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Key themes - Coggle Diagram
Key themes
Mental illness
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Guilt - Stella's guilt, B's guilt, TW's guilt. Stna's lack of guilt is interesting - not telling Mitch would be on his conscience but he doesn't care about Blanche and he just wants to have sex with Stella when she is upset at her sister being taken to a mental hospital
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Blanche's dependence on alcohol, Stella and sex/men
Sexuality
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sexuality is linked to destruction - Alan's homosexulaity, epic fornications, Stanley hitting Stella and Steve beating Eunice
Violence
'I write out of love for the Old South... I think the war between romanticism and hostility is very sharp there'
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Violence seen in 1940's America as a masculine attribute. Violent nature of Stanley is seen in stage directions - fistful, tosses, smashes, booming
Violence within Stanley and Stella's marriage, which Mitch blames on the notion that poker shouldn't be played in anhosue with women.
Violence associated with alcohol - before raping Blanche, Stanley was drinking, as he was before beating Stella
Blacnhe and Stella have a different approach to domestic violence, perhaps because Stella accepts the realism that she wholly depends on Stanley
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Desire
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Desire is connected fate - 'streetcar'', 'We've had this date from the beginning'
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Everything about Blanche revolves around how Blanche is viewed as a sexual object by men - flirts with Stanley, kisses the young collector
Blanche doesn't converse with males without sexual undertone other than the doctor, because he is first inhuman but then kind, and thus not thus not the typical male that Blanche comes across
Power
"Stanley's assertiveness is dependent on his relationhship with Stella and ability to crush opposition" - cruelty to Blanche
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Illusion
Stella is under the illusion that her marriage isn't toxic. Everyone describes Stanley as a bull, ape, goat (stubbornness and lustiness), but she compares him to a weak and vulnerable lamb. He does display some weaknesses - 'shuddering with sobs' after hitting Stella
By the end of the play, Blanche can no longer distinguish between fantasy and real-life
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As Stanley exposes Blanche's past, she sings 'Paper Moon' - a song about a make-believe world that becomes reality through love. However, Blanche's make-believe world doesn't take over reality: her fantasy version of herself crumbles.
At the end of the play, Blanche is taken to a mental asylum, permanently removed from reality to her own mind.
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Gender
Women = passive and financially dependent on men. Thye're shunned for their sexuality but rely on sex for protection
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Although Stan is a villain, he has the joy of life. His forceful dynamic is shown through frequent exclamation marks, bellowing and forceful movements.
Stanley = primeval protector, who Mitch becomes a weaker version of
Mitch represents masculinity as a trait of comfort and refuge but still finds power through physical assertion (bragging about weight, etc.)
Death
Relationship between desire (Eros) and death (Thanatos) but the 2 are opposites. Blanche can no longer court desire - it's what transported her to this point - and must accept death. She can't stop the streetcar.
Blanche's ancestor's death are the result of 'epic fornications'' and Allan's are the result of disapproval of his sexuality
Visual and auditiory reminders of death are in the form of the Mexican women and the Varsouviana polka
Death of the Old South, which is replaced by the New South - symbolised by Stanley's rape of Stella
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Old South vs. New South
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B symbolises the dying Old South, Stanley the New South and rule of the working class
You feel sorry for B but recognise this is the consequence of her noncey actions - Williams loved the Old South but hated its obsession with money and the hostility it was built upon
Blanche DuBois, Belle Reve - French heritage
Rape = the ultimate defeat of the New South over the Old South, further emphasised by Stella's choice to stick with Stanley (New South)
Southern Belle
Belle Reve, white woods - heritage and purity
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Class
Blanche assumes the superiority inherited with her family name. She's astonished that her sister has married someone who lacks refinement and culture as much as Stan
Blanche is prepared to overlook Mitch's lack of refinement, for he is more sensitive that Stan. However, she occasionally mocks his lack of education by using expressions he doesn't know, such as 'Rosenkavelier' and French on the date