Significance of Insecurity (In Handmaids and Streetcar)

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  • Created on: 05-05-20 14:17
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  • Significance of Insecurity in THT and SC
    • The Handmaids Tale
      • Both female protagonists find difficulty integrating into a new world.
        • Streetcar Named Desire
          • Sound
            • Williams uses rising and falling volumes of music to indicate the emotion of the scene.
            • Varied music, typically Jazz. Ranges in speeds and tones which reflect the tensions of each scene.
            • Plastic Theatre is known to use colours and sounds as symbols in order to alert the audience to more abstract ideas and build a closer experience to the truth of human experience.
          • Stanley
            • Financial Stress
              • Male stereotypes
                • Being the provider and the head of the household.
                  • ‘Feathered male bird among hens’
                    • Male stereotypes
                      • Being the provider and the head of the household.
                        • ‘Feathered male bird among hens’
                • Napoleonic Code
                • Racial inferiority
                  • Blanches insults
                • Military Past
                  • Williams’ may be presenting Stanley in such a light in an attempt to highlight the lost nature of soldiers in a post-war America.
                  • Many soldiers returned and in having substituted the battlefield for a 10ft apartment of two rooms found themselves lacking a purpose in their domestic life, therefore perhaps Stanley in going on the offensive is in a way acting as the valiant protector that he once felt he was in war.
              • The title of the plat itself.
                • Blanche is being driven by desire for connection and companionship with her only remaining family, Stella.
                  • Blanche
                    • Streetcar Named Desire
                      • Sound
                        • Williams uses rising and falling volumes of music to indicate the emotion of the scene.
                        • Varied music, typically Jazz. Ranges in speeds and tones which reflect the tensions of each scene.
                        • Plastic Theatre is known to use colours and sounds as symbols in order to alert the audience to more abstract ideas and build a closer experience to the truth of human experience.
                      • Stanley
                        • Financial Stress
                          • Napoleonic Code
                          • Racial inferiority
                            • Blanches insults
                          • Military Past
                            • Williams’ may be presenting Stanley in such a light in an attempt to highlight the lost nature of soldiers in a post-war America.
                            • Many soldiers returned and in having substituted the battlefield for a 10ft apartment of two rooms found themselves lacking a purpose in their domestic life, therefore perhaps Stanley in going on the offensive is in a way acting as the valiant protector that he once felt he was in war.
                        • The title of the plat itself.
                          • Blanche is being driven by desire for connection and companionship with her only remaining family, Stella.
                            • Blanche
                              • Incompatible to the lifestyle of New Orleans
                                • Survival of the Fittest
                                  • Her psychologicalevolution makes her complex and civilised emotions a hinderence to her survival in New Orleans
                                    • Blanche’s insecurity can be seen in the stage directions which describe her as ‘incongruous’ to the setting in her ‘delicate’ and ‘fluffy’ white bodice which suggests a ‘moth’.
                              • ‘The boy – ‘. By using anacoluthon, we see Blanche’s distressed state of mind and as such her previous husband is highlighted as a point of insecurity for her.
                              • Blanche often obsesses over the light and uses paper shades to control how she is perceived.
                        • Setting
                          • Blanche is patronising and suggestive in the idea that she expected more from Stella’s small one bedroom apartment.Continuing to  state her disapproval.
                            • Although a small room, it is important that the audience notice much of the play occurs within the same building.
                      • Incompatible to the lifestyle of New Orleans
                        • Survival of the Fittest
                          • Her psychologicalevolution makes her complex and civilised emotions a hinderence to her survival in New Orleans
                            • Blanche’s insecurity can be seen in the stage directions which describe her as ‘incongruous’ to the setting in her ‘delicate’ and ‘fluffy’ white bodice which suggests a ‘moth’.
                      • ‘The boy – ‘. By using anacoluthon, we see Blanche’s distressed state of mind and as such her previous husband is highlighted as a point of insecurity for her.
                      • Blanche often obsesses over the light and uses paper shades to control how she is perceived.
                • Setting
                  • Blanche is patronising and suggestive in the idea that she expected more from Stella’s small one bedroom apartment.Continuing to  state her disapproval.
                    • Although a small room, it is important that the audience notice much of the play occurs within the same building.
            • False shield of comfort in a new world of oppression.
              • Re-appropriatio of familial language in the Red Centre; ‘Aunts’.
                • ‘A Sister, dipped in blood.’ The noun ‘sister’could indicate the personal relationship associated with the word, even if not familial but a sisterhood, is  removed and corrupted by metaphorical’blood’, a representation of her past crimes.
              • Typically seen recognised as guardians and saviours ‘Angels’ become an object of fear in Gilead.
            • Clothing
              • Offred is revealed to be wearing a ‘flat yoke’ and thus immediate parallels are drawn between the handmaiden system and the idea of the slave trade.
                • Similarly, their vision is obscured by ‘white wings’ which ironically connote freedom despite being a tool in order to restrict what they can observe and process about the society around them.
                  • This form of oppression may also be associated with the blinkers worn by a horse. These also block vision and are used in aim of not distressing the animal.
                • The overwhelming abundance of ‘blood red’ in the uniforms show the extent of the oppression, reducing women to only femininity, fertility and menstruation.
                  • Clothing
                    • Offred is revealed to be wearing a ‘flat yoke’ and thus immediate parallels are drawn between the handmaiden system and the idea of the slave trade.
                      • Similarly, their vision is obscured by ‘white wings’ which ironically connote freedom despite being a tool in order to restrict what they can observe and process about the society around them.
                        • This form of oppression may also be associated with the blinkers worn by a horse. These also block vision and are used in aim of not distressing the animal.
                      • The overwhelming abundance of ‘blood red’ in the uniforms show the extent of the oppression, reducing women to only femininity, fertility and menstruation.
                      • Reference to once worn ‘purple trousers’
                        • ‘Purple’ combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red to produce a colour often recognised with traits such as extragance’
                • Reference to once worn ‘purple trousers’
                  • ‘Purple’ combines the calm stability of blue and the fierce energy of red to produce a colour often recognised with traits such as extragance’
              • Bath Scene
                • Offred analyses her body thoroughly showing her lack of recent experience with her body.
                  • ‘My nakedness is strange to me’
                • The powerful damage of Gilead’s objectification is apparent in her disregard to her body.
                • ‘I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.’
            • Insecurity is defined by both the lack of confidence in oneself as well as the state of being in danger and threat.
              • Offred
                • The Handmaids Tale
                  • Both female protagonists find difficulty integrating into a new world.
                    • False shield of comfort in a new world of oppression.
                      • Re-appropriatio of familial language in the Red Centre; ‘Aunts’.
                        • ‘A Sister, dipped in blood.’ The noun ‘sister’could indicate the personal relationship associated with the word, even if not familial but a sisterhood, is  removed and corrupted by metaphorical’blood’, a representation of her past crimes.
                      • Typically seen recognised as guardians and saviours ‘Angels’ become an object of fear in Gilead.
                    • Bath Scene
                      • Offred analyses her body thoroughly showing her lack of recent experience with her body.
                        • ‘My nakedness is strange to me’
                      • The powerful damage of Gilead’s objectification is apparent in her disregard to her body.
                      • ‘I don’t want to look at something that determines me so completely.’
                  • The attempt to homogenise the handmaids into an obedient collective identity that lacks individualism.
                    • This means Offred cannot lack confidence, for she does not participate in life as a person but rather a process.
                    • This deprivation of identity can be seen in the handmaid’s attempt to maintain individual existence in the semi-darkness of the Red Centre ‘exchange names…Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.’
                      • The sentence structure of separating the names with end stops shows the emphatic differentiation of the maids and as such demonstrates how each name is a symbol of identification and personality.
                • The idea of insecurity is dependant on interaction with others and a sense of individuality.
                  • The attempt to homogenise the handmaids into an obedient collective identity that lacks individualism.
                    • This means Offred cannot lack confidence, for she does not participate in life as a person but rather a process.
                    • This deprivation of identity can be seen in the handmaid’s attempt to maintain individual existence in the semi-darkness of the Red Centre ‘exchange names…Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June.’
                      • The sentence structure of separating the names with end stops shows the emphatic differentiation of the maids and as such demonstrates how each name is a symbol of identification and personality.

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