self-deception intensifies and deviates further and further from reality. By the play’s conclusion, _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • Mortality Death features prominently in A Streetcar Named Desire, and is very much connected to lust. Sex seems to be responsible for much of the death – literal and figurative – that we see in the play. Oddly enough, characters also turn to sex to comfort themselves in times of loss, which only leads to…more destruction. Death comes in all varieties in this play: the loss of reputation, sanity, physical well-being, relationships, and youth

26. Scenery • ____________________________________________________________ The play’s action takes spectacular advantage of the flexibility this offers, whether it be Stanley listening in on his wife and her sister, Stella walking down the stairs to the waiting arms of her husband, or the way we get to watch two scenes at once – Blanche flirting with Mitch in the back-room while the men play poker in the front.

27. Williams’ tone • Sympathetic • Williams’s attitude toward his protagonist, Blanche DuBois is sympathetic. Blanche comes off as quite silly for a good chunk of the text (spraying Stanley with her perfume, flirting with the men at the poker table), but it’s actually more tear-jerking than laughable. Feel bad for her – and probably embarrassed on her behalf. The rape in Scene Ten and the broken-down Blanche in Scene Eleven is what really drives the point home, and this is the strongest evidence for his tone.

28. Sex and Death . . . • Blanche claims that her ancestors’ “_________________________________” led to the squandering of the family fortune and the eventual loss of Belle Reve. • Blanche’s own good reputation meets its end at the hand of her epic fornications in the Flamingo Hotel. • After Blanche had an affair with a high school student of hers, her boss, a_______________________, fired her. • When Blanche’s former husband was found having sex with another man, he killed himself out of shame. • And The Big One: Stanley’s rape of Blanche (a sexual act) kills what’s left of her sanity

29. Works Cited • A Streetcar Named Desire. www.shmoop.com.