Name:_________________________________
Period:___________
Worth 200 points!
Scenes One -Three
Vocabulary
Appraise = _______________________________________________________________________________
Cosmopolitan = ___________________________________________________________________________
Decay = _________________________________________________________________________________
Emblem = _______________________________________________________________________________
Evoke = _________________________________________________________________________________
Improvident = ____________________________________________________________________________
Incongruous = ____________________________________________________________________________
Lunacy = ________________________________________________________________________________
Perpetual = ______________________________________________________________________________
Peruse = _________________________________________________________________________________
Preen = _________________________________________________________________________________
Primitive = ______________________________________________________________________________
Treachery = ______________________________________________________________________________
Valise = _________________________________________________________________________________
Vivacity = _______________________________________________________________________________
Vulgar = ________________________________________________________________________________
Illusion vs. allusion = ______________________________________________________________________
Notes
Elysian Fields – The mention of this is an allusion to the underworld of Greek mythology.
Questions:
1. When we first meet Blanche she is traveling to meet her sister. What are the names of the two
streetcars she takes in order to get there?
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2. What is Belle Reve? __________________________________________________________________
3. At the end of Scene One, what music “rises up, faint in the distance”?
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4. Near the end of Scene One, what do we learn about Blanche’s husband?
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5. In Scene Two, Stanley finds out about the loss of Belle Reve. What is his reaction?
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6. What does Stanley think that Blanche has done with the money he believes she made from selling
Belle Reve?
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7. What does Stanley tell Blanche about Stella as they are going through her business papers?
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8. Where are Stella and Blanche going while the men play poker?
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9. When Blanche and Stella return to the apartment, the men are still there playing poker. Which one does
Stella introduce to Blanche? What does Blanche say about him?
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10. Blanche goes to the back room, a bedroom, to relax until the men finish playing. She turns on the
radio. Stanley asks her to turn it off, but when she doesn’t, what does Stanley do?
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11. What happens between Stella and Stanley that ends the poker game?
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12. What kind of relationship do Stella and Stanley have?
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Scenes Four – Six
Vocabulary
Bestial = ________________________________________________________________________________
Contemptible = ___________________________________________________________________________
Coquettish = _____________________________________________________________________________
Deluded = _______________________________________________________________________________
Dote = __________________________________________________________________________________
Emphatic = ______________________________________________________________________________
Incredulous = ____________________________________________________________________________
Morbid = ________________________________________________________________________________
Peal = __________________________________________________________________________________
Precede =________________________________________________________________________________
Quaint = ________________________________________________________________________________
Row = __________________________________________________________________________________
Serene = ________________________________________________________________________________
Solemn = ________________________________________________________________________________
Vicinity = _______________________________________________________________________________
Wince = _________________________________________________________________________________
Questions
1. How did Stella say she reacted to Stanley’s breaking all the light bulbs on their wedding night?
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2. What idea does Blanche have to escape New Orleans with Stella?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. When Blanche and Stella are discussing Stanley, his entrance to the apartment is washed out by a
passing train. What does he hear Blanche say about him?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. In Scene Five, Blanche discusses astrological signs. What sign does she think Stanley was born under
and why?
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What sign does she say she was born under? What does it mean?
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5. Seemingly out of the blue, Stanley asks Blanche if she knows someone named Shaw. He says that
Shaw knew Blanche from Laurel but must have mixed her up with someone else who partied at the Hotel
Flamingo. What is Blanche’s response?
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6. Who is coming over to see Blanche on this night?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7. After Stella and Stanley leave, a young man comes to the door collecting money for the local
newspaper, The Evening Star. What does Blanche do to him?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8. Blanche and Mitch discuss Stanley. She asks him if Stanley talks much about her and explains how
horrid he is making her life there with them. How does Mitch respond?
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9. At the end of Scene Six, Blanche is confiding in Mitch by telling him the story of how her husband
died. How did he die? What led to that?
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Scenes Seven – Eleven
Vocabulary
Anxiety = _______________________________________________________________________________
Callous = ________________________________________________________________________________
Conceit = ________________________________________________________________________________
Dismal = ________________________________________________________________________________
Enrich = ________________________________________________________________________________
Grotesque = ______________________________________________________________________________
Implore = ________________________________________________________________________________
Obscure = _______________________________________________________________________________
Partial = _________________________________________________________________________________
Protrude = _______________________________________________________________________________
Repertoire = _____________________________________________________________________________
Sinister = ________________________________________________________________________________
Slander = ________________________________________________________________________________
Sullen = _________________________________________________________________________________
Transitory = ______________________________________________________________________________
Questions
1. It is now mid-September and Blanche’s birthday. Stella has prepared a party for her. Stanley lets
Stella know that he has learned some things about Blanche. What things?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. During their talk, Blanche is in the tub and singing. What does she sing about?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Who is supposed to come over for Blanche’s birthday? Why does Stanley say this person won’t be
coming?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. What has Stanley bought for Blanche?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5. Blanche has been stood up. They sit talking at the table and Stanley gets angry at Stella for telling
him his “face and fingers are disgustingly greasy”. What does he do in response?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6. What happens at the end of Scene Eight?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7. In Scene Nine, who stops by unexpectedly to see Blanche?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8. What does Blanche admit happened after her husband’s death? Why did she say she did this?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
9. Why does Mitch say he won’t marry Blanche now?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
10. At the opening of Scene Ten, Stanley comes home from the hospital. Blanche has been drinking
fairly steadily since Mitch left. Who does she tell Stanley she heard from? What invitation does she
say he offered to her?
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11. Blanche tells Stanley that Mitch came to see her that night. What does she tell him the reason was?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
12. What happens at the end of Scene Ten?
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13. By the beginning of Scene Eleven, several weeks have passed and Stella is packing Blanche’s
things. Where does Blanche think she is going? Where is she actually going?
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14. How does the doctor in this scene manage to calm Blanche’s panic?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Main Themes
Directions: Read each description of the main themes of the play. Throughout the play, write
three quotes that demonstrate the concept of each theme. Make sure that you include who is
saying the quote and what page it is on.
Fantasy/Illusion: Blanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defense. Her deceits do
not carry any trace of malice; rather, they come from her weakness and inability to confront the truth head-on.
She tells things not as they are, but as they ought to be. For her, fantasy has a liberating magic that protects
her from the tragedies she has had to endure. Unfortunately, this defense is frail and will be shattered by
Stanley. In the end, Stanley and Stella will also resort to a kind of illusion: Stella will force herself to believe
that Blanche’s accusations against Stanley are false.
1.
2.
3.
The Old South and the New South: Stella and Blanche come from a world that is rapidly dying. Belle
Reve, their family's ancestral plantation, has been lost. The two sisters, symbolically, are the last living
members of their family. Stella will mingle her blood with a man of blue-collar stock, and Blanche will enter
the world of madness. Stanley represents the new order of the South: chivalry is dead, replaced by a "rat race,"
to which Stanley makes several proud illusions.
1.
2.
3.
Cruelty: The only unforgivable crime, according to Blanche, is deliberate cruelty. This sin is Stanley's
specialty. His final assault against Blanche is a merciless attack against an already-beaten foe. On the other
hand, though Blanche is dishonest, she never lies out of malice. Her cruelty is unintentional; often, she lies in
a vain effort to plays. Throughout Streetcar, we see the full range of cruelty, from Blanche’s well-intentioned
deceits to Stella self-deceiving treachery to Stanley's deliberate and unchecked malice. In Williams' plays,
there are many ways to hurt someone. And some are worse than others.
1.
2.
3.
The Primitive and the Primal: Blanche often speaks of Stanley as ape-like and primitive. Stanley
represents a very unrefined manhood, a romantic idea of man untouched by civilization and its effeminizing
influences. His appeal is clear: Stella cannot resist him, and even Blanche, though repulsed, is on some level
drawn to him. Stanley's unrefined nature also includes a terrifying amorality. The service of his desire is
central to whom he is; he has no qualms about driving his sister-in-law to madness, or raping her.
1.
2.
3.
Desire: Closely related to the theme above, desire is the central theme of the play. Blanche seeks to deny it,
although we learn later in the play that desire is one of her driving motivations; her desires have caused her to
be driven out of town. Desire, and not intellectual or spiritual intimacy, is the heart of Stella's and Stanley's
relationship. Desire is Blanches undoing, because she cannot find a healthy way of dealing with it: she is
always either trying to suppress it or pursuing it with abandon.
1.
2.
3.
Loneliness: The companion theme to desire; between these two extremes, Blanche is lost. She desperately
seeks companionship and protection in the arms of strangers. And she has never recovered from her tragic and
consuming love for her first husband. Blanche is in need of a defender. But in New Orleans, she will find
instead the predatory and merciless Stanley.
1.
2.
3.
Final Questions
1. What character do you have the most sympathy for? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2. What does Williams' depiction of Blanche and Stanley's lives say about desire?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Only Scene Three is given a title by Williams. Give a title to three other scenes and explain your
reasoning for each title.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. At the beginning of the play, Stanley is bowling and at the end he is playing cards. What does this
suggest about his views of life?
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5. In your opinion, did Mitch love Blanche?
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