A Street Car Named Desire and The Feminine Gospels Summary and Quote Bank (7712)

Street car:



Themes:

Class

‘some nice clothes to meet all your lovely friends’  reflects class  social mobility via appearance

‘horrible place’ -> difference in class

‘saccharine popular ballad…contrapuntally with stanley’  obvious clash with old and new south 
class



Obsession

‘how do I look’  response to seeing men  craves validation  repetition

‘I think I will bathe’

‘How old are you blanche’… she makes nervous gesture  fear of time and aging  relies on looks
and charm for survival

Brushing her hair vigorously  harsh violent movements  attempts to tame reinforce detail put
into her appearance

‘hiding the bottle in the closet’, ‘dabbing her face with cologne and powder’  mitch as her last
hope  vital to keep his attraction

‘bathing’ scene 11  post ultimate violation  blanche’s only power  seductive alter ego and
looks has been stripped from her

‘is something wrong with me’ ‘help me help me get dressed’  lack of certainty over own life  no
longer independent and assertive  needs help with simplest task

‘are these grapes washed’ shall die of eating an unwashed grape’

- recoil to life of luxury. wine, greek gods.

- From the French quarter- New Orleans. French romanticism has been replaced.

- Dionysus- God of wine and fertility.

- ties with obsession of cleanliness inside and out  tie in with alcohol theory: alcohol used
medically to clean wounds -> cleans herself via drinking

Gender

‘raw colours of childhood spectrum  overpowering crowded presence  wash out Blanche and
stella’s presence

‘Why don’t you women go up’  dismissive and disrespectful  contributes to dynamic between
stella and Stanley

,‘poker shouldn’t be played in a house with women’  blame shifted from Stanley onto stella 
reinforces (reinf) gender roles and normality of abuse within their relationship (rel)

‘youre not old you can get out’  women only have opportunity if considered attractive

‘that’s much more practical’  response to Eunice getting drunk instead of calling police for abuse
 normality of domestic violence and futility of police

‘I want to rest’  marriage end goal for blanche

We was together in the two-forty-first  ww2: brotherhood and comradery  strong bond between

mitch and Stanley from war


‘it’s not my soul I’m worried about’  Stanley reinf gender attitudes towards purity


‘Mitch is a buddy of mine’ comradery ad brotherhood of WW2


Pale blue blanket  likely to emulate Stanley reinf cyclical structure  stella officially entrapped and

fully reliant upon Stanley


Characters

Blanche:

‘Slip of paper’  quizzical, lost  out of comfort zone ‘shocked disbelief’  southern belle

‘Appearance is incongruous’

‘White suit’ ‘fluffy bodice’ ‘earrings of pearl’ ‘white gloves and a hat  appearances  colour
symbolism of purity as well as milk and mother hood  somewhere she ‘should be’ reinf façade as
southern belle

‘Daintily dressed,’ ‘delicate beauty’  easy to break, impermanent, vulnerable

‘something uncertain about her manner and clothes… suggest a moth’  façade does fail  falls
short of perfection  fragile and flies towards light despite certain death

‘take a street car named desire … get off at elysian fields’  past life to metaphorical (met)
Death/purgatory

‘Stella for star’  never something for herself but someone else  sister is guiding light  last hope

‘Horrible place’  difference in class

‘Shaking all over… tries to laugh’  uphold faced  panic and reliant on alcohol

‘Nervously tamping cigarette-  nerves beyond typical reliefs  constant fear and anxiety of the
truth and past

‘She drinks quickly’  alcohol coping mechanism

, ‘You haven’t said a word about my appearance’  obsessed with looks and presentation -> desire for
perfection

‘Plump as a little partridge’ infantilises stella  attempts to feel better about herself  ‘your messy
child’ does not acknowledge stella as a woman



1st monologue: I, I ,I took the blow in my face and my body…



‘don’t let me go’  equivocal meaning: keep alive and chained to belle reve by responsibility

‘Pretty flowers’ uses beaty to hide and distract self from horrors and trauma

‘Miss stella’  juxtaposes previous pet names -> disdain and blame on stella  resentful that she
escaped and married

‘Where were you’ betrayal  sense of entitlement  stella owes her something



‘I want you to look at my figure I haven’t gained a pound in ten years’  desperate for validation,
demanding over appearance to herself and others, requires recognition to function akin to a child

‘After all I’ve been through… blessed child’  ignores stella’s life, wants all the pity -> ‘all the burden
descended on my shoulders’ -> victim complex

‘Some nice clothes to meet all your lovely friends’  reflects class  social mobility via appearance

‘I haven’t washed or powdered my face’  defends looks to Stanley  need to please all men visibly
despite marital status

‘The boy – the boy died’  innocence and immaturity  I am afraid I’m going to be sick  extreme
anxiety and avoidance of truth  polka first plays --. Reflect to the past haunting her

‘Singing in the bathroom’  different room from Stanley and stella  class and world view divide
 old v new on peripheries of soc

‘I was flirting with your husband stella’  tried to gain emotional leverage after baby news

‘mix and blood now’  southern UC pride and purity  merging of old and new world

‘how pretty the sky is…I ought to go up there on a rocket and never come down’  beginnings of
delusion and fantastical way of living to escape mental state

‘wait till I power till you open the door.’  fear of judgement  clings onto youth and addicted to
perfection

‘I’m not accustomed to having more than one drink’  seduces men through deception, instinct to
lie  keep up façade

‘she’s somewhat older than I’  increases ambiguity around men  ashamed of age  clings to
southern belle archetype

‘being such a liar’  shep: acknowledges need to lie to pursue greater position in life  cannot rely
on money, reputation or looks