English Literature: Component 1: Drama - A Streetcar Named Desire
Essay details:
- 25 marks
- 1 hour (in a 2 hour 15 minutes paper, but 1 hour 15 should be spent on Othello)
- Drama Paper
Exam technique:
Key Characters
Blanche - Stella’s older sister, ex-high school
English teacher from Laurel,
Mississippi
- Around 30,
- Destitute after losing Belle Reve, the
family home
- Raped by Stanley, committed to
asylum
- Former English teacher (fired
because liked young boys)
Stella - Blanche’s younger sister, 25, mild
disposition
- Left Mississippi for New Orleans,
married Stanley
- Union with Stanley is passionate but
violent
- Gives birth to Stanley’s child
- Loves and pities Blanche but denies
reality
Stanley - Husband of Stella, around 30
- Vital force, loyal to friends,
passionate to wife
- Polish American
- Cruel to Blanche, aims to destroy
her social pretensions
- Practical, lacks ideals and
imagination
- Beats wife, rapes sister-in-law
- Proud family man despite his flaws
Harold ‘Mitch’ Mitchell - Stanley’s friend and coworker,
courts Blanche
- Around 30, clumsy, sweaty,
unrefined interests
- Sensitive and gentlemanly
compared to Stanley
- Lives with dying mother, bonds with
Blanche over lost loves
- Despairs over Blanche’s tragedy
, English Literature: Component 1: Drama - A Streetcar Named Desire
Eunice - Stella’s friend, upstairs neighbor,
landlady
- Accepts husband’s abuse like Stella
does with Stanley
- Forbids Stella from questioning her
decision to stay with Stanley
Allan Grey - Blanche’s young husband with
poetic aspirations
- Discovered in bed with another man,
committed suicide
- Haunts Blanche throughout the play,
never appears onstage
Shep Huntleigh - Former suitor of Blanche’s, provides
financial hope
- Fantasy of being rescued by him
becomes more real as her stability
declines
A young collector - Teenager who comes to collect for
the newspaper
- Blanche hits on him, displays
unhealthy sexual preoccupation
Steve - Stanley’s brutish poker buddy,
abusive husband to Eunice
Pablo - Stanley’s poker buddy, physically fit
and brutish, Hispanic
An unnamed black woman - Finds Stanley’s gestures toward
Stella hilarious
- Scurries across stage in Scene Ten
with a prostitute’s lost handbag
A doctor - Whisks Blanche off to asylum,
ironically conforms to Blanche’s
chivalric notions
A mexican woman - Vendor of funeral decorations,
frightens Blanche with plaintive call
A nurse - Accompanies doctor, subdues
hysterical patients
Shaw - Stanley’s coworker, source of stories
about Blanche’s past
Prostitute - Seen moments before Stanley rapes
Blanche, evokes her own
predicament
Essay details:
- 25 marks
- 1 hour (in a 2 hour 15 minutes paper, but 1 hour 15 should be spent on Othello)
- Drama Paper
Exam technique:
Key Characters
Blanche - Stella’s older sister, ex-high school
English teacher from Laurel,
Mississippi
- Around 30,
- Destitute after losing Belle Reve, the
family home
- Raped by Stanley, committed to
asylum
- Former English teacher (fired
because liked young boys)
Stella - Blanche’s younger sister, 25, mild
disposition
- Left Mississippi for New Orleans,
married Stanley
- Union with Stanley is passionate but
violent
- Gives birth to Stanley’s child
- Loves and pities Blanche but denies
reality
Stanley - Husband of Stella, around 30
- Vital force, loyal to friends,
passionate to wife
- Polish American
- Cruel to Blanche, aims to destroy
her social pretensions
- Practical, lacks ideals and
imagination
- Beats wife, rapes sister-in-law
- Proud family man despite his flaws
Harold ‘Mitch’ Mitchell - Stanley’s friend and coworker,
courts Blanche
- Around 30, clumsy, sweaty,
unrefined interests
- Sensitive and gentlemanly
compared to Stanley
- Lives with dying mother, bonds with
Blanche over lost loves
- Despairs over Blanche’s tragedy
, English Literature: Component 1: Drama - A Streetcar Named Desire
Eunice - Stella’s friend, upstairs neighbor,
landlady
- Accepts husband’s abuse like Stella
does with Stanley
- Forbids Stella from questioning her
decision to stay with Stanley
Allan Grey - Blanche’s young husband with
poetic aspirations
- Discovered in bed with another man,
committed suicide
- Haunts Blanche throughout the play,
never appears onstage
Shep Huntleigh - Former suitor of Blanche’s, provides
financial hope
- Fantasy of being rescued by him
becomes more real as her stability
declines
A young collector - Teenager who comes to collect for
the newspaper
- Blanche hits on him, displays
unhealthy sexual preoccupation
Steve - Stanley’s brutish poker buddy,
abusive husband to Eunice
Pablo - Stanley’s poker buddy, physically fit
and brutish, Hispanic
An unnamed black woman - Finds Stanley’s gestures toward
Stella hilarious
- Scurries across stage in Scene Ten
with a prostitute’s lost handbag
A doctor - Whisks Blanche off to asylum,
ironically conforms to Blanche’s
chivalric notions
A mexican woman - Vendor of funeral decorations,
frightens Blanche with plaintive call
A nurse - Accompanies doctor, subdues
hysterical patients
Shaw - Stanley’s coworker, source of stories
about Blanche’s past
Prostitute - Seen moments before Stanley rapes
Blanche, evokes her own
predicament
