Literary Devices
The audience knows something the characters don't, creating tension, suspense, or humor.
Dramatic Irony
Rain: How does Thomas contrast the cleansing power of rain with loneliness and death?
He calls the rain “washing me cleaner” (cleansing) but also associates it with solitude and praying for loved ones not to be dying.
First person - identity - repetition - kind of monologue, boring - recollection of random images from a person leaving a place.
Walk to the Jetty
He is rude, prejudiced and Helen’s new husband; he contrasts sharply with the tolerant man who cares for Jo.
Peter
This New Orleans setting, described as “raffish charm,” reflects the mix of cultures and signals the play’s realism.
What is Elysian Fields?
What effect do the words ‘Anaesthesia, amnesia, hypnosis’ create? Name the device.
Alliteration
Long Distance II: How does Harrison show the father’s inability to accept his wife’s death?
He keeps her slippers warming, hot water bottles ready, and renews her transport pass as if she were alive.
Racism - internalised hidden feelings and thoughts in a white-dominated culture image/reality - alienation
The Black Ball
This character is Jo’s artistic, kind friend who offers support during her pregnancy.
Who is Geoff?
This character’s dominance, physicality and poker nights embody raw, working-class masculinity.
Who is Stanley Kowalski?)
Synecdoche
Request to a Year: How does Judith Wright present her great-great-grandmother’s attitude to crisis?
Calm, detached, artistic — she sketches the scene instead of panicking, showing firmness of hand.
Character study of an isolated paranoid (post traumatised) fearful woman. imagination/reality - mostly description and narration - not dialogue mostly internal 3rd person - impending apocalypse
When it happens
How does Shelagh Delaney use the contrasting relationships of Jo with her mother Helen and with Geoff to explore changing ideas of family and support in post-war Britain?
Delaney contrasts Helen’s neglectful, self-absorbed “traditional” mothering with Geoff’s nurturing, non-judgmental care of Jo. This reversal challenges 1950s norms about who can provide family support, showing how unconventional bonds can be more reliable and compassionate than blood ties.
This fragile object, belonging to Blanche, is smashed by Stanley and represents her inner world of illusion.
What is the paper lantern?
An object serving as a warning or reminder of death, such as a skull.
memento mori
The Man with Night Sweats: In Gunn’s poem, what metaphor conveys the speaker’s vulnerability?
“Hands … as if to shield it from the pains that will go through me” — hands cannot stop an avalanche; he is helpless before illness/death.
unreliable narrator, framing device, description, flashback, dialogue, image/reality, ends at the beginning. Power of the imagination - false memory syndrome, alienation and detachment
The Man who Walked on the Moon
This recurring image in the play symbolises her attempts to escape or express her inner world.
What are Jo’s sketches / drawings?
Tragic event from Blanche’s past —(love related)
What is Allan Grey’s suicide after Blanche discovered his homosexuality?
What is volta?
A rhetorical shift in a poem, such as a sonnet, that changes the thought, emotion, or argument.
The Planners: How does the poet use dental imagery (‘shining teeth,’ ‘dental dexterity’) to criticise urban development?
By comparing the city to a mouth being cleaned and perfected, the poet shows how planners erase flaws, making the city unnaturally “perfect” and soulless.
Structured in 3 parts work - home - work (shows importance of work) - study of body language of anxiety - focus on symbolism & colonialism (power disparity) dialogue
The Gold Watch
This theme runs throughout the play, showing the characters’ struggle against poverty, prejudice and unstable family structures.
What is social marginalisation / hardship / lack of belonging?
Explain these motifs: Varsouviana and Blue piano or Jazz.
Varsouviana Polka = Blanche’s inner trauma about Allan Grey’s death (plays in her mind whenever she recalls the event).
Blue Piano / Hot Jazz = Stanley and the vitality of New Orleans (earthy, sexual, aggressive).