Sanity & Madness in A Streetcar Named Desire & Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Lesson 12
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ELA

Unit 10

10th Grade

Lesson 12 of 23

Objective


Analyze how Blanche’s relationship with men functions in the text and what it reveals about her character and the overall meaning of the work.

Readings and Materials


  • Play: A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams 

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A Note for Teachers


  • Big ideas about text: Over the course of Scenes 4 and 5, Blanche has relationships with five men (Mitch, Stanley, the newspaper boy, Shep, and Allan Grey). Blanche’s monologue and confession to Mitch (one of the few people she can ALMOST be her true self around is illuminating both in regards to the tension between reality and fantasy but also between past and present. Allan’s death reminds us of what happens when people are unable to face/confront the truth and live in a fantasy world. In addition, this monologue reveals Blanche’s loneliness and quest for companionship and love all the while highlighting how haunted and traumatized she is to this day by Allan’s suicide. 
  • Important Note: This questioning sequence moves students from thinking about Blanche’s individual relationship with the various men in the play to making a generalization based on the collective nature of those relationships. This is key that students and the analysis move from a place that is super zoomed in to zoomed out.

Target Task


Writing Prompt

How does Blanche’s relationship with men function in the text? What does it reveal about her overall character and meaning in the work?

Sample Response

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Key Thinking


Annotation Focus

What lines, words, and phrases reveal the role that this man plays in Blanche’s life?

Scaffolding Questions

What role does this man play in Blanche’s life? What need does he fulfill?  What evidence supports your answer?

How does Blanche treat him? Or how has Blanche treated him? What evidence supports your answer

Discourse Questions

What is the common thread in all of Blanche’s relationships with men?

How is Blanche’s character developed through her relationships with men?

What does this relationship suggest about the role of desire in one’s life?

How is Blanche's character developed through her relationships with men?

Homework


Read and annotate A Streetcar Named Desire, Scenes 8–11 by Lesson 13.

  • Scene 8: What tension exists in this scene between Stanley and Stella? Stanley and Blanche?
  • Scene 9: What lines reveal Blanche’s reality and deception? What lines reveal Mitch’s reality? 
  • Scene 10: What tension exists in this scene between Stanley and Blanche? 
  • Scene 11: What lines reveal Blanche’s mental/emotional state? What lines reveal Stella’s mental/emotional state?

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Standards


  • LO 1.3B — Analyze how the writer's use of stylistic elements contributes to a work of literature's effects and meaning.
  • RL.9-10.2 — Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • RL.9-10.3 — Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Supporting Standards

LO 1.3A
LO 2.3A
LO 2.3B
LO 2.3C
LO 2.3D
LO 5.1A
LO 5.1B
RL.9-10.1
RL.9-10.4
SL.9-10.1

Next

Analyze how the motifs of light and drinking function in Scene 8 and what they reveal about Blanche’s character and tragic flaw.

Lesson 13
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Lesson Map

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