A Streetcar Named Desire: Techniques
GENRE:
Southern Gothic – A genre which blend typical Gothic features into a
Southern American Setting. Typically includes transgressive thoughts/desires
and the idea of ‘memento mori’ (remember death is inevitable). Parallels of
Blanche to a vampire e.g. ‘The Dark is comforting to me’, preying on ‘young
(x4) or she is buried alive by being sent to a lunatic asylum. Allan Gray
haunts the play like a ghost.
Aristotelian Tragedy – When the central character has a change in fortune
and a hamartia
Arguably, Blanche never experiences a specific moment of
‘anagnorisis’ but is aware of her flaw: ‘I don’t want realism’. (More
realistic) Stanley shows hubris (excessive pride).
Hegelian Tragedy – The battle of two opposing moral claims which cannot
coexist. The series of confrontations between Blanche and Stanley builds as
the play goes on.
Nietzschean Tragedy – An internal battle between the character’s
Apollonian (individual / logical) side and Dionysian side (emotion and
intoxicated).
DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES:
Bifurcated staging: Having more than one space on a single stage
(bedroom, kitchen)
Plastic Theatre: Breaking realism via the use of more widely symbolic
sounds, stage directions, props and costume to express the characters inner
minds, a type of expressionism. Ironic, as it gives better insight into
Blanche’s reality.
Lighting: Blanche doesn’t want people to see the truth
Props: E.g. Blanche’s faux furs represent false glamour
Polka music: Helps transport audience between delusions and reality
(auditory hallucinations). Diegetic only to Blanche
The blue piano: The play starts and ends with, cyclical structure which
shows how life returns to normality.
Locomotive sounds: Often associated with Stanley, modern and
aggressive
Jungle Noises: Bestiality and primality of the rape scene
, Eleven Episodic scenes, no interval: This episodic structure increases
tension and may substitute for a lack of realistic techniques, it gives more
insight into the characters’ lives with detailed dialogue. Each individual
scene ends with a climax. The play begins and ends with Blanche, but is not
only about Blanche.
Tableaux: The end scene often freezes/ ends on Blanche, establishes
Blanche as the tragic hero; although she does not physically die, her
opportunities do.
STRUCTURE / SETTING:
Setting: The small space allows for increased tension but is also seamlessly
integrated with the street e.g. easy to hear flower vendor. This is symbolic of
New Orleans diversity but also how the boundaries between public and
private life are blurred. There is a unity of place. Stellas’s house is literally on
the ‘wrong side of the tracks’.
In media res: The play begins after the inciting incident (Blanche being fired
from her job and the crumbling of Belle Reve) which foreshadows how the
crumbling of the south.
Use of Time: The timespan between scenes ranges from during the month
of May to during one day in September, the pace fluctuates throughout the
play. (Does not conform to unity of time)
Third Person Omniscient narrator: Allows multiple things to occur at
once but also emphasise that there is not a singular character whom the
audience can entirely sympathize with ( a realist reflection of society)
Williams ‘There is no Good or bad people’
Parallels / Repetition: Blanche’s repeated bathing, the poker game (asking
them to stand up)
LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES AND QUOTES:
Epigraph: Hart Crane was an inspiration to Williams, also a homosexual
alcoholic writer, who died by committing suicide off a boat, not dissimilarly to
Blanche’s death ideology.
SCENE 1:
Symbolism: ‘Elysian Fields’ translates to ‘Paradise World’: It is a paradise for
modernity and for characters like Stanley. There can never be a paradise
GENRE:
Southern Gothic – A genre which blend typical Gothic features into a
Southern American Setting. Typically includes transgressive thoughts/desires
and the idea of ‘memento mori’ (remember death is inevitable). Parallels of
Blanche to a vampire e.g. ‘The Dark is comforting to me’, preying on ‘young
(x4) or she is buried alive by being sent to a lunatic asylum. Allan Gray
haunts the play like a ghost.
Aristotelian Tragedy – When the central character has a change in fortune
and a hamartia
Arguably, Blanche never experiences a specific moment of
‘anagnorisis’ but is aware of her flaw: ‘I don’t want realism’. (More
realistic) Stanley shows hubris (excessive pride).
Hegelian Tragedy – The battle of two opposing moral claims which cannot
coexist. The series of confrontations between Blanche and Stanley builds as
the play goes on.
Nietzschean Tragedy – An internal battle between the character’s
Apollonian (individual / logical) side and Dionysian side (emotion and
intoxicated).
DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES:
Bifurcated staging: Having more than one space on a single stage
(bedroom, kitchen)
Plastic Theatre: Breaking realism via the use of more widely symbolic
sounds, stage directions, props and costume to express the characters inner
minds, a type of expressionism. Ironic, as it gives better insight into
Blanche’s reality.
Lighting: Blanche doesn’t want people to see the truth
Props: E.g. Blanche’s faux furs represent false glamour
Polka music: Helps transport audience between delusions and reality
(auditory hallucinations). Diegetic only to Blanche
The blue piano: The play starts and ends with, cyclical structure which
shows how life returns to normality.
Locomotive sounds: Often associated with Stanley, modern and
aggressive
Jungle Noises: Bestiality and primality of the rape scene
, Eleven Episodic scenes, no interval: This episodic structure increases
tension and may substitute for a lack of realistic techniques, it gives more
insight into the characters’ lives with detailed dialogue. Each individual
scene ends with a climax. The play begins and ends with Blanche, but is not
only about Blanche.
Tableaux: The end scene often freezes/ ends on Blanche, establishes
Blanche as the tragic hero; although she does not physically die, her
opportunities do.
STRUCTURE / SETTING:
Setting: The small space allows for increased tension but is also seamlessly
integrated with the street e.g. easy to hear flower vendor. This is symbolic of
New Orleans diversity but also how the boundaries between public and
private life are blurred. There is a unity of place. Stellas’s house is literally on
the ‘wrong side of the tracks’.
In media res: The play begins after the inciting incident (Blanche being fired
from her job and the crumbling of Belle Reve) which foreshadows how the
crumbling of the south.
Use of Time: The timespan between scenes ranges from during the month
of May to during one day in September, the pace fluctuates throughout the
play. (Does not conform to unity of time)
Third Person Omniscient narrator: Allows multiple things to occur at
once but also emphasise that there is not a singular character whom the
audience can entirely sympathize with ( a realist reflection of society)
Williams ‘There is no Good or bad people’
Parallels / Repetition: Blanche’s repeated bathing, the poker game (asking
them to stand up)
LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES AND QUOTES:
Epigraph: Hart Crane was an inspiration to Williams, also a homosexual
alcoholic writer, who died by committing suicide off a boat, not dissimilarly to
Blanche’s death ideology.
SCENE 1:
Symbolism: ‘Elysian Fields’ translates to ‘Paradise World’: It is a paradise for
modernity and for characters like Stanley. There can never be a paradise
