Streetcar & Handmaid Comparison:
‘Women in literature are presented as powerless’
To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Start of Streetcar - Blanche’s arrival: Clothing & setting
“Her appearance is incongruous to the Shows Blanche as an outsider in Elysian
setting” Fields = powerless because she is so
different lanche is emblematic of a southern
Belle - ie. she doesn't belong in New
Orleans representing the New World (old
south = segregation whereas no is a
melting pot) She is so much of an outsider
that she can’t weald any power in that
setting, she is used to being powerful as a
plantation owner powerless because social
rules no longer apply to her there
Wearing white Presenting herself as innocent and pure
gentrified southern belle. Not the virginal
character she presents herself as.
Floral imagery in Streetcar - daisy metaphor before the Poker night
“[a daisy] that has been picked for a few Blanche sees that her beauty is fading due
days” - Blanche to her age and before long she will be dead
like a picked daisy as she has no proper
life, no family except Stella, no friends and
no husband or children (essential for a
woman of her age) Blanches main concern
is that her main value is beauty and fertility
and it is fading like the daisy. Daisy =
innocence and availability for marriage.
Women do have a certain amount of power
in theri fertility, attractiveness and beauty
but without them they are even weaker in
their circumstance
Mexican Woman - “gaudy tin Flowers for the dead could be
flowers...funerals” foreshadowing because the reader can also
“Flores para los muertos” see Blanche’s mental deterioration.
Stanley’s behaviour at the Poker night in comparison to the Commander
“Nobody’s going to get up so don’t be Men ignore the social expectations of
worried” courtesy to women like the Commander in
Handmaid - perhaps this is not so bad
‘Women in literature are presented as powerless’
To what extent do you agree with this statement?
Start of Streetcar - Blanche’s arrival: Clothing & setting
“Her appearance is incongruous to the Shows Blanche as an outsider in Elysian
setting” Fields = powerless because she is so
different lanche is emblematic of a southern
Belle - ie. she doesn't belong in New
Orleans representing the New World (old
south = segregation whereas no is a
melting pot) She is so much of an outsider
that she can’t weald any power in that
setting, she is used to being powerful as a
plantation owner powerless because social
rules no longer apply to her there
Wearing white Presenting herself as innocent and pure
gentrified southern belle. Not the virginal
character she presents herself as.
Floral imagery in Streetcar - daisy metaphor before the Poker night
“[a daisy] that has been picked for a few Blanche sees that her beauty is fading due
days” - Blanche to her age and before long she will be dead
like a picked daisy as she has no proper
life, no family except Stella, no friends and
no husband or children (essential for a
woman of her age) Blanches main concern
is that her main value is beauty and fertility
and it is fading like the daisy. Daisy =
innocence and availability for marriage.
Women do have a certain amount of power
in theri fertility, attractiveness and beauty
but without them they are even weaker in
their circumstance
Mexican Woman - “gaudy tin Flowers for the dead could be
flowers...funerals” foreshadowing because the reader can also
“Flores para los muertos” see Blanche’s mental deterioration.
Stanley’s behaviour at the Poker night in comparison to the Commander
“Nobody’s going to get up so don’t be Men ignore the social expectations of
worried” courtesy to women like the Commander in
Handmaid - perhaps this is not so bad
