Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Streetcar is divided into eleven scenes rather than the traditional act and scene divisions. What is the effect of this structure?
- How does Williams tend to end scenes? On a consistently dramatic note? A tragic one? With suspense?
- Have you read Glass Menagerie? If so, think about Williams’s two Southern belle characters— Blanche in Streetcar and Amanda in Glass Menagerie. What makes these women similar? What makes them different?
- Are there any moral or ethical lessons to be found in A Streetcar Named Desire?
- We’ve spent a lot of time contrasting Blanche and Stanley as opposite characters and symbols of conflicting ideals. But in what ways are these two similar? And how do these commonalities complicate the interpretation of the play?
- What sort of acting choices do you see the characters having to play, particularly Blanche, Stanley, and Stella? Are the characters pretty clearly mapped out in the script, or is there much room for interpretation?
- How important is the final scene (Eleven) of Streetcar? What does it add to the play? Why not just end with the rape in Scene Ten?