Staging
This character struggles most with the theme of fantasy versus reality.
Who is Blanche DuBois?
This object symbolizes Blanche’s aversion to harsh reality.
What is a Chinese paper lantern?
"STELL-AHHHHH!" who says this and when?
Who is Stanley after hitting Stella during the poker game?
This theme in A Streetcar Named Desire involves Blanche’s struggle to reconcile her fantasies with harsh realities.
What is the conflict between personal reality and societal expectations?
What is the name of the streetcar Blanche arrives on?
What is Desire?
Shadows and lighting are used to symbolize this conflict in Blanche’s character.
What are illusion versus reality?
Bathing serves as a motif for this recurring theme in Blanche’s life.
What is purification or cleansing guilt?
Who says this and when?
"Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
Who is Blanche as she leaves for the mental hospital?
Williams’ own feelings of alienation and loneliness are reflected in this central theme of the play.
What is the exploration of human struggles, specifically in relation to societal expecatations.
This is the name of the plantation Blanche lost due to financial troubles, and what does it represent?
What is Belle Reve and it represents the Old South and how America is changing post WWII
The cramped apartment setting emphasizes these tensions between characters.
What are social class differences and personal conflicts?
The streetcar named Desire symbolizes this driving force behind human actions.
What is desire itself?
Who says this and when?
"In this dark march toward whatever it is we’re approaching… Don’t—don’t hang back with the brutes!"
Who is Blanche speaking to Stella about Stanley?
Blanche’s inability to accept her age and past mistakes exemplifies this universal human conflict.
What is the struggle between illusion and reality?
Stanley gives Blanche this "present" on her birthday.
What is a one-way ticket back to Laurel?
The poker game serves as a staging device for these themes in the play.
What are masculinity, aggression, and dominance?
The Varsouviana polka represents this aspect of Blanche’s psyche.
What is her trauma and descent into madness?
Who says this and to whom?
"We danced the Varsouviana! Suddenly in the middle of the dance, the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later—a shot!"
Who is Blanche explaining her tragic past to Mitch in Scene Six?
The tension between these two societal structures is central to the play’s conflict.
What are the Old South and the New South?
The climactic scene in which Stanley assaults Blanche takes place during this event AND what is Stanley's motivation?
What is Stella’s labor at the hospital? Stanley is motivated by revenge
Music like the Varsouviana polka underscores these aspects of Blanche's psyche throughout the play.
What are trauma, guilt, and madness?
In scene 1, this symbol represents Stanley’s raw masculinity and dominance over others.
What are his bowling shirt or meat package (Scene One)?
What are his bowling shirt or meat package ?
Who says this, to whom and when?
"We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning!"
Who is Stanley before assaulting Blanche in Scene Ten?
This theme is underscored by Blanche’s tragic descent, symbolizing the fragility of human identity in the face of societal pressures.
What is the exploration of how societal expectations can lead to personal disintegration?
What internal struggle must Stella face at the end of the play? And, what is the resolution?
Stella must choose to believe Blanche regarding the the rape or not. She agrees to have Blanche institutionalized.