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Summary A Streetcar Named Desire essay plans
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A Streetcar Named Desire essay plans on Blanche and Stanley's relationship, Blanche and Mitch's relationship and reputation.
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A Streetcar Named Desire: Scene 3 and 4 summary notes for revision A Level English Literature AQA PEARSON EDEXCEL
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ASCND plansReputation Plan
- Blanche’s loss of reputation in Belle Reve as her beautiful dream ‘slipped through her fingers’.
Nomenclature of ‘Elysian Fields’ = heaven in Greek mythology which suggests Blanche journeys
there in order to renew and revive her reputation in a place where her past is unknown and
oblivious to others.
- Reputation of 1940’s America as a patriarchal society the solely defined role of a woman to be
submissive and passive to their husbands as seen by Stella. Blanche juxtaposes this role as she
asserts power over Mitch when he is forced to ask for her permission to kiss her ‘can I-uh-kiss-
you-goodnight’. Mitch has a reputation as a Southern Gentleman despite being part of the New
South.
- Blanche puts on a façade in order to renew her reputation ‘daintly dressed in white’ = Southern
belle, aristocratic, paradox to the setting which signifies the ‘raffish’ and ‘cosmopolitan’ setting
of New Orleans as New Orleans had a reputation for cultural diversity and autonomy.
- Stanley’s reputation as the alpha male as in scene 1 he dominates the dialogue and deprives
Mitch of any dialogue. ‘male feathered bird’ and ‘ape-like’ ‘animal joy in his being’.
- The reputation of 1940’s America as a hetreonormative society as seen by Allan Grey’s suicide.
Blanche and Mitch’s relationship
- Mutual dependency/co-dependency ‘keeps his hands on her waist’ ‘he kisses her forehead and
her eyes…the polka music fades out’. Founded on mutual loneliness and the desire to be with
someone.
- Relationship possibly unstable from the start due to contrast between Mitch and Blanche as she
‘waltzes to the music with romantic gestures’ whilst Mitch ‘is delighted and moves in awkward
imitation like a dancing bear’- Mitch does not know his own strength. Williams depicts the
overwhelming lack of connection between the two characters particularly through a series of
uncomfortable and awkward stage directions including ‘stopping lifelessly’, ‘laughing grimly’ and
‘solemnly’. This semantic field of lexis commonly associate with death could be present
throughout the scene to assert the stagnancy of their relationship whilst also emphasising the
uncomfortable atmosphere. Furthermore, the uneasy tone between the two is highlighted
through the extended use of simple, succinct utterances such as “’I’m lighting a candle’ ‘that’s
good’”. This type of statement and corroboration occurs throughout their time together and
appears to reflect a lack of real compatibility due to the poor flow of conversation. Williams also
displays Blanche’s up kept role and fantasist approach which in turn affects and highlights the
obvious differences between herself and Mitch. This is best shown within “’I guess it is just that I
have-old fashioned values!’ [she rolls her eyes]”. Not only does this emphasise the contrast
between what Mitch hears and sees, the prosodic feature of Blanche ‘rolling her eyes’
acknowledges the fact she is pretending and her ‘old fashioned views’ are another part of her
pretence. Blanche’s deception is also shown when she responds to Mitch with ‘I said unhand me
Sir’. The somewhat archaic sentence structure and mode of address ‘Sir’ harks back to the
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