Flashcards
AO5 for A Streetcar Named Desire
Cards in this deck (40)
- 1Blanche's personal tragedy manifests itself in the universe, proving its universality (we all have a Blanche inside us)Benjamin Nelson
- 2Stella and Stanley's child represents the future, ultimately leaving it a Kowalski future, rather than a DuBois futureAlbert Wertheim
- 3Blanche and Mitch's courtship mirrors Mary Magdalene's eventual redemptionBert Cardullo
- 4Streetcar is simply an exploration of Blanche with no sociopolitical aspectsBrooks Atkinson
- 5Marlon Brando's performance as Stanley aped iconic images of American soldiers in WW2Bruce McConachie
- 6Stanley didn't want to rape Blanche, but was forced to by her refusal to bargain with him on his levelElia Kazan
- 7Stella has found a sort of salvation in Stanley, but at the tremendous cost of ignoring her own unhappinessElia Kazan
- 8Blanche's problem is her clinging to Southern tradition that insists she need a man for protectionElia Kazan
- 9All of Williams' plays focus on marginalised characters seeking refuge from a society that brutalises themElican Londre
- 10Williams builds up archetypes only to destroy our preconceived notions of them, reflecting life in this wayHarold Bloom
- 11Desire is the most important theme of the play -- Blanche, who initially seems to represent purity, is destroyed by the desires of herself and othersHarold Bloom
- 12Stanley and Stella's relationship challenged traditional, literary and social notions of love through its animal lustHarold Bloom
- 13Stella is genuinely in love with Stanley, a choice expressive of the reality of domestic abuseHarold Bloom
- 14Blanche is a 'failed Whitmanian'Harold Bloom
- 15Found three major archetypes within Williams' work: the Gargoyle, the Adonis and the Failed IngenueHenry Popkin
- 16Blanche's respectful speech symbolises her adherence and her connection to the past; Stanley's disrespectful speech shows his freedom and livelinessHenry Popkin
- 17Stanley is more creative than destructive, and in this way symbolises the vitality lost from the Old SouthJ.H. Adler
- 18Stanley believes Blanche feels she's above him, and his rape is an attempt to get her to understand that she is simply a sexual animal, like himJ.M. McGlinn
- 19Stella lives an illusory life, much like Blanche; she believes that life with Stanley can satisfy, and will even doom her own sister to preserve itJ.M. McGlinn
- 20The illusions of the play are solely for self-preservation, and, by ignoring the Aristotelian link between the communal and personal ethic, they ensure they will never find fulfilmentJ.M. McGlinn
- 21Blanche's trunk unifies the poetic and realist realms of the play: it is representative of journey, both emotional and physicalJackie Shead
- 22The poeticism of the play finds deeper psychological reality than a realist play wouldJohn Gassner
- 23Viewing the play within Aristotelian terms means accepting that the act of destruction upon which the climax rests was performed by Stanley, rather than Blanche as classical drama demandsJohn Gassner
- 24Psychopathology substitutes for fate within the play in terms of directing actionsJohn Gassner
- 25Blanche is a camp character who represents male homosexualityJohn M. Clum
- 26The play is a "myth for our time" through its portrayal of man's search for transcendence and its attribution of religious significance to the humanJudith J. Thompson
- 27Blanche lives in the aesthetic stage, while Stanley lives in a (misguided) ethical stage; interestingly, no character exists within the religious stageKierkegaard
- 28The trauma that underpins Blanche's existence is not that she married a 'degenerate', as Stella believes, but that she caused Allan Gray's suicideLeonard Berkman
- 29The play is an allegory for the experience of the divine soul (Blanche) when subjected to the brutality of matter (Stanley)Leonardo Quirino
- 30The card game reflects Williams' conception of fate and the way it can be manipulated by a skilled player (Stanley, both times)Leonardo Quirino
- 31Blanche symbolises art, as she veils herself from truth and is ultimately of a different type of people than those who exist in the 'reality' of Elysian FieldsMary McCarthy
- 32The play is decidedly not a classical tragedy--Blanche is pathetically soft, not a tragic figure, and the audience leaves the theatre, rather than soothed from the moment of catharsisNancy Tischer
- 33The play is a collection of one-act plays, rather than a traditional and coherent wholeNancy Tischer
- 34Blanche is an extreme example of the Apolline as one who avoids life completely in favour of dreams and Stanley is an example of the Dionysian, giving in entirely to his basest instinctsNietzchean
- 35Sex equalises all characters within the playNormand Berlin
- 36Blanche uses sex as a refuge from the harsh realities of the worldNormand Berlin
- 37As the play focuses on the eros and thanatos drives (even within the symbol of the streetcars) Freud believed defined the human, the play perfectly encapsulates the humanPsychoanalytic
- 38The conflict between Blanche and Stanley is a conflict between effeminate culture and masculine libidoRobert Brustein
- 39Many plays in the 40s and 50s concerned themselves with the failure of the American DreamTravis Bogard
- 40Williams linked Stanley with the (at-the-time) modern and destructive railroad; he once considered ending the play with Blanche throwing herself in front of a trainVivienne Dickinson
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- AS level English Flashcards on AO5 for A Streetcar Named Desire, created by Oliver Freeman on 24/02/2017.
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- Oliver Freeman
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