Carter - Marlboro Central High School



NAME_________________________

A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams

Study Guide

[pic]

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams III in 1911 in Columbus, Mississippi. Tennessee Williams was a sickly young man and because of his diphtheria he was bedridden, which at least gave him time to think and read quite a bit. Tennessee Williams was given a typewriter at a young age and this allowed him to begin writing at an early age. His family life, much like that of many of the characters in his most famous plays (Streetcar, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and of course, the quasi- autobiographical Glass Menagerie) was quite troubled. His mother had been born into a privileged Southern that had fallen from grace his father, who worked as a traveling salesman for a shoe company, was abusive and negligent of his ill young son. Tennessee Williams was especially close to his sister, Rose, who suffered from mental illness and was given a crippling failed frontal lobotomy later in life, which caused Tennessee a great deal of pain and stress. While away at college (where he only lasted a short time before his father forced him to come back and work at a shoe warehouse) he was given the nickname “Tennessee” because of his accent and it stuck. Tennessee Williams began writing plays but enjoyed little success until after college. Once pays such as A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof were hailed by critics, Tennessee became quite successful, winning awards such as the Pulitzer Prize. Despite his success, Williams struggled with fame and suffered from alcoholism, drug use, and depression. Even though he had developed a reputation as the next greatest American playwright, Williams also faced challenges because he was gay and was even the victim of gay-hate crime in 1979 in Key West where he was beaten. Tennessee Williams died at the age of 71 after a drug-related choking incident and is buried in Mississippi. Many of the problems he faced during his life are played out in a number of his works and knowing the man before reading the plays is rewarding. ()

A Streetcar Named Desire

Character List

Stanley Kowalski:_______________________

[pic]

Stella Kowalski:_______________________

[pic]

Blanche DuBois:__________________

[pic]

Harold “Mitch” Mitchell:______________________

A Streetcar Named Desire

As you read, cite examples for each theme and motif.

Themes: (a greater message about life taken from the events of the work)

Illusion vs. Reality:

Dependence on Men (Male-centered world):

Passion, Sex, and Death:

Loneliness:

Motifs: (recurring ideas throughout the play)

Light vs. Dark:

Self-image:

Bathing:

Drunkenness:

A Streetcar Named Desire

Quotes & Questions

Answer the questions and explain the significance of the provided quotes.

Scene I

1. Describe the setting of the play. What is the mood?

2. A part of what social class is Blanche? How do you know?

3. What is the significance of the following quote? “Catch…Meat.”

4. Why must Blanche’s “delicate beauty…avoid the strong light”?

5. What do the following items symbolize or represent?

a. Belle Reve

b. Desire

c. Cemeteries

d. Elysian Fields

6. Blanch does not want Stella to look at her in the light or before she has bathed. Why? What do these actions reveal about Blanche’s personality?

7. Describe Stanley (p. 29).

8. At the end of the scene, what does Blanche reveal to Stanley? What does the polka music playing in the background symbolize?

Scene II

1. Blanche’s possessions appear to be expensive and fancy; however, Stella tells the audience that these items are cheap goods. What does this fact suggest about Blanche’s character?

2. What is the significance of the following quote? “When you’re swindled under the Napoleonic Code I’m swindled too. And I don’t like to be swindled.”

3. What is Blanche’s behavior like around Stanley – when Stella is not present? What observations does Stanley make about her?

4. What is the significance of the following quote? “I never met a woman that didn’t know if she was good looking or not without being told.”

5. What does Blanche mean by “a woman’s charm is fifty percent illusion”?

6. What does the blue piano symbolize?

Scene III & IV

1. “That one seems- superior to the others.”

2. “Sick people have such deep sincere attachments.”

3. Why are Mitch and Blanche immediately attracted to each other?

4. How do we know that Mitch is a rather sensitive man (far more sensitive than Stanley)?

5. “Poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women.”

6. “Stell-ahhhhh!”

7. What happens with Stanley and Stella at the end of Scene 3?

8. “There’s so much- so much confusion in the world.”

9. “But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark- that sort of make everything else seem unimportant.”

10. “He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits!”

11. Complete the Venn Diagram comparing Blanche and Stanley.

|Stanley |Both |Blanche |

[pic]

12. Complete the Venn Diagram comparing Mitch and Stanley.

|Stanley |Both |Mitch |

[pic]

Scene V

1. “Soft people have to shimmer and glow- they’ve got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a paper lantern over the light…You’ve got to be soft and attractive.”

2. “I want to deceive him enough to make him- want me.”

3. “I want to kiss you, just once, softly and sweetly on your mouth!”

Scene VI

1. “What does Mitch talk about toward the end of Blanche and Mitch’s date? What does this say about his character?”

2. The audience knows that the date didn’t go well; why do you think Tennessee Williams has Blanche say this line: Is that street-car named Desire still grinding along the tracks at this hour?

3. During Blanche’s date with Mitch, how does Blanche present herself?

4. “I like you to be exactly the way that you are because in all my- experience I have never known anyone like you.”

5. The first time I laid eyes on him I thought to myself, that man is my executioner!

6. Explain the tragedy of Blanche’s marriage. How does this incident explain the fantasy life she lives?

7. “It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it struck the world for me.”

8. “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this-kitchen-candle.”

Scene VII & VIII

1. Why does Tennessee Williams remind the audience that it is now September?

2. Once again Blanche is taking a bath. What is the symbolic importance of this?

3. “Say it’s only a paper-moon, Sailing over a cardboard sea… It’s a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be.”

4. “What do you think you are? A pair of queens?”

5. “I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them colored lights going!”

Scene IX

1. What symbolic gesture takes place that shows Blanche’s “real” self has been exposed?

2. “I don’t want realism. I want magic!... I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth.”

3. What is Blanche’s explanation for her promiscuous past? Explain the significance of this explanation (think theme: truth vs. illusion).

4. “After the death of Allan_-intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with…I think it was panic.”

5. At the end of the scene, a Mexican woman repeats the following line: Flores para los muertos. How do these lines parallel Blanche’s life?

6. “You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother.”

Scene X

1. What is symbolic about Blanche’s dress in the stage directions at the beginning of the scene?

2. Describe Blanche’s newest lies.

3. “Physical beauty is passing. A transitory possession. But beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart…aren’t taken away, but grow!”

4. What despicable, devastation crime does Stanley commit in this scene? What do you think will happen to Blanche after this incident?

5. “We’ve had this date with each other since the beginning!”

Scene XI

1. How much time has passed between scene ten and scene eleven?

2. What evidence shows Mitch is not pleased with himself for how he behaved toward Blanche?

3. How does Stella feel about what she has planned for her sister? What can’t she believe Blanche?

4. “You left nothing here…unless it’s the paper lantern you want to take with you. You want the lantern?”

5. “Whoever you are- I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

6. Explain how the ending of the play is ironic.

Tracking the Symbolism in A Streetcar Named Desire

Symbolism is the use of an object, a person, a place, or an experience that represents something else, usually something abstract. A symbol may have more than one meaning, or its meaning may change from the beginning to the end of a literary work.

|[pic] |  |

|Light Bulb |The "naked" light bulb symbolizes truth and reality. The light bulb also symbolizes an epiphany. An |

| |epiphany is an "a-ha!" moment, the moment when some new idea or concept occurs to a person. |

|[pic] |The paper lantern symbolizes something flimsy that is used to disguise reality, create illusion, and hide |

|Paper Lantern |the truth. However the paper lantern cannot last, it can only temporarily create a romantic glow and keep |

| |the truth in shadow. The paper lantern is used by Blanche to disguise her fading beauty and indecent past. |

|[pic] |  |

|White Clothing |White symbolizes purity and innocence. |

|[pic] |The package of meat that Stanley throws at Stella and her eager catching of the the meat is a symbol of |

|Package of Meat |their sexual relationship. Stanley is the provider (hunter & gatherer) and Stella waits happily at home for|

| |his return. The meat represents Stanley's almost barbaric manliness. |

|[pic] |Blanche's constant bathing shows her need to cleanse herself (metaphorically) of the impurities and |

|Bathing |disappointments in her past (the Hotel Flamingo, her own sinful behavior with her young husband). The |

| |bathing helps relax Blanceh's nerves and allows her mind to imagine that she is in better (and more |

| |pampered) circumstances. Bathing also makes Blanche feel young and girlish, laughin, singing, and splashing|

| |in the tub like a child. |

|[pic] |  |

|Polka Music |The polka music that Blanche hears whenever her young husband is discussed reminds Blanche of the frenzied |

| |manner in which she lost her husband. This music haunts Blanche and is one of the realities that she |

| |desires to escape. |

| | |

| | |

| | |

Thematic and Literary Questions

1. Explain what all of the following items symbolize, and discuss how each item explains Blanche’s demise (destruction).

Belle Reve → Streetcar Named Desire → Streetcar Named Cemeteries → Elysian Fields →

Shep Huntleigh → Stanley

2. Explain the theme present in the last quotation of the play – refer to specific examples from the play to explain the theme. “This game is seven-card stud.”

3. Based on the outcome of the play, explain why certain people, like Blanche, might be justified in lying about who they really are. Think: To what extent is Blanche a victim of her own self-delusions and Old South attitudes? To what extent is she the victim of males who take advantage of her, deceive her, or abuse her? 

4. Who is the most admirable character in the play?  Why? (Provide a reasoned response which includes specific examples from the play.)

5. Your Opinion: Respond to the play. Did you enjoy it? Why or why not? Here’s your chance to give the teacher feedback.

-----------------------

Traits/examples (p#):

Traits/examples (p#):

Traits/examples(P#):

Traits/examples(P#):

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download