scene 4 Flashcards
stage directions:
‘one hand rests on her belly, rounding slightly with new maternity. from the other dangles a book of coloured comics’
made the transition to the new south
comic books are childlike - simplicity of the new south
jejune
dumbed herself down for stanley
stage directions:
‘she presses her knuckles nervously to her lips’
declining mental health, this could also signify her worry for her sister after the previous night’s events
see this early within the play so that williams can build upon her mental vulnerability.
paralleled when blanche suffers failure to function due to her mental health in scene 11 and as a result is sent into institutionalisation.
blanche:
‘why! i’ve been half crazy stella!’
blanche shows excess amount of fear and a nervous personality.
‘crazy’ fear contrasts to Stanley’s crazy animalistic nature.
this creates ideas of what each character’s hamartia is
unaware of mental state
represents stella because after all the abuse and the mistreatment from stanley’s part stella still sticks around; blanche knows it.
stella had the opportunity to escape the abuse physically and mentally, but instead she decided to stay.
stella:
‘you are, blanche. i know how it must have seemed to you and I’m awful sorry it had to happen, but it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it. in the first place, when men are drinking and playing poker anything can happen. it’s always a powder-keg. he didn’t know what he was doing…. he was as good as a lamb when I came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself’
blanche is a hypocrite
cassandras truth
making excuses for stanley
stella:
‘i was - sort of - thrilled by it’
enjoys his violence
has sex too
epitomises stella’s blindness in the face of lust- stanley has her in his firm, psychological grasp, so stella doesn’t want to leave
normal at the time
blanche:
‘your fix is worse than mine is!’
knows stella has a problem
addicted to stanley
corruption of the new south
stella:
‘i’m not in anything I want to get out of’
right in living, wrong in loving - women had no choice
major blow to blanche’s world view.
unable to imagine that her sister could be happy with the small flat and brutish husband
this represents the differences between old and new america.
stella:
‘he was going to quit having these poker parties’
not a compromise
capitulation - give into it and are destroyed
habits don’t affect her anymore
blanche:
'’why - set us up in a shop!’
fantasising about the life she could’ve had
not much of a plan
blanche:
‘stella, i can’t live with him’
sees danger
not normal for a southern belle
stella:
‘there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem - unimportant’
purely sexual relationship - key component in 1950s
paramount to a good life and a good marriage
despite stanley’s violent and abusive nature, the sexual intimacy of the couple, makes the rest of it unimportant and all negative emotions are forgotten.
insufficient financial situations are forgotten during these moments of intimacy too.
blanche:
‘what you are talking about is brutal desire- just- desire!- the name of that rattle-trap streetcar that bangs through the quarter’
universal theme of danger among female characters
stage directions:
‘outside, a train approaches’
symbol of new america
unstoppable momentum of the new south
blanche’s rush of emotion
danger of stanley’s presence as he overhears their conversation threat is emphasised as he appears unnoticed, covered by the train
blanche:
‘he acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! eats like one, moves like one, talks like one! there’s even something - sub-human-something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! yes, something -ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I’ve seen in–anthropological studies!
people like stanley will rule
apes will inherit the earth
his complete disregard for the social morals that she, as a southern belle, has been taught since birth to cherish.
he represents the very thing she’s come to fear above all else- the kind of raw, untamed, uncivilized desire that inspired her promiscuity in laurel, and that brought her to a place close to hell in new orleans as punishment
going back in evolutionary terms - atavism
blanche:
‘dont hang back with the brutes!’
don’t give in to animalism
stand for what’s right
picture of progression
stanley represents hanging back is ironic due to the context the play is set in as well as the wider ties between stanley and modernity
illustrates blanche’s illusion, as she is still attached to the values she was brought up in, and sees them as modern despite the fall of the old south.
