Twice

• Heart is symbolic and valuable - she is offering her life to someone
• Parallelism of 1st lines of the 1st and 2nd stanza highlights the change in possession
• Use of imperatives in the first stanza
• The use of brackets represents an aside (thought process)
• "Yet a woman's words are weak" - alliteration - "w" is a very soft and weak sounding letter which emphasises the weakness of the woman's words
• The heart is compared to fruit - it is unripe
• "Better wait awhile" - vague and unconvincing
• Trochee emphasise the caesura in the 3rd stanza "...broke - Broke"
• Switches to present tense halfway through the 3rd stanza
• The male in the poem is rejecting the female compared to No, Thank You John where it is the other way around
• The structure of the 1st half of the poem is mirrored in the second half
• References to judgement day
• "Yea, judge me now" - confident tone
• "O my God, O my God" - said aloud unlike "O my love"
• Judgement is a biblical illusion
• Fire to purge sins - suffering is needed
• "I shall not die but live" - self belief - declarative and confident
•   "All that I have I bring...I give" - determination to live for God and parallelism is similar to that of a hymn or prayer
• "But shall not question much" - won't question anything from God 

Maude Clare

Maude Clare -

• Narrative poetry
• Narrative is a wedding day
• Themes of love and loss
• The two main characters do not love each other as much as the characters in In the Round Tower at Jhansi
• Final stanza - character is mocking
• Lofty step - sense of self confidence 
• The poem begins in media res - middle of a situation - making it tense and suspenseful
• Introduction to two female characters in the first stanza - the similes used to describe them highlight the vast differene between them (a "village maid" and a "queen")
• The second stanza begins with dialogue - more common in a drama or play rather than a poem
• The 3rd stanza is ambiguous and has a formal tone to it - it also foreshadows what is to comein the marriage
• "My lord was pale" - 1st person narrative
• Repetition of pale - characters are pale for different reasons - inward strife vs pride but it is not made clear why Maude Clare is pale
• 5th stanza - sarcastic and angry tone
• "We waded ankle deep for lilies in the beck"- euphemistic of sex and fertility - ruined their reputation
• Only women wore a ring when married - symbol of possession in the Victorian era
• Nell may or may not know about the affair - evoke sympathy
• The father is barely mentioned - he is not given a voice or presence - disempowered male figures are a prevalent theme in Rossetti's poetry
• ABCB rhyme scheme deviates from typical ballad rhyme scheme - unusual
• "Faded leaves = dead love
• 7th stanza has sexual connotations throughout - "The lilies are budding now" - possible suggestion of pregnancy
• 8th stanza emphasises Rossetti's view of the male characters in the poem - he is faltered in his place and his speech appears nervous and uneasy - represented by the hyphens 
• "My Lady Nell" - Maude Clare wanted her title - posessive
• Maude Clare presents them with a sarcastic gift
• 1st dialogue from Nell in the penultimate stanza
• The main male character in the poem is fickle, untrustworthy and an adulterer - a very negative portrayal
• 
  

Light, sound, action

• Light is a metaphor for the truth
• Blanche's jewellery is beautiful but fake - representative of herself
• Large dichotomy created between Stanley and Blanche
• Harsh light = harsh truth - Blanche is dragged into it by Mitch (reality)
• "Coloured lights"
• Stella fuels Stanley's need for power and dominance
• Celebratory tune heard in Blanche's head juxtaposes the dark events that occurred that night 

The Old South and New America (ASCND)

Blanche represents the old South- she wears posh white clothes and has old fashioned values and opinions (which make her appear pure and vulnerable)
DuBois is a French surname - the French were original settlers in the USA
Blanche taught English but her students became disinterested


Stanley represents the modern new America - he is roughly dressed in stained work clothes and has more modern values and opinions
Kowalski is a Polish surname - the Polish came to the USA in the 1920s
Stanley throws the radio playing classical music out of the window


The rape scene could be representative of the death of old south culture (Blanche is being destroyed)

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 6

Context: Blanche and Mitch's date and Blanche talks about her husband

• Blanche's hope lies with Mitch - he is her last chance
• The encounter highlights Blanche's two personalities
• "That man will destroy me" - foreshadowing later events
• We see that her husband dying is the source of her problems
• The scene reveals that Blanche and Mitch are very lonesome people - gives the audience hope (also evokes sympathy)

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 5

Context: Blanche's encounter with the delivery boy

• Hints at Stanley's plan to destroy Blanche
• Blanche is almost trying to relive her past through her encounter with the delivery boy
• Highlights how Blanche tries to compensate for what she did to her husband by giving herself to almost anyone
• Blanche's past life is beginning to close in upon her

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 4

Context: The aftermath of Stanley hitting Stella

• Blanche appears as an outsider
• Blanche calls Stanley common, bestial and vulgar
• Stanley overhears this causing further resentment towards Blanche, motivating him to rape her
• Stanley is seen as victorious because he has won Stella back
• Although there is no direct confrontation between Stanley and Blanche, there is a confrontation between the two concepts of life represented by both characters