STANLEY Flashcards
(12 cards)
Stanley’s working class background, Polish immigrant - despite this, he seems like the herd leader of his work. Uses his hyper-masculinity to dictate those within his life
“I was as common as dirt.”
“But what I am is one hundred percent American, born and raised in the greatest country of Earth, and proud as hell of it.”
Stanley knows the legislation behind economics, shows his drive for power and his inclusion within the American rat race. He gets forceful as he feels as though he has been swindled and takes out his aggression out on Blanche, weaponising his masculinity. He even goes as far to threaten his lawyer acquaintance onto Blanche
Legal jargon/triplet/interrogative/exclamative
“There’s such thing in this state of Louisiana called the Napoleonic Code.”
“I don’t like to be swindled.”
“Don’t play so dumb! You know what! Where’s the papers?”
“I have a lawyer acquaintance who will study these out.”
“I want no ifs, ands or buts! What’s all the rest of them papers?”
Stanley is unable to discern Blanche’s costume, and wholeheartedly believes that it was spent upon Blanche’s vanity. In scene one, Blanche tells Stella the money was spent on Belle Reve’s funerals - sense of dramatic irony, power imbalance is currently tipped against Blanche
Hyperbole/Metaphor/Exclamative
“It looks like you raided some stylish shops in Paris.”
“The treasure chest of a pirate!”
“A solid gold dress!”
“Here’s your plantation, or what’s left of it!”
Stella can be seen to favour Stanley - she still withholds prejudiced views from her time as a Southern-Belle, reflected by how she describes the other working classes. Perhaps Stanley was able to domesticate her and appear so different through their shared desire
Generalisation/Derogatory terms/Dehumanisation/Metaphor
“Stanley’s the only one of his bunch which are likely to get anywhere.”
“He was a degenerate.”
“A different species.”
Blanche voices her prejudiced views of Stanley in Scene 4, following her ‘ape’ monologue Stella is shown to open the door for Stanley. This moment is symbolic of Blanche’s peripeteia as Stella chooses Stanley - symbolic for the end of the play
Exclamative/Allusion to desire/Death imagery/Hendiaya/Modal verb/Polysyndeton/Cutoff
“Stanley Kowalski, survivor of the stone age!”
“He’s common!”
“Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle!”
“Maybe he’ll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!”
“Other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking!”
“Stell I- (but Stella has gone to the front door)
Stanley commands the home, subverting social classes and taking control over the landed gentry.
Interrogative/Non-standard English/Exlamative/Telegraphic utterances
“Where you been?”
“Don’t ever talk that way to me! Pig - Polack - disgusting - vulgar - greasy! Them kind of words have been on your tongue and your sister’s too much around here!”
Stanley’s desire to entrap Stella. Even after his blatant abuse, he still uses his sexuality against Stella. In a sense, desire can be labelled as women’s downfall within the play.
Exclamative/Stage direction/Phonology
“I’ll keep on ringin’ until I talk with my baby!”
(Throws his head back like a baying hound and bellows his wife’s name:) “Stella! Stella, sweetheart! Stella! STELL-LAHHHHHH!”
(They come together with low animal moans)
“I pulled you down from them columns, and how you loved it, having them coloured lights goin!”
“(He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse)
Stanley also uses sexuality against the one who poses the biggest threat to his conventional, working class lifestyle - Blanche.
Exclamative/Stage direction/Plastic theatre
“We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!”
(He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed.)
(Lurid reflections appear on the walls around Blanche.)
(Inhuman voices like cries in a jungle)
Stanley’s conflict and fight for authority - he uses the past against Blanche, ruining her reputation and chances of living a conventional, fulfilled lifestyles with the ones she loves.
Declarative/idiom/biblical allusion of chastity/euphemism/Exclamative
“She’s been feeding us a pack of lies here!”
“But now the cat’s out of the bag.”
“Sister Blanche is no lily! Ha-ha! Some lily she is!”
“A seventeen-year-old boy - she had gotten mixed up with.”
“You’re goddamn right I told him!”
Stanley is shown to have ruined Blanche’s reputation throughout the second part of the play - claims more of his house for himself
“Maybe he was, but he’s not going to jump in a tank with a school of sharks.”
“Hey, canary bird! Toots! Get OUT of the BATHROOM!”
“Ticket! Back to Laurel! On the Greyhound!” Heraldic symbols, association with landed gentry/delicacy
Stanley directly attacks Blanche’s character - now that her image is broken with the deterioration of her past, he is able to now ruin her image beyond that - portraying her as a woman who hides between deceit, and attacks the working class although she is co-dependent on them.
Anaphora/Modal verb/Slang/Triplet/Exclamative/Metaphor
“Delicate piece she is.”
“And wasn’t we happy together, wasn’t it all okay until she showed here?”
“Hoity-toity, describing me as an ape.”
“There isn’t a goddamn thing but imagination! And lies and conceits and tricks!”
“You come here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light-bulb with a paper lantern, and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the queen of the Nile!”
Stanley exercises his authority
“Aw, for God’s sake, go home then.”
“You hens cut that conversation out in there.”
“Remember what Huey Long said - every man is a king! And I am the king around here so dont you forget it!”
“I’m the team captain, aint I?”
