Notes on Given Circumstances

Ok, these are a few of the given circumstances I have found toward the beginning of the play:

There is a bowling alley around the corner from Stella’s home.

Stanley and Mitch are 28-30 years old, and in denim “work clothes”

Stella looks 25 and has “a background obviously quite different from her husband’s” (4)

Stella, Eunice and Blanche are white

Blanche is around 5 year’s older than Stella.

There are “street cars” with given names, such as Desire, or Cemeteries.

Stella lives at Elysian Fields. In the downstairs flat of house 632. Underneath Eunice.

Eunice owns the house.

There are two rooms (kitchen and bedroom) and a bathroom.

Blanche is Stella’s sister.  She was a teacher.  She is from a plantation (Belle-Reve) in Mississippi.

“The L and N tracks” (12).  They are in New Orleans.

Stanley is Polish, and a Master Sergeant in the Engineers Corps.

More to Come…

2 thoughts on “Notes on Given Circumstances”

  1. Given Circumstances:
    Exterior of a corner building on a street called "Elysian Fields"
    *Elysian Fields-ancient Greek version of the afterlife; heaven.
    between the river and the train tracks in a poor section of New Orleans with "raffish [crude] charm"
    shabby, faded, everything is falling apart
    Steve and Eunice live upstairs
    Stanley and Stella live downstairs
    There is a bar within earshot
    Early May evening
    Stanley treats Stella badly: yells at her
    Blanche DuBois
    dressed in a white suit appropriate for an upper-crust social event
    From Mississippi
    School teacher
    family estate is called Belle Reve (we learn this from Eunice)
    bottle of whiskey in the closet
    Two-room flat
    Blanche is shocked that Stella has no maid: Blanche mocks Stella's appearance
    Scene II
    Blanche has lost Belle Reve and blames Stella for running away
    Stanley thinks Blanche stole the money: soon realizes she didn't
    Stella is pregnant
    Scene III
    Early morning: 2:30 AM
    Steve, Pablo, Mitch, and Stanley play poker in the Kowalskis' kitchen
    green light
    the bar around the corner becomes a meeting place
    bowling alley down the street

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