STELLA Flashcards
(12 cards)
Stella conforms to conventional female roles within a working class society. She is well-known and regarded throughout Elysian Fields and she remains loyal and less critical to Stanley.
Stage directions/Semantics of drugs/Syntactic parallemism/Simile/Infantilisation
(Narcotised tranquility)
“I can hardly stand it when he’s away for a night…”
“When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild!”
“I cry on his lap like a baby.”
“I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley.”
When Stella is shown to subvert to these conventional roles, it never lasts long - Stanley undermines Stella’s protest and she eventually gives up- evidenced by the end of the play.
Legal jargon/Interrogative/Stage direction/Animalistic imagery/Literary allusion/Syntactic parallelism/Metaphor/Imperative
“the Napoleonic Code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband.”
“Since when do you give me orders?”
(Come together with low, animal moans.)
“Remember what Huey Long said - ever man is a king. And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!”
“You hens cut out that conversation in there!”
Stella, throughout the play, is evidenced to have an old aristocratic label. It becomes more prominent through the extended time she has been living with Blanche - who cannot let this go. Following Blanche’s rape, Stella is completely delineated from this former status.
Cut-off Dialogue/Stage directions/temporal discourse/’home’ implies her comfort within a Southern Belle environment/Props/Contrast/Semantics of family heritage
“No. With only two rooms it’s-“ (She is embarrassed)
“You’ll get alone fine together if you’ll just try not to - well - compare him with the men that we went out with at home.”
“These are inexpensive summer furs that Blanche has had a long time.”
“The Kowalskis and the DuBois have different notions.”
Stella uses her old aristocratic label against Stanley - to no avail. Stanley uses his masculinity to overpower and stop Blanche from being the authorial figure of the house.
Hendiaya/Premodifier/Imperative/Dehumanisation
“Your face and fingers are disgustingly greasy… clear the table.”
“Drunk - drunk - animal thing, you!”
“Mr Kowalski is too busy making a pig of himself to think of anyone else.”
Stella and Blanche’s relationship as strong. Care is evident for one another, despite being strained throughout the play by the damning revelation of Blanche’s past.
Stage direction/epithet/Polysyndeton
(They catch each other in a spasmodic embrace)
“Stella for star!”
“And admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche. Her little weakness!”
“I like to wait on you, Blanche. It makes it seem like more of a home.”
Stanley strains Blanche and Stella’s relationship. Blanche detests Stanley and Stella’s relationship, as well as the new industrial society which promotes the power imbalance between men and women.
Fragmented dialogue/Stage direction/Exclamatives/Polysyndeton/Derogatory term
(Hysterically) “I won’t, I promise, I’ll go! Go soon! I will really! I won’t hang around until he - throws me out…”
“Grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking!”
“Sit there and stare at me, thinking I let the place go? Where were you? In bed with your - polack!”
Distance depicted between Stella and Blanche
Hendiaya/stage directions
(Sadly and doubtfully from the kitchen.) “Do you, Blanche?”
(Turning quickly away) “Why, nothing has happened, Blanche.”
Stella rejects her ideological side, focuses on realism and thus ends up just as dissatisfied as Blanche in the ending
Stage direction/Lexis
[as she gets a drink] “That’s much more practical”
(There is something luxurious in Stella’s complete surrender to crying now that her sister is gone.)
(He kneels beside her and his fingers find the opening of her blouse)
Stella attempts to subvert the conventional family dynamic they have - perhaps taking after Eunice.
Possessive pronoun/Repetition/Animal imagery/archaic word format/imperative
“This is my house and I’ll talk as much as I want to.”
“Drunk- drunk - animal thing, you!”
“Don’t you holler at me like that.”
“Come on back in.”
Stella feels regret conforming to gender expectations as it was what made her lose her sister.
Syntactic parallelism/Religious imagery
“What have I done to my sister. Oh, God, what have I done to my sister!”
Stella and desire, she allows herself to be domesticated by the working class in order to live a conventional family life, overlooking all the abuse and mistreatment
Euphemism/Metaphor/Epithet
“There are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem unimportant”
“And I pulled you off from them columns and you loved it, having them coloured lights goin’”
“Precious lamb.”
Stella as a caregiver archetype
Stage directions/sympathetic comparison/Doubt/Imperative/Exclamative/Syntactic parallelism/Epithet/Simile/Infantilisation
“Gentle young woman”
“Blanche is sensitive and you’ve got to realise that Blanche grew up under very different circumstances.”
“There are thing about my sister I don’t approve of - things that caused sorrow at home.”
“I don’t know if I have done the right thing.”
“Tell her how well she’s looking.”
“Oh God, oh please God, don’t hurt her!” (She cries out Blanche’s name)
“Stella for star!”
“He was as good as a lamb when I got home.”
