Death of a Salesman Notes- Act 1

Act 1 Death of a Salesman:

Section 1

1.    Willy returns home extreme weariness and Linda is obviously worried about him; the audience is faced with several possibilities- tired or going mad? Later he kills himself while driving so is this just setting up the final action.Is he just setting Linda up by saying how badly he has been driving lately?

2.    Willy’s first line,’It’s alright I came back’. Ambiguity of this line- one day he won’t?

3.    He appears to be a pathetic old man- arch supports and Linda mothers him- shoes and jacket.

4.    One hand he talks about selling to Brown and Morrison and the next he is resolved to control his life.

5.    Willy shifts his anger to the loss of greenery around his house.

6.    The audience is introduced to the constant contradictions he makes ‘ mountains out of molehills- Is Willy inventing his own difficulties or is he the VICTIM of a terrible fate(tragedy of the common man.

Section 2

1.    Biff and Happy awake to overhear the conversation between Willy and Linda.

2.    They are aware of his forgetfulness-but are aware that Willy is beginning to live in his own distorted world.

3.    Biff and Happy show that their attitude to women is extremely lacking in maturity and that they are openly sexist.

4.    Biff loves his life in the open country

5.    Happy’s life doesn’t seem so good even though he has the trimmings of the American Dream. Neither married

6.    Happy’s conquests with engaged girls ‘ruining them before their weddings’ cruel and unethical – what other sexist attitudes come through this conversation?

7.    Bill Oliver an ex-employer is mentioned and Biff unrealistically sees himself able to get a business loan from him-American Dream

8.    Boys are heard even though Willy is continuing a conversation with himself and expresses his concern for Biff. He loves Biff

9.    Can the boys prevent themselves making the same mistakes and ending up like Willy?

10.  Biff’s farmwork equates to Willy’s DIY projects. Happy has gone for a whitecollar job but is still unhappy.

Section 3

1.    Willy is lost in a daydream and the lighting changes along with the music. Dreamstate- characters enter through the walls.

2.    Willy watches Biff polish the car and condones the theft of the football.

3.    Willy hopes to have his own business- he is well liked where ever he goes- the importance of popularity and looks over hardwork and study- (Bernard and Charley)

4.    Linda tots up the commission and Willy’s exaggeration is noted.

5.    Willy contradicts himself-well liked to not liked – appearance is not conducive to sales.

6.    Woman’s laughter off stage. Whenever this occurs the ambiguity of the words/ meaning on stage are highlighted here.

7.    Willy has increasing difficulty in differentiating between reality and dream and the past and the present. Miller interleaves the use of time to add to the drama and tensions on stage.

8.    Willy’s belief that his son’s looks and popularity will help them succeed in business.

9.    Willy ‘s boastfulness is undermined by the fact that he has not earned enough money to pay his bills.

Section 4-Willy remembers his lover in Boston.

1.    Willy continues to talk as if to Linda but it is clearly the secretary in Boston. Lighting changes and Willy returns to this scene in Boston.(Changed location from the house)

2.    Willy talks of loneliness on the road and the woman tells him that she had singled him out of all the salesmen. This shows Willy’s lack of integrity as he cannot stay faithful to the one truly loyal character of Linda.

3.    Willy is still talking about his wife and her understanding of him whilst the woman thanks him for the stockings.

4.    Lighting changes and Linda is mending her stockings- guilt demonstrated here. Unsuccessful as she is wearing mended stockings.

5.    Willy throws these out in a temper.

Section Five- Willy remembers Biff being unsuccessful in school

1.    Bernard and the Regent’s exam- Willy’s recollections are no longer idyllic as before

2.    Petty theft and failure to study maths

3.    Willy pushes Biff’s sporting success above all things

4.    Willy seems oblivious to the unethical behaviour he condones – his self deception is obvious here

Section 6

Willy daydreams about following Ben and his life-Charley plays cards with Willy

1.    Willy discusses achievement in life- laments not going to Alaska with Ben(American Dream)

2.    Willy rejects financial help from Happy and rejects the job offer from Charley.(pride)

3.    Discusses handling tools- Willy identifies tools and physical work with being a man-masculinity

4.    ‘The world is an oyster but you cannot crack it open on a mattress’. You have to work to succeed/going to bed with people is not the way to economic and social success.

5.    ‘The woods are burning’ –seen as a metaphor for the jungle disappearing and the elm trees which were cut down in the garden-the very land of opportunity is going up in smoke.

Section 7

Willy plays cards with Charley but talks to Ben

1.    Ben’s entrance is made through the walls to ensure that audience realise Ben is the dead brother and its imagined- unreal event

2.    Charley leaves as Willy talks to Ben and argues with Charley over the aces

3.    Ben is the only one who had all the answers- flute- connected to Willy’s father rather than Ben-Linda and Willy have a conversation with dead Ben

4.    Biff and Ben spar but Ben trips him up-never fight fair with a stranger-why?

5.    Willy wants to rebuild part of the property and sends the boys off to steal some building material- Ben and Willy agree how manly it is to steal- Charley and Bernard – can’t hammer a nail- despised for this

6.    Willy feels: ’kind of temporary about myself’-reveals Willy’s insecurity about himself.

7.    Ben and Willy are positioned at opposite sides of the stage- they are opposites in life- Ben confident- Willy not

8.    Willy cannot distinguish truth from imagination- Ben is imagined not a remembered character.- Is Ben arrogant and scathing about Willy’s behaviour?

9.    Willy comes across as naive- Ben substitute father figure?

10.  When I walked into the jungle, I was seventeen. When I walked out I was twenty-one.

Section 8

Willy’s plans to commit suicide are discovered and the Loman brothers decide on a business plan.

1.    Linda talks about Willy to Biff and Happy. Very pertinent quotes in this section

2.    Biff’s lines; ’spewing out that vomit from his mind’.

3.    Linda; ’Attention must be finally paid to such a person.’(The common man).Is he potentially a tragic figure a fallen hero? Could he have changed this fate?

4.    ‘he’s a human being and a terrible thing is happening to him

5.    Her conversation with her sons  ’and one a philandering bum.’ p.45

6.    The fake accidents and the length of hose/piping to connect to the gas in the cellar- suicide

7.    Is it true that the son’s have been responsible for the way Willy behaves? Do you agree or disagree?

8.    Happy and Biff review Biff’s work patterns and his whistling in the lift

9.    Willy blames Biff for never growing up but the conversation moves to Bill Oliver and the business proposition to enable Biff to ‘stay home’

10.  Willy gives advise but it is again contradictory in nature- to joke-to be serious etc.

11.  Happy relates commercial success with sexual success

12.  Willy loses himself in the memory of Biff’s football achievements-golden glow bathes Biff on the stage to show the warmth and idealised memory of Biff- totally unrealistic.

13.  Biff calls Willy a fake, which worries Linda but it is not explained.

14.  Biff discovers the pipe behind the gas heater in the cellar and realises that Linda has been speaking the truth that Willy is a suicide risk

15.  Willy failed to recall that he had pawned the diamond Ben had given him for Biff’s course- Willy’s memory is also failing him and his grip on reality is surely going.

16.  Biff decides to start a business to appease the family- but this will not help Biff

17.  Biff is being altruistic here yet Willy blames him for never growing up

18.  Biff does take responsibility for his father- moves the piping.

19.  Willy originally mocked Bernard and encouraged Biff to do the same- now he says he is childish- whistling in the lift. Difficult to know what Willy wants from Biff

poetic terms with thanks to Ms Minaz

Poetry Checklist

Structure:  (number of stanzas, line length, enjambment, run-on lines, tercets, sestets, octaves, couplets)_________________________________

Form: (sonnet/ode/curtal)  ______________________________________________

Diction: (choice of words [notice the connotation of words]) _______________________________________________

Tone: (usually, the diction leads to the tone) (reflective, exuberant, sad) __________

Mood: (this is created by the tone) (one of anxiety, sorrow, reflection)_______________

Imagery: (visual, auditory, gustatory [taste], olfactory [smell], kinesthetic [movement],  tactile [touch] 

Emotion: _____________________________________________________________

Themes: (war, loss, betrayal) ____________________________________________

Style: (scientific, ornate, plain, emotive) ____________________________________

Tension: __________________________________________________________

Rhythm: (determines the mood) ________________________________________

Rhyme: (eye-rhyme, half rhyme, internal rhyme) ___________________________________

Tempo: (pace) (quick, slow, galloping [through the anapaest]) ________________

Impact: (dramatic, understated, impersonal) ______________________________

Texture: (smooth/ coarse) (through the use of pleasant/unpleasant ideas or words) ___

Point of view: (first person/ third person)___________________________________

Persona: (speaker, the unnamed ‘I’) ________________________________________

Figures of speech: (simile, metaphor, personification, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, repetition, alliteration, consonance, assonance, sibilance, onomatopoeia, apostrophe, transferred epithet, paradox, antithesis, oxymoron, euphemism, tautology)_____________________________________________

Symbols: ________________________________________________________

Motifs: __________________________________________________________

Juxtaposition: ____________________________________________________

Voice: (do we hear only one voice? )__________________________________________________________

Literary devices:  (cacophony, euphony, anaphora, epistrophe, parallelism, epizeuxis, asyndeton, polysyndeton, inversion, ellipsis […], elision [th’ expense of spirit], syncope [o’er the hills])

Contrasts and colour: _________________________________________________________

paper 2 sl questions

Paper 2 questions for class discussion in Grade 12 SL1 and SL3  Jan-Apr 2014 with thanks to Ms Minaz

1.      “In drama there are more interesting roles for men than for women.” Discuss to what extent you agree with this statement and what it is that makes a role interesting. Refer closely to at least two plays you have studied.

2.      “Hope springs eternal.” How is hope or the lack of hope important in at least two literary works you have studied?

3.      “Drama at its best investigates the problems that beset ordinary individuals.” In light of this statement consider the ways in which two or three dramatists you have studied explore the problems that affect individuals.

4.      Compare the presentation and functions of the openings in two or three plays you have

            studied.

5.      How do characters and the choices they make contribute to meaning in two or three plays you have studied?

6.      What can a writer accomplish through the use of repetition? Respond with reference to two or three works you have studied.

7.      “Drama explains individuals, not relationships.” Paying close attention to how individuals and relationships are presented in two or three plays you have studied, say how far you find this statement to be true.

8.      How and to what effect is conflict used in two or three works you have studied?

9.      In what ways and to what effect have your writers focused on either the darker or lighter side of life in two or three works you have studied?

10.  There are many ways of achieving a memorable ending to a work of literature. In two or three of the works you have studied, how have your chosen authors made endings memorable?

11.  People often act first and reflect afterwards. In what ways have the connections between action and reflection been more and less important to the plays you have studied?

12.  Compare the importance of dreams or aspirations or ambitions to the impact of works you have studied.

13.  “Drama has to do with both conflicts and denials.” How have dramatists in your study used either of these, or both together, to create plays that provoke or interest or disturb the audience?

14.  “Some works challenge us more than others.” Discuss elements contributing to challenges for the reader in works you have studied, considering why the writers may have included such difficulties.

15.  “Tension is a necessity in all works of art.” Saying what you mean by “tension” in literature, discuss how far you agree with this view.

16.  With reference to two or three plays you have studied, examine the dramatic significance of

            failures in communication.

17.  Consider the ways in which scene changes may highlight the development of the characters and

            their relationships in two or three plays you have studied.

18.  Many works of literature deal with a sense of longing. How, and to what effect, have two or

            three writers you have studied made use of a sense of longing in their works?

19.   Fear and hope are significant in any person’s life. How have two or three writers you have

            studied presented these emotions in a convincing way, and what role have they played in the

            works concerned?

20.  “Literary works persuade us that human beings are worth caring for and writing about, no

             matter what their circumstances or condition.” To what extent is this evident in two or three

             works you have studied?

21.  To what extent do at least two plays you have studied explore the relationship and tension between

             rational and irrational behaviour as a means to further the action of the drama?

22.  Compare the ways in which at least two works you have studied handle the issue of closure

             and/or resolution.

23.  With reference to at least two plays by different dramatists, consider in what ways and to what

             extent they present life as being difficult to understand.

24.   Dramatists introduce their main characters in different ways and with differing effects. Compare or

             contrast the ways in which characters have been introduced in at least two plays you have studied,

             and consider what dramatic use is made of these introductions

25.  In what ways, and to what effect, have physical and/or spiritual journeys been presented in works

             by at least two writers?

26.   Hunger, thirst, physical deprivation – all of these have featured in literature. Consider the role of one

            or more of these elements and how they have been presented in works by at least two writers.

27.   Consider the presentation and effects of ignorance or lack of awareness in works by at least two

             writers.

28.   Sounds and noises feature in many works of literature. How have at least two writers included

             sounds and/or noises in their work and in what way have they been made significant?

29.  How do guilt and/or blame contribute to conflict and the overall effect in at least two of the

             plays you have studied?

30.  Structure and sequence are important elements in works of literature. How and to what effect

             have writers of at least two of the works you have studied used these elements to shape

             their works?

31.  Some writers establish precisely the time and/or place in which their works unfold; others are

             less precise. Discuss the effects and effectiveness of the techniques used to establish time and

             place in at least two of the works you have studied.

32.  Powerful emotion is the raw material of literature. To what extent and to what end is emotion

             employed in at least two of the works you have studied?

33.  The immediate setting of plays often has a larger historical or sociological context of which the

            audience is made aware. In what ways have playwrights in at least two works you have studied

             included or emphasized any of these settings and to what effect?

      34.  “Plays have their fair share of inspiring trumpet calls, though what they inspire is often terror –

             the trumpet of doom.” To what extent and in what ways have at least two works you have studied

            inspired terror or feelings of impending doom?

      35.    Economic circumstances can be critical elements of the way a writer presents the world through

              literary forms. In what way have economic factors been included in the works of at least two writers

              you have studied?

      36.   “I always start with a visual image,” is the way one writer describes the beginning of his work.

               In at least two works you have studied, identify one of the earliest visual images you recall from the

               work and explain how the writer uses it to engage the reader in a part or the whole of the work.

        37. All characters in a play are mouthpieces for their author. From a consideration of some

              characters from the plays you have studied, say how far you agree.

        38.   A necessary part of drama is not only to present conflict between the characters in a play

                but also to create conflicts within each member of the audience. Compare and contrast

                two or three plays you have studied in the light of this comment.

         39. Comment on the techniques of characterisation employed by the playwrights you have studied.

         40. A change in status of the characters in a play (a success, for example, a loss or exposure) helps

               to convey the ideas and/or values of the dramatist. How and to what extent has change in status

               contributed in this way to at least two of the plays you have studied?

41. ‘In plays, no one arrives on or leaves from the stage without contributing in some way to the complexity

      of the play.’ Considering two or three plays you have studied, compare the impact on meaning of some arrivals

      and departures from the stage.

42. What dramatic techniques have playwrights used to convey ideas/beliefs in two or three plays you have 

      studied and how effective have they been?

43. In plays, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, can be a significant presence, contributing to      

       action, developing other characters or conveying ideas. To what extent have you found this to be true of at least

       two works you have studied?

44. “We are often puzzled by the things people do, uncertain as to their motives.” In the light of this

      statement, consider ways in which character motivation is presented in works by at least two

      dramatists you have studied.

45. ‘What we aspire to and what we achieve are not always the same.’ In what ways and to what effect have at

       least two playwrights you have studied explored this human experience? 

46. ‘Although doubt is not a pleasant condition, certainty is an absurd one.’ In the light of this statement, explore the

        impressions of doubt and/or certainty conveyed in at least two works you have studied.

47. ‘Memory feeds imagination.’ To what effect has memory been used in two or three works you have studied?

48. In what ways and to what effect have writers made use of anecdotes, analogies and allusions in their works?

49. Compare and contrast the ways in which writers have explored the relationship between experience and

       understanding.

50. Compare how writers have explored the themes of judgement and punishment.

51. ‘Life is a game played against chaos and death.’ How far, and in what ways, does this statement apply

        to two different works by two different writers?

52. Urban settings are often portrayed as ‘spiritual wastelands.’ To what extent and by what means have

        playwrights presented urban settings in such a way?

53. Awakenings or changes in consciousness are often explored in literature. Discuss how and to what effects

       playwrights have explored such phenomena.

54. How have playwrights used pace to produce interesting effects?

55. How are verbal disputes used by playwrights and how do these verbal disputes influence your response to

       characters and the unfolding of the action?

56. Discuss the role and significance of deceit.

57. Explore the role of the unexpected.

58. Compare the dramatic effectiveness of the relationship between plot and setting.

59. In what ways has the structure of plays you have studied seemed to impose some recognizable order on human

       behavior and the human events of the play?

60. Drama can be said to contain something of the ritual – something to be repeated in front of an audience for a   

      significant occasion, event or purpose, or simply everyday routines and patterns of behavior. In what ways have

      plays made use of the notion of ritual in this way and to what effect?

Questions for Streetcar Named Desire

Study Questions and Essay Topics

1. 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? 

2. Blanche quotes literature and occasionally speaks French; her language is elegant, educated. Stanley, on the other hand, uses coarse, sometimes brutal, language. Does their speech reflect their perceptions of reality? Explain your answer. 

3. Write an essay focusing on how the roles of males and females in American society circa 1947 were described in A Streetcar Named Desire was published.

4. Who is the most admirable character in the play? 

5. Comment on the significance of the following quotations from the play: 

“I’ve got to keep hold of myself.” (Blanche, after arriving in the Kowalski apartment)

“Poker should not be played in a house with women.” (Mitch, at the card game)

6. What is the meaning of the scene at the beginning of the play in which Stanley throws a package of meat up to Stella? Is it simply intended to show that Stanley is a macho male who delivers what women want, sexually, or is there more to the scene? 

Allusions and Irony

Allusions and References

1.     Ghoul-haunted ghostland of Weir: Line from Edgar Allan Poe's 1847 poem "Ulalume," in which the speaker of the poem is attempting to cope with the loss of his love. While looking out a window, Blanche speaks this line, indicating that she is still coping with the loss of Allen Grey. 

2.     Napoleonic code: Laws established by Napoleon on which Louisiana based its civil law. Stanley cites this law, telling Blanche it means that what belongs to a wife belongs to a husband. Therefore, Stella as part-owner of Belle Reve was entitled to part of the property. If Blanche mismanaged it or used proceeds from it improperly, then she mismanaged or misused property Stanley owned, under the Napoleonic code. 

3.     The blind are leading the blind: Paraphrase of a verse in Matthew's Gospel in the New Testament of the Bible. Verse 14 of Chapter 15 says that if one person leads another blind person, both will fall into a pit. Blanche speaks this line when Stella leads her away from the poker game.

4.       And if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death!" Line is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43. This line is an inscription on Mitch's lighter, read by Blanche. The significance is that Blanche still thinks about her deceased husband, Allen.

5.       Arabian Nights: Collection of stories from Arabia, India, Persia, and Egypt entitled The One Thousand and One Nights (familiarly knows as the Arabian Nights). A legendary queen, Scheherezade, tells these entertaining stories, including tales about Aladdin's Lamp, Sindbad the Sailor, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Blanche tells the young collector for The Evening Star newspaper that he looks like a young prince "out of the Arabian Nights." She kisses him, then tells him he must go because "I've got to be good—and keep my hands off children." This scene tells the audience that wanton desire still haunts Blanche.

6.     My Rosenkavelier: Blanche addresses Mitch this way when he brings her a bouquet of roses. Der Rosenkavelier (The Knight of the Roses) is the title of a 1911 opera by German romantic composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949). 

7.     Pleiades: While surveying the night sky, Blanche says she is "looking for the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters." The Pleiades were seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the ocean nymph Pleione. Their names were Alcyone, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, Sterope, and Taygete. They became a group of stars (constellation). Unlike the Pleiades, Blanche is alone. She has a sister, yes, but it becomes increasingly clear that Stella sides with Stanley against her.

8.      Je suis la Dame aux Camellias! Vous êtes Armand! Line from La Dame aux camélias, a play by Alexandre Dumas the Younger (1824-1895), which he adapted from his 1848 novel of the same name. The speaker is a courtesan (prostitute catering to the nobility) who forsakes a character named Armand. Blanche speaks this line to Mitch, perhaps seeing the outcome of her relationship with Mitch. Notice that author Williams uses the English spelling, camellias, rather than the French camélias.

9.      Huey Long: Politician elected governor of Louisiana in 1928 and U.S. senator in 1932. Although Long (1893-1935) enjoyed popularity among the people, he was dictatorial and manipulative. He was assassinated in 1935. Stanley, asserting himself against encroachment on his authority by Stella and Blanche, cites Huey Long (1893-1935) as saying, "Every man is king!" 

10. Queen of the Nile: Cleopatra, seductive and cunning Queen of Egypt in the Macedonian dynasty. She was the seventh Cleopatra, having the full title of Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (Goddess Who Loves Her Father). Stanley sarcastically refers to Blanche as "the queen of the Nile" in response to her pretensions to elegance.

.

Irony and Contrast

1. Elysian Fields: The street Elysian Fields is not what its name suggests, a paradise, but a shabby thoroughfare in a working-class district of New Orleans. By contrast, a street in Paris with the same name (but in French, Champs-élysées) is a magnificent boulevard. Blanche's attempt to see the world through the eyes of a Parisian is part of the reason for her descent into unreality and insanity. 

2. White and Black: Blanche is wearing white clothing and gloves, as well as pearl earrings, when she arrives in New Orleans to suggest that she has a pristine character. However, she prefers darkness and shadows to mask her physical perfections and, symbolically, her sinful behaviour. 

3. Old and New, Fantasy and Reality: Blanche comes from an old fairyland world to live in the real world of a modern metropolis. 

4. Big and Small: In her old world, Blanche lived in a large house; in her new world, she lives in a tiny apartment. The size of the apartment suggests the diminution of Blanche's fortunes and her sanity.

5. Speech: Blanche quotes poetry and speaks the elegant patois of aristocrats. Stanley speaks the sandpaper language of reality and brutality: coarse, crude, unvarnished.

Streetcar Named Desire Themes and Symbols

Dialogue

The conversations are pruned of irrelevancy. Blanche’s educated speech and literary allusions contrast with Stanley’s down-to-earth language and crude—but often effective and amusing—imagery. The dialogue is rich in tropes, (rhetorical features) including the commonplace cliches of Stanley and the literary allusions and quotations of Blanche.

Themes

Dreams and Reality

Theme 1 The reluctance or inability of people to accept the truth. Blanche lives in a cocoon of unreality to protect herself against her weaknesses and shortcomings, including her inability to repress sexual desire. To preserve her ego, she lies about her promiscuous behaviour in Laurel; she shuns bright light, lest it reveal her physical imperfections; and she refuses to acknowledge her problem with alcohol. Stanley effectively penetrates her cocoon verbally with his crude insults and physically with his sexual coup de main near the end of the play. Stanley has his own problem: He lacks the insight to see what he really is—a coarse, domineering macho man ruled by primal instincts. Unlike Blanche, though, he is happy in his ignorance. For her part, Stella accepts the truth—partly. She acknowledges that Stanley is crude and that her apartment is cramped and shabby. But, in the end, she refuses to accept the truth about her sister’s past and about Stanley’s violation of Blanche. “I couldn’t believe [Blanche’s] story [about the rape] and go on living with Stanley,” Stella says.

Theme 2 The final destruction of the Old South, symbolized by Blanche and Belle Reve (the family property seized by creditors). This theme—not unlike that in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind—begins to unfold in the opening scene of the play. Two women, one white and one black, sit as equals on the steps of an apartment building while Blanche arrives on scene accoutered in the attitude and finery of a southern belle of yesteryear. She is an alien, a strange creature from another time, another place. 

Gender

Theme 3 The despoliation of the sensitive and feminine by the feral and masculine. Blanche and her first husband, a homosexual, cannot survive in the world of Stanley and his kind. Stanley is a robust weed who grows in Blanche’s carefully cultivated garden of lilies. 

Theme 4 Unbridled sexual desire leads to isolating darkness and eventually death. Williams establishes this theme at the beginning of the play, when Blanche takes a streetcar named Desire (sex), transfers to one named Cemeteries (Death), and gets off at a street named Elysian Fields (the Afterlife). He maintains the theme during the play with references to Blanche’s first husband, a homosexual who committed suicide after she caught him with another man, and with Blanche’s literal and figurative retreat into the shadows after having many sordid affairs. She shuns bright lights; she dates Mitch only in the evening.

Theme 5 All that glitters is not gold. This Shakespearean motif manifests itself in Blanche’s inability to grasp how Stanley and Stella can succeed at marriage without the finer things of life.

.

Climax: The climax of a play or another literary work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as

 (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as

(2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax of

 “A Streetcar Named Desire” occurs, according to both definitions, when Stanley rapes Blanche. This brutal act marks the completion of her mental deterioration, pushing her over the edge from sanity to madness.

Symbols

1.     Streetcar named Desire: Blanche's desire. Although Blanche arrives in New Orleans as a somewhat broken woman, she keeps alive her desire to be with a man and to lead a life as an elegant, respectable woman.

2.       Streetcar named Cemeteries: Old, disgraced Blanche, the one that Blanche left behind—dead, so to speak—in her hometown of Laurel, Miss., to begin anew in New Orleans. This streetcar can also suggest that life is over for the new Blanche as well, for she is damaged property edging toward madness. 

3.     Street named Elysian Fields: The new life Blanche is seeking. In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields (also called Elysium and the Elysian Plain) made up a paradise reserved for worthy mortals after they died. Because Blanche's old self "died" in Laurel, Miss., she traveled to New Orleans to seek her Elysium.

4.      Belle Reve: Name of Blanche's family home in Mississippi. It represents the "beautiful dream" (the meaning of Belle Rêve in French) that Blanche seeks but never experiences.

5.      Blanche's white suit: False purity and innocence with which Blanche masks her carnal desire and cloaks her past. 

6.     Blanche's frequent bathing: Her attempt to wash away her past life. 

7.     Alcohol: Another way Blanche washes away bad memories.

8.      Bright light: Penetrating gaze of truth that sees the real Blanche with all her imperfections. When she greets Stella the first time in the apartment, she says, "And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare!" Blanche avoids bright lights throughout the play.

9.       Blanche: Blanche means white in French, and—in keeping with her name—she wears a white dress and gloves in the opening scene of the play to hide her real self in the purity that white suggests. 

10. Stella: Stella means star or like a star in Latin, although she lives in a shabby apartment building in a lower-class section of New Orleans. It could be argued that she is the star of her husband’s life and the star that led Blanche to New Orleans. 

11. Stanley: Old English name meaning stone field. Thus, it is possible he represents a cemetery for Blanche. Stanislaus was the name of a king of Poland. Clearly, Stanley is the king of his household. 

12. The small Kowalski apartment: The size and plainness of the life to which Blanche, who formerly lived in a splendid mansion, must adjust. 

13. Allen Grey: Gray area of Blanche's life, between the bright light that she avoids and the darkness she seeks. She loved Allen Grey, but he betrayed her. In New Orleans, she remembers the good and the bad of her relationship with him. 

14. Paper: Imagery centering on paper represents impermanence, unreality, or artificiality. For example, the paper legal documents Blanche brings with her to New Orleans attest to the loss of the family homestead, Belle Reve. The youth collecting for the local paper, The Evening Star, represents the ephemerality of sexual gratification. Apparently, he reminds Blanche of Allen Grey. On a whim, she suddenly kisses the youth but then dismisses him, mindful of the disgrace she brought upon herself with her liaison with a student. The song Blanche sings while bathing, "Paper Moon," symbolizes the fantasy world of love. 

.