10: Streetcar questions

short answer questions

Answer all of these, briefly.

1. There is a difference between why Blanche says she has come to stay with Stella and Stanley and why she has actually come to stay with them. What is that difference?


2. Can we see Stella as being ‘between’ Stanley and Blanche? Explain.


3. What does Stanley’s behaviour at the poker game and around the house tell us about him and the world in which he lives?


4. What does Blanche’s obsession with lighting tell us about her? What about her interaction with the paper boy?


5. At the end of the play, what has Stanley done to Blanche? How do the other characters respond to that?


6. How do we end up feeling about Blanche at the end of the play?

organized paragraph

Choose one of these questions and respond in two organized paragraphs. Each paragraph should make specific reference to either the play Glass Menagerie or the film Streetcar Named Desire.

• Choose a character from Streetcar Named Desire that you can compare to a character from The Glass Menagerie. Explain how they are the same and different.


• Choose a theme that both Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie deal with. Explain what each play says about that theme and how.


• (A more challenging question) Based on your experience, what is the difference between reading a play a seeing a film version of a play? What are does each experience give you that the other may not? Be specific to the two plays.

DUE: Monday, 21 September. Moodle it, named your last name + streetcar.