Period: a Streetcar Named Desire

Name: Date: Period: A Streetcar Named Desire

Introductory Handout

Background Information time and place written: Late 1940s, New Orleans setting: 1940s, New Orleans, Louisiana themes: Fantasy’s inability to overcome reality; the relationship between sex and death; dependence on men symbols: Shadows and cries; the Varsouviana polka; “It’s Only a Paper Moon”; meat

Anticipation Guide Each of the statements below deal with certain themes and concepts in A Streetcar Named Desire. You will have to think about and expand on these themes and concepts before, after and while reading the play.

Directions: Write whether you agree or disagree with each statement and why you agree or disagree.

1) Drugs, alcohol and other substances do not affect personal relationships. 3) Abusers have signs that can be recognized by outsiders. 4) Victims can deal with abuse on their own and do not need outside help. 5) Abuse is always a physical act. 6) We all have “skeletons in our closet”. 7) The man is the king of the household. 8) The hardships of someone’s past are often reflected in their future 9) Image is everything. 10) We are a product of our environment 11) Love is blind.

Important Quotation The following quotation relates to certain characters, themes and concepts in A Streetcar Named Desire.

Directions: Write your interpretation of the following quotation. Write whether you agree or disagree with it and why you agree or disagree.

It is the nature of desire not to be satisfied, and most men live only for the gratification of it.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, bk. II, ch.7

Important Quotations Throughout the Play We will interpret and discuss the significance of the following quotations as we read the play.

1) “And men don’t want anything they get too easy. But on the other hand, men lose interest quickly.” (Blanche speaking to Stella, Scene 5) 2) “I don’t want realism. I want magic!” (Blanche speaking to Mitch, Scene 9) 3) “Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." (Blanche speaking to the Doctor, Scene 11) 4) “They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!” (Blanche speaks these words to Eunice and the Negro woman upon arriving at the Kowalski apartment at the beginning of Scene One) 5) “There are thousands of papers, stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications—to put it plainly! . . . The four-letter word deprived us of our plantation, till finally all that was left—and Stella can verify that!—was the house itself and about twenty acres of ground, including a graveyard, to which now all but Stella and I have retreated.” ( Blanche gives this speech to Stanley in Scene Two) 6) “Oh, I guess he’s just not the type that goes for jasmine perfume, but maybe he’s what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost Belle Reve.” (In Scene Two, Blanche makes this comment about Stanley to Stella.) 7) “Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” (Blanche speaks to the doctor in Scene Eleven)

Poem and Song that Relate to A Streetcar Named Desire

The following poem and song both relate to the themes and concepts in A Streetcar Named Desire. The poem represents an idyllic concept of love, which is far different from most people’s lives.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for right. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

(Text taken from: Hunter, Paul, J. The Norton Introduction To Poetry. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.)

“BEHIND THE WALL” By Tracy Chapman

Last night I heard the screaming Loud voices behind the wall Another sleepless for me It won’t do no good to call The police Always come late If they come at all

And when they arrive They say they can’t interfere With domestic affairs Between a man and his wife And as they walk out the door The years well up in her eyes

Last night I heard the screaming The a silence that chilled my soul I prayed that I was dreaming When I saw the ambulance in the road And the policeman said “I’m here to keep the peace Will the crowd disperse I think we all could use some sleep”

Respond to the following with complete sentences and details:

1) Discuss the relationships of the people involved. How does this song depict reality? 2) Compare and contrast how relationships are portrayed in the poem versus the song. How do they relate to real life?