english lit two 22nd may Flashcards
(24 cards)
explain the blanche palava
✅ Blanche wants to survive in the New South, but she doesn’t actually fit the New South’s rules.
Old South = gentility, manners, charm, fantasy, big houses, reputation matters.
New South (Stanley’s world) = working-class, money, realism, brutality, no fantasies, survival of the fittest.
✅ Blanche creates her “Southern belle” act because:
In the Old South, being charming, beautiful, and fragile gave women value.
She thinks acting like this will make her safe — that someone (like Mitch) will save her through marriage.
✅ But she can’t fully survive in the New South by just being dainty.
Stanley’s world values power, dominance, sexuality, not manners.
So Blanche flirts with Stanley because she thinks sexuality = power now.
She tries to regain control by seducing him a little — it’s desperate.
✅ In short:
Blanche pretends to be the pure Southern belle to survive by Old South rules.
But she also flirts and challenges Stanley because she realises (deep down) that pure manners won’t work in the brutal New South.
She’s trapped between two worlds — too fake for Stanley’s brutal world, too fallen for the old romantic world.
That’s why her identity falls apart.
Literally one sentence you could memorise:
Blanche is trapped between two broken worlds — she clings to the fantasy of the Old South but also desperately tries to use sexuality to survive in the brutal New South, which ultimately destroys her identity.
book on religion justifying female submission
paradise Lost by John Milton- Gilead’s ideology is based on biblical justification for female submission, much like Eve’s role in Paradise Lost.- women = sin, temptation
book on narrative control and female hysteria
the yellow wallpaper by charlotte perkins gilman
- Offred’s fragmented storytelling mirrors the narrator’s descent into madness.
book on indoctrination for government benefit
never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro both indoctrinated into giving up their body, either for cloning or for birth
describe the use of light in twws
shows the destruction of morality + nature
‘light’ is supposed to symbolise hope, instead she is attracted to the bathetic artificial light
it also blinds her true identity, like blanche but the light illuminates her reality
How is the Cold War relevant to THT
Gilead is built on absolute control — surveillance, censorship, and betrayal, reflecting Cold War paranoia about freedom, control, and ideological domination.
eg east Germany, the USSR
How does environmentalism link to THT
The infertility crisis caused by environmental degradation is a core motivation for Gilead’s reproductive policies, giving the state a reason (or excuse) to commodify women’s bodies.
THT critic: the lack of ACTIVE rebellion against the regime
robertson
‘The apathetic public response to Gilead…seems like real life’
what are duffy’s intentions
Reclaim voices of the marginalised
describe the drama v free verse comparison of history + streetcar
streetcar - typical use of expressionism in modern tragedy AND southern Gothicism (madness)
- portrayed through Blanche showing her unravelling psyche
FG - free verse mirrors the fragmented nature of post modern society AND 21st century feminist literature
disconnectedness of women + history dominated by men
3 para structure for unseen prose
- narrative voice/characterisation
- structure/time/memory
- language/symbolism - zoom into rich quotes
critic - purpose of duffys poetry for today’s culture
‘her poetry emerges as an interrogation of contemporary culture’
- kennedy
3 basic points how blanche shows her performance of femininity is her downfall and her survival
- performance to survive (Southern Belle, the flirt, the victim)
- shows how fragile female identity is shaped by patriarchy, relies on internalised misogyny - stanley strips her illusion
- memory and time, haunted by past. psychological decline.
how is the sounds a southern gothic trope
past trauma invades reality like a ghost haunting her
sentence of AO3 old south fall v new south
an inevitable cultural shift,
using Blanche’s downfall to mourn a fading aristocratic ideal
while exposing its illusions and unsustainability in modern America.
quote of blanche in scene 11
tragic radiance in her red satin robe
blurt universal blanche paragraph plan
- functions as a tragic figure + symbol of the decaying old south, resisting reality through illusion.
AO2: plastic theatre (light, costumes, expressionism) - reflects fragility + psychological deterioration
AO2: lantern=metaphor of fragile protection of her constructed identity
AO2: more pl th - poetic prose (sb affectation) to contrast stanley’s realism
AO3: this shows class in south. B is product of fading aristocracy. loss of BR=wider social decline
AO3: her downfall=female promiscuity anxieties, punished if not submissive
AO4: a rose for emily (SG), realism of a dolls house, critiquing misogyny of S
AO5: miller vs doyle, ultimately a clash of species.
add quotes to the universal blanche para plan
- plastic theatre x2
- lantern x2
- stanley’s realism x2
- blanches downfall x2
- women as victims x1
- functions as a tragic figure + symbol of the decaying old south, resisting reality through illusion.
AO2: plastic theatre ‘‘I DONT WANT REALISM, I WANT MAGIC’’
FRENCH - STYLISED+EMOTIONALLY LOADED, INNER YEARNING LONGING FOR PAST
AO2: lantern ‘‘HER DELICATE BEAUTY MUST AVOID A STRONG LIGHT’’ + ‘‘HE TEARS THE PL OFF. SHE UTTERS A FRIGHTENED GASP’’
AO2: more pl th - poetic prose (sb affectation) to contrast stanley’s realism
‘‘HENS’’ ‘‘BABY..MEAT’’ ‘‘I AM THE KING AROUND HERE’’
her downfall
‘‘TRAGIC RADIANCE’’ ‘‘INERT FIGURE’’
women as trapped
‘‘I COULDN’T BELIEVE HER STORY AND GO ON LIVING WITH STANLEY
chapter of ceremony
15-16
chapter of salvaging/particicution
42
chapter of birth scene
chapter 21
chapter of jezebels
37-39
meets moira in 38
TLOSGH - FAM mneumonic
Free verse - liberation, breaking rigid structure
Allegory of feminism
Microcosm captures a much larger issue
