Summary AQA A Level English Literature A* essay plan for A Streetcar named Desire & The Handmaid's Tale
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Course
A Streetcar Named Desire & The Handmaid\'s Tale
Institution
AQA
Book
Tennessee Williams\'s A Streetcar Named Desire
“Modern Literature shows isolated characters as being profoundly damaged”.
Discuss the significance of isolation in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Handmaid’s
Tale
A* standard essay plan for A Level English literature
Essay Plan- the “Old South” in “A Streetcar Named Desire”
Flashcards- “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Part 5)
Flashcards- “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Part 4)
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AQA
English Literature A
A Streetcar Named Desire & The Handmaid's Tale
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“Modern Literature shows isolated characters as being profoundly damaged”.
Discuss the significance of isolation in A Streetcar Named Desire and The Handmaid’s
Tale
Both authors use clothing to establish the protagonists as isolated characters.
“incongruous” Obviously different to the people of the area
- sets the scene that Blanche clearly is an
outsider
“daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy The contrast between the clothing is striking
bodice”. / “blue denim work clothes” and only serves to show just how different
Blanche is to her peers in New Orleans.
She represents the old south as opposed to
Stanley who is the new North
“Some in red, some in dull green...striped The Gileadean society is very repressive
dresses...mark the women of the poorer and women are categorised so rigidly that
men...divided into functions” they have to wear a uniform all the time -
this is quite infantilising and stops them
from forming a comradeship as it is like they
are rival camps not allowed to intermingle
“The white tunnels of cloth that enclose us” The headdresses serve as blinkers for the
(“white wings around the face”) handmaids, they are prevented from looking
at certain things - only able to look forward
to the task in hand: to procreate. During the
ceremony it means that Offred is only able
to see the Commander, does this mean that
the regime means to make the Commander
the sole focus of a Handmaid's life?
AO3/5: (Streetcar)
Thomas Porter: her alien presence is like an “inverted version of the civil war romance”,
with Blanche as the ‘invader’ into the New America.
It is clear that the use of differences in clothing allow the reader/ audience to clearly see
Offred and Blanche as outsiders.
A sense of loss from the past enables both protagonists to be seen as isolated characters.
“The boy died...I’m - going to be sick” Blanche’s physical reaction to the mere
mention of Allan Grey shows the depth of
feeling she has towards him. Even all these
years later a physical response is provoked
shows the profound damage she has
sustained as a result.
“the grim reaper had put up his tent on She feels personally targeted by the
[Stella and Blanche’s] doorstep” number of deaths which have occurred in
her immediate family
, “I have these attacks of the past, like “Wave” suggests that this faintness, almost
faintness, a wave sweeping over my head.” pain is temporary, that Offred is able to ride
it out to dry land where she is safe -
therefore she doesn’t have the profound
damage that Blanche ends up with.
However as the wave goes “over her head”
shows the seriousness of it when it
happens and the fact that it has the
potential to drown her
“Watch out, Commander, I tell him in my Able to mentally rebel against the
head.” Commander and the oppressive Gileadean
regime - Blanche is completely unable to do
this. She is constantly watching him for
mistakes
AO5:
Deer mentions that “Offred may have lost the power to control others...but she still
controls her private thoughts”, and this is important because with her thoughts, she is able
to rebel against the regime and stop Blanche’s fate from becoming hers.
The sense of loss is clear in both characters yet only gives truly profound damage to
Blanche.
Male characters within both texts also experience the ache of isolation.
Cigarette case with Browning’s How Do I They both have suffered loss. The symbol
love thee? of the cigarette light which brings Blanche
closer to all the men in the play. The poem
is about extreme passion and love -
Blanche has experienced this love before
with Allan Grey but has lost it - highlights
the loneliness and isolation she faces as a
reminder of her loss, she would be familiar
with this as an english teacher
“You need somebody. And I need More of a compromise than true love on
somebody, too” - Mitch both parts but they both have the mutual
need to be with somebody after their past
losses and the inevitable future loss of
Mitch’s mother and the loss Blanche will
face when Stanley and Stella ask her to
leave when the baby arrives. Shows the
human need for companionship
“To be a man, watched by women” Sense of pressure on the commander to
always perform, questions his virility -
insulting to a man whose sexual potency is
just swept under the carpet and his last
handmaid failed to conceive. Role reversal,
often men watch women - freedom to vs
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