NOTES: STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
1) Despite Blanche's numerous failings of the flesh (desire) , defend her as both admirable and tragic.
2) Provide a psychological portrait of Blanche.
3) Provide a psychological portrait of Stanley.
4) Provide a psychological report of Stella.
5) Williams litters his play with numerous symbols: Trains, smoke, cathedral bells, cat screeches, a cracked mirror, paper lamp shades,etc. Choose several to discuss.
6) What cultural and educational traditions is Blanche desperately trying to preserve?
7) The play is focused around a primal conflict -- Blanche vs. Stanley. This conflict provides several metaphors which reveal the play's rich content. Explore the play as a clash between Beauty and Brutality.
8) Explore the play as a clash between Imaginationa and Reality.
9) Explore the play politically as a clash between a dying idealistic Aristocracy and a an emerging cynical democracy.
10) What are Stanley's strengths and why does Stella love him for all she's worth?
11) How is the way Blanche wants to see herself different from the way she actually is? Is this hypocrisy forgiveable? Understandable?
12) Trace Blanche's descent into madness -- the psychological journey.
13) Trace Blanche's physical journey -- her "dis-possession" from place to place.
14) Trace Blanche's spiritual journey -- from town whore to born-again virgin.
15) Show how Stella and Mitch exist between the brutality of Stanley and the hyper-sensitivity of Blanche. What does each have in common with Stanley? With Blanche?
16) Show how Blanche is torn apart by a life-affirming indulgence in the pleasures of the world (desire), on the one hand, and a puritanical life-denying ethic on the other (decorum).
17) "A Streetcar named Desire, then transfer to Cemeteries." How does the play suggest that the opposite of desire is death? Who in the play has been riding that streetcar?
18) In adjusting to Stanley's world, what has Stella gained? Lost?
19) Show how Stanley has delusions of superiority just as Blanche has. In what huge way does Stanley violant his code of "telling it like it is." Or as Stanley would say, "Nobody pulls the wool over this boy's eyes!"
20) Blanche has some of the most memorable lines ever uttered on the American stage: Write about this great line: "Sometimes there's a God so quickly." Blanche utters this after she and Mitch embrace for the first time and Blanche entertains the hope that a relationship with Mitch might develop. What themes does this line suggest?
21) When Mitch finally confronts Blanche and calls her a liar and a hypocrite, Blanche responds with, "I didn't lie in my heart." What could she possibly mean? What is her self-justification here?
23) And finally comment on the most famous line in the whole play - perhaps in all of American drama: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
24) What is the symbolic significance of Belle Reve? Is Williams literally suggesting a return to the traditions of the Old South?
25) Show how Blanche's tragedy is that she trusts too much to her imagination while Stanley's tragedy is that he trusts too much to his senses.
26) Blanche is stripped of what illusions during the course of the play?
27) What illusions must Stanley discard by the end of the play?
28) What decisions does Stella make at the end? What are her reasons? Do you agree/disagree with them?
29) How is Mitch a tragic character as well though not on the same level as Blanche?
30) When Blanche is taken away at the end, what goes with her?