Good Friday

• Guilty attitude - stood under the cross and didn't cry 
• Strong rhyme scheme 
• Repetition
• Natural imagery through references to animals 
• Personification of the sun and moon
• Common theme of the role of women (religion and crucifixion)
• Stone metaphor - lacking emotion, passion and humanity 
• Questioning her faith
• Sheep could be Jesus' followers 
• Compares herself with everyone else present 
• Unquestioning faith = stronger faith 

Uphill

• Sound concerned and seek reassurance 
• Other voice - kind, calm and comforting 
• Journey and road - metaphors for life
• Simple lexical choices - unusual for Rossetti 
• Vague description of the setting
• Upward progression of spiritual journey 
• Uphill - struggle or becoming better
• Emphasising the length of the journey 
• Resting place - security - love, reassurance, church, religion, family etc
• Second voice could be spiritual and possibly the voice of God
• The voice is self assured, calm and confident 
• Poem about trust, faith and belief 

A birthday

• Sense of relief and positivity 
• Similes - "my heart is like..."
• Heart is symbolic
• Influence of romantic poets 
• Repetition - emphasises joy and celebration 
• Imperative forms - asking people to celebrate with her
• Religious connotations 
• Natural imagery 

From the antique

• Reflection on their life and why they don't think they'll be remembered 
• Possibly suicidal
• Unloved
• Sadness and melancholy
• Calm poem 
• String rhythm 
• Consistent rhyme scheme - strong and steady 
• Despondency - cynical 
• 2 narrators - 1st line
• 1st person narrative 
• Themes of alienation and oppression 
• The place of women in Victorian society - "women's lot"

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 3 (Source of conflict? Emotional connections between the characters and the audience?)

• Stanley becomes slightly aggressive and shows signs of tension
• Unpredictable (tossing rinds) 
• "Shut up" "impatient with the story" -emphasises building tension and impatience 
• Contrast between bright stage directions and toned down conversation
• Atmosphere during conversation at the table is uneasy - unsure of what is being said 
• Stanley's presence creates conflict 
• Stanley's strength fuels the conflict
• Stanley is controlling over Mitch when not wanting him to leave
• Stanley and Mitch are opposites - power battle
• Stanley is s volatile character 
• Suspicions and secrets
• Suspicious about belle reve and Blanche (clothes incident)
• Blanches clothes could represent her - glamorous exterior but fake
• Blanche is jealous of Stella and Stanley - the control he has over her - not as close - can't control Stella anymore 
• Stella is a victim - audience feel sympathetic towards her
• Stella is caring towards Blanche 
• Sympathy and empathy with characters 
• Mitch is caring and polite but also awkward 
• Mitch contrasts the other characters 
• Mitch's backstory helps the audience to connect with him 
• Blanche has lost everything so the audience may feel sympathy towards her
• Blanche's insecurities leave her seeming out of place
• Blanche is funny, intelligent, witty (rapport)
• Stanley - loss of power and control over Stella - sympathy 
• Clearly in love with Stella - strong emotions
• Appears vulnerable when Stella leaves 

Character relationships, how they develop and the tension between the characters

• Stella clearly loves Stanley and is very affectionate towards him
• Stanley doesn't show as much affection back until Stella leaves
• Stanley is forceful and dominating over Stella
• Stella seems to try to control Stanley 
• Blanche is flirtatious and shy around Stanley 
• Stanley is relaxed towards Blanche at first but then becomes aggressive overtime similarly to with Stella 
• Blanche becomes more defensive and confident towards Stanley and aggressive 
• Blanche doesn't seem as delicate anymore
• Mitch is very kind and calm around Blanche
• Blanche is not so shy around Mitch but she is still flirtatious
• Stanley becomes less aggressive and begins to show he is affectionate towards Stella
• Stella seems oblivious to what has just happened 
• After the fight, Stella acts very differently with Blanche - she seems more dominating and confident 

Analysis of the first scene in A Streetcar Named Desire (play)

• Stanley - "throws the screen door" - suggest aggression and controlling personality
• "animal joy in his being" - animalistic
• "crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he smiles at them" - suggests a lot about his personality and the way he portrays women
• He removes his shirt before Blanche can object - won't listen to her anyway
• "Where's the little woman" -
• "Exercising hard like bowling is" - trying to seem more masculine
• "Her head falls on her arms" - implies lunacy (?)
• "I rarely touch it" - liar
• "I'm - going to be sick!" - implies weakness physically and mentally
• Elysian Fields - heaven/paradise - contradicts with the reality of the apartments and Blanche understands the irony of this
• Raffish charm - reflects Stanley - not perfect but has charm
• Detailed description of the stage - written like poetry - literary
• "spirit of life" - lively, vibrant and multicultural (segregation elsewhere)
• Stage directions describing Blanche - beautiful and glamorous
• Figurative analogy of Blanche - moth
• Light is symbolic of the truth
• Blanche is patronising towards Stella
• Blanche has long turns while Stella has short turns
• Blanche - monologue - to herself? - highlights self-obsession
• "Daylight...ruin!" - hyperbole, melodramatic
• Blanche - offensive to Stella - boosts self-confidence

Analysis of the first scene in A Streetcar Named Desire (film)

• Busy streets, run down, dingy, lots of fighting, industrial
• Blanche is very well dressed
• She seems out of place and lost
• She is very talkative and seems quite flustered and skittish
• Stella is very different to Blanche - different clothes, seems more stable, less talkative
• Unsure of Blanche's intentions
• Blanche is quite dramatic and emotional
• Stanley is very curious to find out about Blanche
• Blanche seems intimidated by Stanley and vice versa
• Blanche is already showing signs of lunacy
• Stanley is confident and flirtatious
• Stella doesn't ask as many questions and feeds Blanche's ego
• Chaotic, loud setting
• Apartment - run down, old, small, open plan
• Blanche - shy and defensive
• Stella is quieter than Blanche and she is nice and caring
• Stanley and Blanche are very similar

Echo

Language analysis -

• Simile - contrast between the stream and the sunlight - dark and light - glittering effect of the water = possibly supernatural in reference todeath and afterlife
• Title is ambiguous (one word) creates mystery
• The title relates to the form and the content (echoes in the structure of the poem) and it echoes the past - memories
• "finished years" - nostalgic - recognition that happiness is gone
• "tears" - ambiguous - could mean happiness, sadness, anger etc.
• "O/Oh" - apostrophe - strong emotion
• "Paradise" - conflict between love and religion
• Ambiguous about who is dead - narrator? character? no one?
• Waiting for lover to die (possible narrative)
• Water imagery - romantic poetry
• Song-like tone
• Adapting traditional form
• Longer lines - pentameter - trochaic and iambic
• Rhyming couplet reinforces likeliness to romantic poetry

Comparison to other poems -

Song (When I Am Dead, My Dearest)-

• Both lyrical
• Both have a theme of death
• Talk about afterlife
• However, the narrator doesn't want to be remembered

Shut Out -

• Distance between the two people in the poem

Remember -

• Lyrical
• Want to remember the past

Characters in A Streetcar Named Desire

Stella -

• naive - in relation to life and the events in the play
• relatable - doesn't change and stays central
• rebellious - marrying Stanley
• vulnerable - hiding from her problems
• motherly - protective over Blanche
• caring
• always tries to do the right thing (for other people)
• quite independent
• sensitive - emotionally towards Blanche and Stanley
• always tries to see the best in people
• feel pity and sympathy towards her (violence)
• annoying - she didn't believe Blanche and instead sent her away
• impulsive
• in denial about Stanley (violence etc)

Blanche -

• delusional (image of perfect life, drinking problem etc)
• vain
• fragile
• insecure
• unstable
• attention seeking
• begins to believe her delusions
• feel sympathy for her at the end
• emotional connection to her is unstable
• makes the audience frustrated with her
• protagonist of the play
• liar
• cheat
• drunk
• flawed
• lost everything

Stanley -

• violent
• unhinged
• dominating
• confident
• unrelenting
• arrogant
• acts superior
• intimidated by Blanche
• power struggle between Blanche and Stanley - creates tension
• Blanche - french name, high social status, educated
• Stanley - working class, Polish, uneducated
• Blanche is a threat to Stanley
• he loves Stella - shows in an unusual way - threatening
• attractive character
• protective over Stella

Mitch -

• sensitive - dying mother
• caring - cares for Blanche
• kind
• supportive
• decent
• opposite of Stanley
• changes and becomes more aggressive after learning of Blanche's past
• no self-confidence
• insecure

A Streetcar Named Desire

Key narrative moments in the play -

1. When Stanley raped Blanche
2. When blanche is taken to the mental hospital
3. Stanley attacking Stella
4. Stanley asking for forgiveness
5. When Blanche arrives at Stella's house
6. Blanche's encounter with the newspaper delivery boy
7. Blanch telling Mitch about her boyfriend who died
8. Stella telling Stanley about Blanche's history
9. Mitch and blanche's break up
10. Mitch and Blanche's date when he attempts to sleep with her
11. Blanche and Stanley's first meeting
12. Stanley's revelation about Blanche's past