Edexcel A Level English Literature 2024
A Streetcar Named Desire Exam
Questions and Answers
Origins of the Play - Answer>>Tennessee started writing the
play in 1945 the year WW2 ended. It was first performed on stage
in 1947.
Title of the Play - Answer>>Blanche arrives in New Orleans on
a streetcar called Desire, named after the district.
Tennessee Williams Background - Answer>>Williams' mother
was a "southern belle" and his father was an alcoholic travelling
salesman. His sister Rose became increasingly unstable mentally
and was eventually given a lobotomy, she spent the rest of her life
in a mental institution. Williams reputedly felt guilty about his
sister, afraid of mental disintegration. He was obsessed with
death - like Blanche, who is haunted by the suicide of her
husband. As a homosexual, he felt the restrictions of society like
Blanche, her husband's death reflects his own hidden emotions.
Williams' Influences - Answer>>Williams looked to the
playwrights of Europe for models of the form. He immersed
himself in the plays of Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg and
Henrik Ibsen.
New Orleans Background - Answer>>Whilst being in the South,
it's a multicultural city, evolving in a way the rest of the South was
not. The play is set in the French Quarter.
Southern Literature - Answer>>Audiences were highly exposed
to this type of literature. It was often grotesque, romantic and
based on injustice and inequality. The South was seen as broken
and in decline, fading in beauty just like Blanche.
, Elysian Fields - Answer>>The name of Stella and Stanley's
building, origintaing from the greek island of rebirth after death.
Belle Reve - Answer>>The name of the DuBois family mansion,
translated from French (Louisiana was a French territory
originally) to mean "Beautiful Dream", highlighting the nostalgia
associations the South had.
The Streetcar - Answer>>A streetcar running unswervingly
along the rails to its destination could be seen as a symbol of the
inescapability of fate. The streetcar's destination, Desire,
symbolises the destructive sexual passion that causes Blanche's
downfall. Williams appears to be suggesting that our desires
determine our fate.
Gender and Sexuality - Answer>>Sexual desire, as the name of
the play suggests, is a strong theme in the play. The sexual
passion that holds Stanely and Stella together is coloured by
Stanley's belief that a man should be dominant and by Stella's
willingness to be dominated. Stanley's readiness to condemn
Blache's promiscuity, echoed by Mitch's disgust, is typical of the
era. These gender issues, especially men's expectations of
women, are still very much alive.
The play's title conveys Williams view of sexual passion as an
unstoppable force that will take its victim along a path of self-
destruction as surely as a streetcar.
Social Class - Answer>>Blanche is a "southern belle" - a
snobbish member of an old established land-owning family, one
of the plantation families that originally got rich from slave labour.
Stella had been for the most part happy to abandon the family's
standards in order to enjoy the animalistic passion she finds in
A Streetcar Named Desire Exam
Questions and Answers
Origins of the Play - Answer>>Tennessee started writing the
play in 1945 the year WW2 ended. It was first performed on stage
in 1947.
Title of the Play - Answer>>Blanche arrives in New Orleans on
a streetcar called Desire, named after the district.
Tennessee Williams Background - Answer>>Williams' mother
was a "southern belle" and his father was an alcoholic travelling
salesman. His sister Rose became increasingly unstable mentally
and was eventually given a lobotomy, she spent the rest of her life
in a mental institution. Williams reputedly felt guilty about his
sister, afraid of mental disintegration. He was obsessed with
death - like Blanche, who is haunted by the suicide of her
husband. As a homosexual, he felt the restrictions of society like
Blanche, her husband's death reflects his own hidden emotions.
Williams' Influences - Answer>>Williams looked to the
playwrights of Europe for models of the form. He immersed
himself in the plays of Anton Chekhov, August Strindberg and
Henrik Ibsen.
New Orleans Background - Answer>>Whilst being in the South,
it's a multicultural city, evolving in a way the rest of the South was
not. The play is set in the French Quarter.
Southern Literature - Answer>>Audiences were highly exposed
to this type of literature. It was often grotesque, romantic and
based on injustice and inequality. The South was seen as broken
and in decline, fading in beauty just like Blanche.
, Elysian Fields - Answer>>The name of Stella and Stanley's
building, origintaing from the greek island of rebirth after death.
Belle Reve - Answer>>The name of the DuBois family mansion,
translated from French (Louisiana was a French territory
originally) to mean "Beautiful Dream", highlighting the nostalgia
associations the South had.
The Streetcar - Answer>>A streetcar running unswervingly
along the rails to its destination could be seen as a symbol of the
inescapability of fate. The streetcar's destination, Desire,
symbolises the destructive sexual passion that causes Blanche's
downfall. Williams appears to be suggesting that our desires
determine our fate.
Gender and Sexuality - Answer>>Sexual desire, as the name of
the play suggests, is a strong theme in the play. The sexual
passion that holds Stanely and Stella together is coloured by
Stanley's belief that a man should be dominant and by Stella's
willingness to be dominated. Stanley's readiness to condemn
Blache's promiscuity, echoed by Mitch's disgust, is typical of the
era. These gender issues, especially men's expectations of
women, are still very much alive.
The play's title conveys Williams view of sexual passion as an
unstoppable force that will take its victim along a path of self-
destruction as surely as a streetcar.
Social Class - Answer>>Blanche is a "southern belle" - a
snobbish member of an old established land-owning family, one
of the plantation families that originally got rich from slave labour.
Stella had been for the most part happy to abandon the family's
standards in order to enjoy the animalistic passion she finds in
