‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Whose Reality?

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Whose Reality? AOS 2 – Creating & Presenting

Exam Booklet – Section B • Shade the context - ‘Whose Reality?’ - on the cover page of your script booklet for Section B (writing in context). • Write the text you have (mostly) referred to/drawn upon on the cover page of your script booklet also.

The prompt • The prompt is usually quite generic (broad/general) so students can explore ideas from either text. • You are required to deal with the CONCEPTS it raises. • ‘Shared experience does not mean that people see things the same way.’ (2011) • ‘Sometimes people find themselves living in a world created by other people.’ (2010)

The prompt • Your piece should clearly address the prompt but does not have to provide a definite ‘answer’ or stick rigidly to the prompt. • Shape your ideas around the prompt, using it as a starting point for wider discussion on the context . • DO NOT write a generic or pre-prepared piece that is unrelated to the prompt.

Assessing key ideas in prompts • Highlight/underline the key words • Look up words in the dictionary you’re uncertain of • Rephrase the prompt • Consider the context ideas that are relevant to it • How do these link to your chosen text? • What’s your opinion on it? • What texts, images, songs, quotes, theories spring to mind?

Writing Requirements • Expository • Persuasive • Creative/imaginative • ‘Hybrid’ or combined form • Aim for 600 – 1,000 words - you can definitely write more! It’s more about the quality and complexity of the ideas and the writing.

Texts • Draw upon the ideas related to “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams or “Spies” by Michael Frayne. • You can draw on both if you want! • DO NOT focus only on your selected text/s – these pieces tend to resemble text response essays and can only result in a mid-range mark of 4-7 out of a possible 10.

Written Explanation • You DO NOT need to write one! So DON’T! Woohoo!!  • Even if you want to, it cannot be taken into consideration – this may go against those who write creatively and produce something quite bizarre that needs explaining…

Good writing? • Dependent on the quality of your writing, the quality of your ideas and your ability to deal with the prompt. • ‘There can be no good writing without good ideas.’ – Bob Hillman (Carey Grammar) • Sophisticated understanding of the context; sophisticated and clear expression. • Be accurate and specific not general and vague. Assessors have found that the weakest responses are those that are too general and only ‘superficially’ explore key ideas.

Context ideas & statements • Reality is hard to define. Reality can be harsh. • There can be multiple realities/versions – sometimes these clash. • We can consciously shape our reality – writing and re-telling is reflexive and involves revising reality • There are universal truths • We all perceive reality differently – why? • Our past experiences impact on our perceptions • Significant people/events compel change

Context ideas & statements • We all (consciously/subconsciously) seek to avoid reality at times. • We can only imagine what it’s like to ‘walk in someone else’s shoes’. • The past affects the present. • Our ability to perceive something clearly can be limited by our current mental state. • Who’s to say what is real and what is not? • There’s a fine line between illusion, madness, conception, deception, genius, madman.

Context ideas & statements • William Wordsworth – ‘The child is father to the man.’ The experiences we have as a child shape who we are as adults. • Plato’s ‘cave allegory’ – Only those who truly question the world get to see it for what it is, not just ‘shadows on a wall’ (think ‘The Matrix’). • We construct reality by reflecting on and editing events from the past – this involves value judgments. • The brain shelters us from the harshness of reality by sustaining us with dreams and illusions – dangerous?

A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams

Summary • Blanche DuBois: A former beauty and member of an elite social milieu. She has not, and cannot, adjust to her various losses: husband, career, beauty, Belle Reve, etc • Stanley Kowalski: Former soldier and current salesman. He is masculine, forceful and has a bestial sense of life • Stella Kowalski: Caught in the middle. Chooses husband over sister. • Mitch: Yearns for love and has a gentle nature. • MAJOR THEMES: perception and reality, loyalty, honesty and choice • SETTING: New Orleans after WW11 (1948)

Blanche DuBois • Frightened • Unable to adjust to her changing situation • Guilt ridden • Uses her sexuality to gain protection/love • Faded Southern belle • Symbol of the old South • Pretends to be what she is not • Moth-like • Borders on madness/driven to it • Yearning

Blanche’s quotes • I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth. • Funerals are pretty compared to deaths…Why, the Grim Reaper had put his tent up on our doorstep!...Belle Reve was his headquarters…Where were you? In bed with your – Polack!...But you are the one that abandoned Belle Reve, Not I! I stayed and fought for it, bled for it, almost died for it! • Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare! • Daylight never exposed so total a ruin.

Blanche Cont… • Now don’t get worried, your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard, she’s just all shaken up and hot tired and dirty. • Only Poe…could do it justice! • I know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman’s charm is fifty per cent illusion, but when a thing is important I tell the truth. • I hurt him the way you would like to hurt me, but you can’t! I’m not young and vulnerable anymore. • I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.

Blanche Cont… • He’s common! • Soft people have got to shimmer and glow…You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I-I’m fading now. • All I knew was that I’d failed him in some mysterious way and wasn’t able to give the help he needed but couldn’t speak of…“I saw! I know! You disgust me…” • “It wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me.” • I don’t want realism. I want magic…I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. • Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart.

Blanche Cont… • A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding can enrich a man’s life – immeasurably! I have those things to offer…Physical beauty is passing…But beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart – and I have all of those things – aren’t taken away, but grow. Increase with the years! • Deliberate cruelty is unforgivable…and it is the one thing of which I have never, never been guilty. • Our attitudes and backgrounds are incompatible We have to be realistic about such things.

Stanley Kowalski • Brutal • Energetic • Brash/loud • Modern • Sexist • Uses sexuality as symbol of power • Resentful of anyone who thinks they are better than he is • Overbearing • Crass • Physical

Stanley’s quotes • Have you ever heard of the Napoleonic code? • I don’t like to be swindled. • Hat do you two think you are? A pair of queens? • “Every Man is a King!” • What I am is one hundred percent American…so don’t ever call me a Polack. • I was common as dirt. You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it…Wasn’t it all okay till she showed here?

Stanley Cont… • There isn’t a goddam thing but imagination...And lies and conceit and tricks! • You come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light-bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile. Sitting on your throne and swilling my liquor.

Stella Kowalski • Symbol of transition between old and new worlds • Gentle • Excited by Stanley’s physicality • Torn between loyalty to her husband and her sister • Sensitive • Weak • Pacifist • Understanding • Practical

Stella’s quotes • I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night…When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild! • The Kowalskis and the DuBois have different notions. • Stanley’s the only one of his crowd that’s likely to get anywhere. • I’m not in anything I want to get out of. • But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem – unimportant.

Stella cont… • You didn’t know Blanche as a girl. Nobody…was as tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change. • I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley.

Mitch • Lonely • Loyal • Weak • Sensitive • Gentle • Patient • Good-natured

Mitch’s quotes • I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my – experience – I have never known anyone like you. • You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be – you and me, Blanche? • I don’t think I ever seen you in the light. That’s a fact. • I don’t mind you being a little older than I thought. But all the rest of it – Christ!...But I was fool enough to think you was straight.

Fantasy and Reality • Blanche creates a façade of illusion in order to cope with her past (shattered and harsh). • She tells what ‘ought to be the truth’ • When she finally retreats into her fantasy, she is hauled off as insane but is in fact, happier there than in her reality

Fantasy and Reality • Stanley refuses Blanche’s description of him as a ‘brute’ and ‘ape’ when they are in fact, accurate. • His illusion is that he is in control, yet he is merely a bully, using physical force • There is no superiority in him despite his claims that he is ‘King around here’ • He is cruel and cunning and deludes others into seeing that cruelty as honourable

Fantasy and Reality • Stella makes a clear choice between reality and fantasy because she ‘couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley’ • This echoes her willingness to overlook Stanley’s physical abuse

Desire and Death • The play suggests that the blind pursuit of desire leads to death itself – the Streetcar named ‘Desire’ leads to the Cemeteries which lands you in Elysian Fields where residents are doomed to repeat the same errors in life • Blanche uses sexual desire to fill the emotional void – the kindness of strangers • Her desire to reconnect with her sister leads to her mental devastation • Sexual desire between Stella and Stanley pulls her from her columns and ends her gentility • The sexual act is used to connect the characters but in using it this way, they lose something of themselves.

Symbols • Baths/bathing • Meat • Varsouviana Polka / interrupted by gun shot • Singing/song – ‘But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me!’ (Sc 7) • Colours – vivid reds and greens contrast with pastels • Moths – fragility (drawn to the light) • Dimmed lighting – shades drawn, paper lanterns – ‘daylight never exposed so total a ruin’ (Sc 1)

Symbols Cont… • Young boys • The Tarantula Arms / Hotel Flamingo • Jazz music • Mexican woman – flowers / coins for the dead>timing • Cigarette case inscribed with poem by Elizabeth Browning: And if God choose, I shall but love thee better – after – death.” • English teacher: POE - Gothic descriptions

Symbols Cont… • Drinking/addiction • Fake pearls/tiaras/clothing • Names – Stella (star); Blanche (white/pure); Belle Reve (beautiful dream) • Tram ride – Desire, Cemeteries, Elysian Fields (mirrors Blanche’s journey). • Fishing for compliments/laying cards on the table

Power and Vulnerability • All of the characters are vulnerable in the play and they each use the power at their disposal to avoid exposing this. • Stanley – physical and verbal power prevents criticism • Stella – sexuality and submission to keep Stanley from using his power • Blanche – sexuality and powers of illusion to protect her from damage

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ – Creative responses • A doctor writing a psychiatric report on Blanche • The conversation between the two sisters 10 years into the future… • Monologues from any of the characters • A magician who wants his audience to believe it’s real • Explore the façade Allen Grey maintains in a letter to Blanche • Second life/online identity gets in way of real life

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ – Expository responses • An exploration of the illusive nature of reality in popular texts taking into account ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, ‘Memento’, ‘Inception’, ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, ‘the Matrix’, etc… • A psychological examination of the brain’s response to trauma drawing upon victims of crime, abuse, loss and dependence… • The various ways and reasons why people seek to escape reality such as boredom and daydreaming, issues and avoidance, low self-esteem and self-help…

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ – Persuasive responses • A speech about the impact of guests who overstay their welcome. • An opinion article arguing that we need to take better care of those suffering from mental afflictions. • A university lecture aimed at 1st year psych students arguing that reality is a construction. • Letters to the editor and their responses based around the idea that ‘every man is/is not a king’ – this is in response to Andrew Bolt’s assertion that there is no glass ceiling at home or in the workplace. (HYBRID)

Sample prompts • 'The line between illusion and madness is a fine one.' • 'When we attempt to make order out of chaos then we risk distorting reality.' • 'Believing is seeing. The reality that we perceive is the reality that we want to perceive.' • 'An experience becomes real when others feel what it felt like for you.' • 'People's memories shape their understanding of themselves, their world and others.'

Sample prompts cont… • 'We can never attain a fully objective view of reality because we remain trapped in the prison of our subjectivity.' • 'When competing realities clash the result can be only tragedy.' • 'Our sanity depends on a clear understanding of what is and isn't real.' • 'A person's self-image can interfere with their ability to perceive reality clearly.'

Sample prompts cont… • ‘There are no facts, only interpretations.’ • ‘The truth means different things to different people.’ • ‘People re-create their memories to suit their current reality.’

Other Resources • Wheeler Centre lecture 2012 • http://wheelercentre.com/videos/video/texts-in-the-city-a-streetcar-named-desire1/ • VCAA Assessor’s Report 2011 • http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/english/english_assessrep_11.pdf • Study Guide by Rachel Kafka • http://ebookbrowse.com/a-streetcar-named-desire-sbd-142164211-pdf-d345968998

‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Whose Reality?