A Streetcar Named Desire: Scene 3 and 4 summary notes for revision A Level English Literature AQA PEARSON EDEXCEL
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A Streetcar Named Desire
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PEARSON (PEARSON)
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Streetcar Named Desire
Summary notes for revision of Scene 3 (The Poker Night) and Scene 4 of the text A Streetcar Named Desire. The notes contain key quotes to use for the exam.
A Grade A-level English lit streetcar essay on characters inner lives with feedback
How is Masculinity presented in "A Streetcar Named Desire"
Scene 1 Notes of A Streetcar Named Desire
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PEARSON (PEARSON)
English Literature 2015
A Streetcar Named Desire
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A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams
Scene 3 – The Poker Night
The setting reinforces masculine mise-en-scene and values: vanquishing feminine
values. Van Gogh symbolises tragedy, he was misunderstood in his own time and
killed himself. The picture of a billiard parlour emphasises masculine pursuits. Note
the use of colours: yellow/green. Colour is used to define character. The men are
described as coarse, direct and powerful as the primary colours.
The men are playing poker, Stanley is angry because he is losing money. He wants
the focus to be totally on the game: “Nothing belongs on a poker table but cards,
chips and whisky.” Read stage directions really carefully. Stanley “lurches”, “tosses”,
“impatient”, “jumps up”, “jerks roughly”, “bellowing”, “stalks fiercely”, “charges after”,
“with heaven-splitting violence” – what does this suggest?
Stanley is aggressive, domineering, rude “Hurry back and we’ll fix you a sugar-tit.”
He is crude and vulgar.
The second part of the scene begins with Blanche and Stella arriving back after their
night out. Blanche is again shown to be preoccupied by appearance. Her first
comment is “How do I look?”
Stanley is blunt and rude to Blanche when she says “please don’t get up.” “Nobody’s
going to get up…” Blanche would automatically expect this courtesy from men, it’s
how a gentleman would behave. This emphasises that Stanley is not a gentleman
and that he has a strong influence over the others. Gender differences are clearly
indicated when Stanley hits Stella’s thigh to emphasise his authority; they will stop
playing poker when he says. Stella has no control over this. The men laugh
insensitively.
The scene develops further when Blanche decides to bathe again indicating her
nervousness. She meets Mitch and shows an interest. Mitch’s character is opposite
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