Scene 1

• Scene 1

  • Opening description
  • Stanley‘s and Stella’s initial interactions
  • Blanche’s first description
  • Blanche’s and Stella’s first interaction
  • Blanche and Stella on Stanley
  • Blanche’s speech on Belle Reve
  • Stanley’s first description
  • End of Scene - music and Blanche fainting
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[Elysian Field]"

  • Setting is symbolic of death of the Old South, foreshadows Blanche's deterioration and inability to survive
  • Proper Noun - Part of the ancient Greek underworld reserved for the heroic virtuous
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[It has a raffish charm]"

  • Oxymoron - Rough but charming
  • Reveals that despite its poor appearance, it's still appreciated due to the changing attitudes and values of the New South
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[Gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay]"

  • Juxtaposition - reinforcing that the Old Southern values of materialism do not belong here.
  • Links to southern Gothic fiction of having decaying settings
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[The warm breath of the brown river beyond the river warehouses with their faint redolence of bananas and coffee]"

  • While the imagined stench of the dirty river would be repulsive, the metaphor of 'warm breath' and smells of 'bananas and coffee' seem comforting and welcoming
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[Music of Negro entertainers...brown fingers]"

  • Multicultural society of New Orleans. Creates a tone of joy and celebration whilst reinforcing that this society inclusive and diverse unlike the South
  • Jazz - place of life, extroverted
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[This 'blue piano' expresses the spirit of life]"

  • Is symbolic of an inclusive society and celebratory New South
  • A reoccurring motif to demonstrated the progress of society
• Scene 1: Opening Description

  "[New Orleans is a cosmpolitan city]"

  • Romantic, lyrical and optimistic picture which creates the opportunity for beauty and charm
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "[Roughly dressed in blue denim]"

  • Shows that they are working men
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "[They stop at the foot of the steps]"

  • Can't even go up to her
  • Bare minimum man
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "[Bellowing]" - Stanley

  "[Mildly]" - Stella

  • SDs introduce Stanley as an aggressive characters which juxtaposes his wife as she is passive, shown through her SD
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "[Background obviously quite different from her husband's]"

  • Adverb - Immediately establishing conflict between Old and New South.
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "Don't holler at me like that" - Stella

  • Imperative sentence suggests from that beginning that Stella challenges the stereotypical submissive woman, willing to challenge Stanley (offers hope for equality)
  • However, this power deteriorates as the play progresses
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "[He heaves the package at her]"

  • Verb evokes phallic imagery suggesting his sexual and emotional dominance over Stella
  • Physical lust forms a vital part of the New South and their relationship
• Scene 1: Stanley's and Stella's initial descriptions

  "[She laughs breathlessly]"

  • She likes the sexual lust
• Scene 1: Blanche's first descriptions

  "[Her expression is one the shocked disbelief]"

  • Her reaction highlights that she doesn't belong here in the 'New South'
  • Slightly contradictory considering her previous actions
• Scene 1: Blanche's first descriptions

  "[Her appearance is incongruous to this setting]"

  • Highlights that she misplaced, holding onto values of the South.
  • Foreshadows potential conflict
• Scene 1: Blanche's first descriptions

  "[She is daintily dressed in a white suit]"

  • Can be linked up to the mid 19th century play, 'La Dame aux Camelias (1848)' where a fallen woman wears a 'white camelias' when she is available to her lovers
  • By this, Blanche appears to be drawn into prostitution showing her desire to fulfill her desire for lust
• Scene 1: Blanche's first descriptions

  "[Moth]"

  • Considering her as this creates a sense of irony and suggests that she if will be responsible for her own downfall.
  • Links to Eros/ Thanatos - Freudian Theory
• Scene 1: Blanche's first descriptions

  "Are you lost?" - Eunice

  • Blanche is not just lost geographically but in a much deeper sense.
  • She is lost in this complex universe and does not know where she fits or what her purpose it
  • She is a lost soul
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella's first interactions

  "Stella, oh, Stella, Stella! Stella for Star!" - Blanche

  • Exclamatory sentence
  • Infantalising Stella
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella's first interactions

  "But don't look at me, Stella" - Blanche

  • Imperative - her desperation to be concealed from the light. Reinforces her insecurity and inability to face the truth.
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella's first interactions

  "[Stella laughs and complies]"

  • SDs shows Stella's passive nature and this is perhaps why Stella is able to adapt so easily to the New South which is drastically different from Belle Reve unlike B who has a dominant nature and wants to control everything
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella's first interactions

  "I weigh what I weighed the summer, you left Belle Reve. The summer Dad died and you left us..." - Blanche

  • Direct address / Accusatory Tone
  • Creates a sense of resentment, highlights that B felt abandoned within a place that had no future. Allows the audience to begin to understand why is B is the way she is.
  • Could be a metaphor burden she had on her shoulders since she was the one who had to experience and deal with all her family members' deaths. Still feels the weight of the burden even after leaving Belle Reve
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella's first interactions

  "You've split something on that pretty white lace collar!" - Blanche

  • B seems to be projecting her insecurities onto her younger sister
  • 'White' is symbolic of purity
  • The whiteness having been tarnished is the lose of purity
  • Ironic as B means white and is no longer pure, she is able to see the flaws in Stella because they mirror herself
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella on Stanley

  “Stanley is Polish, you know.” - Stella

  • Heading creates a defensive tone, almost as if she knows B will not approve of this.
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella on Stanley

  “Polacks?” - Blanche

  • Colloquial / derogatory language
  • Allows the audience to see her sense of superiority. Hypocritical when we learn of her own French ancestry.
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella on Stanley

  “Oh, Stanley doesn’t know yet.” - Stella

  • Stanley seems to be controlling of S and probably because he would have said no as B would have seen how manipulative he is.
  • Actions of an abuser: take them away from family, friends, make them feel like they’re worthless (beating) and control who they see (all of S’s friends are Stan’s friends)
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella on Stanley

  “When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild!” - Stella

  • Animalistic Langauge - sexual dependency, form basis of their relationship
  • Stan seems to have proved himself in society - strong, hardworking, confident etc
• Scene 1: Blanche and Stella on Stanley

  “And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…” - Stella

  • Simile - foregrounds how reliant she is on Stan
• Scene 1: Blanche’s speech on Belle Reve

  “I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body!” - Blanche

  • Repetition - B was left alone, she is victimising herself and is taking everything personally (hyperbolic).
  • She ‘beautiful dream‘ of being the stereotypical ‘Southern Belle’ was lost just as she lost her family property
• Scene 1: Blanche’s speech on Belle Reve

  “All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard!” - Blanche

  • Quantifier - shows the significant amount of deaths/losses she has had to face.
  • Reinforced through the adjective as it is suggestive of the horrific, brutal journey she has faced following the loss of Belle Reve.
• Scene 1: Blanche’s speech on Belle Reve

  “And I with my pitiful salary at the school.” - Blanche

  • Adds to the view that the audience has on B as she is seen as wearing nice clothes, pearls, tiaras etc.
• Scene 1: Blanche’s speech on Belle Reve

  “And now sit there telling me with your eyes that I let the place go!” - Blanche

  • B only assumes that S is thinking all the worst of her sister.
  • Highlights her low self-esteem and anxiety which foreshadows the mental health issues that B will struggle with more and more as the play continues.
• Scene 1: Blanche’s speech on Belle Reve

  “Where were you. In bed with your - Polack!” - Blanche

  • Rather than facing the consequences of her actions, B blames S for choosing the lower-class Polish Stan over the DuBois family
• Scene 1: Stanley’s first description

  “[Stanley throws the screen door of the kitchen open and comes in.]”

  • SD - shows his need to be noticed, to establish himself in the setting
  • Verb- revales his aggression once again
• Scene 1: Stanley’s first description

  “[Strongly, compactly built.]“

  • His personal description matches the stereotypes of the post-WW2 male
  • B is immedialty seen as Stan’s direct opposite: fluttering, insubordinate and pale rather than a robust, muscular specimen
• Scene 1: Stanley’s first description

  “[Animal joy….the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.]”

  • Foreshadows his predatory nature, sexual behaviour
  • Imagery - shows his need to be desired, perhaps stems from insecurity and requires sexual gratification
  • ‘Richly’ - ironic as he’s working class
• Scene 1: Stanley’s first description

  “[The centre of his life has been pleasure with women].”

  • Shows his promiscuous nature, suggests how he may already be unfaithful to S
  • Foreshadows rape of B
• Scene 1: End of scene - music and Blanche fainting

  “[The music of the polka rises up, faint in the distance.]”

  • Introduction of thee key motif of music. The polka music was playing during the evening that Allan Gray committed suicide. It begins to ‘rise’ here to show how she cannot escape her past guilt. It’s in her head, no one else except her and the audience can hear it.
  • Music increases gradually throughout the play to symbolise the gradual decline of her