Notes

E: What is the significance of Stella breaking down at the end
Liam: what happens when you deny reality
C: giving into her desire (not sure exactly what her desire is)
M: regretting her actions, starting to see what the truth really is
Lynae: not regretting her actions; what other choice did she have? upset about how few choices she had
A: contrast from peacemaker role, always trying to repair relationships
R: peacemaker–desire for peace is incongruent from her reality, so she has to be in denial
side with Stanley = stable household, but regrets her choice bc she cares about Blanche
D: at this scene, Stella has started to accept reality
N: less about regret and more about realizing how crappy her situation is; "complete surrender" = realizing she's in a lose-lose situation
A: what is Williams trying to make us feel towards Stella? "inhuman abandon"
C: Williams wants us to feel sympathetic to Blanche; Stella pretending everything is okay makes things worse
N: sympathetic towards Stella; siding w Blanche could be dangerous, things were bad for women back then
Lynae: place blame on Stanley–"inhuman abandon"–takes away Blanche and Stella's humanity
A: does she feel abandoned by Blanche?
E: no, Blanche feels abandoned by Stella; a sister's duty is to be "that person"; Stella consistently doesn't fulfill that role
M: abandoning her denial; forced to face the truth
N: "abandon" = even though Blanche is gone, she's not actually abandoned: surrounded by everyone else that's important to her–Stanley, baby, Eunice
A: it's because she's trapped, she knows Blanche wasn't lying, trapped with Stanely, nowhere else to go
abandoned by her sense of safety
R: the word "abandon" isn't necessarily used by Williams to have that feeling; realize just how deluded Stella is when this entire time we were thinking Blanche was the crazy one; Stella has to maintain a level of denial at all time, that's been broken, now she has a broken reality
Lynae: so is she doing the abandoning?
R: abandon is a word with multiple meanings, literal abandonment might not be what Williams' was getting at
Lynae; abandoning false reality?
R: I think she's abandoned her class, awareness of others, crying out with all of her emotion without caring who is surrounding her
E: Stella's vibe is "I can keep the peace" (an Aries), all of this stuff was happening, then this other one thing happened and everything blows up in her face; abandoning her desire to keep things peaceful, maybe desire things other than being peaceful? maybe be a good... I don't know
R: agree, desire to keep peace is her primary desire, as opposed to sexual desire (thought she has that too); Scene 3 poker night. At first, Stella is arguing and ranting with Stanley, then as soon as he hits her, she shifts completely and goes from being in conflict with Stanley to being in conflict with Blanche
Liam: entire role was a middle role b/n Stella and Stanley; after Williams gave her so many opportunities to choose b/n the two, and at the end she chose the wrong one; the ending is a consequence for her decision
N: clarify the question?
R: repeats question; difference between conflicts?
N: first conflict is the norm, then a third person watching and giving their opinion forces Stella to rationalize what is happening, budding realization + foreshadowing; she'll stop rationalizing eventually
M: Stella thinks she can be perfect peacemaker but it can't happen; rationalization can be detrimental bc it shows her denial of what's really happening
Lynae: both are attempts to keep peace; first conflict is bc Stanley is destroying peace by throwing things, second conflict is Blanche trying to ruin the peace by telling Stella to leave her husband
D: connect to ending scene of sobbing = abandon of her peacekeeping desire
A: Why "luxuriously?" Why is sobbing luxurious?
R: indulging in the break of her trying to keep everything above board, so much tension in Stella that we don't notice until she has to let it go; indulging in having a place and time to do so
A: glad Blanche is gone?
R: no, just glad she can let out the tension

D: How do we see the relationship b/n Blanche and Stella now?
sort of makes Stella's decision more interesting bc if she knows about this, then she has more of a reason to be angry at Blanche; that decision might be more out of spite
R: muddies the metaphorical rape waters, seems that Blanche has a different idea and that she goes off to have sex with someone else makes her actions more of a betrayal, Stella is more betrayed by both of them; in our version, Stella is only betrayed by Stanley but pretends to be betrayed by Blanche; this alters who is betraying who
A: makes Stella more of a character we can sympathize with; in our version we think she should side with Blanche, but this revision would give her a reason to leave Blanche
Lynae: justifies her decision to send Blanche away, more of a complex decision in our version
M: interesting if she knows that they enjoyed the sex and still sends Blanche away, would be more out of spite; not really what Stella's character would do; I think Stanley was initially pushing sending Blanche away
C: would Blanche have told Stella about it if Blanche was fine with it? Would Stella have continued with it and pretend everything was fine?
Liam: this would take away the impact of what Stanley did; make it less hard-hitting
E: agree; gives the whole situation a different feel; this version feels very cavalier, also blurs the lines of rape-or-not, in my mind Blanche is having trouble admitting it's rape
N: agree with confusion, wonder if Blanche said the same thing about great sex to Stella; did she mean it the first time? Is Blanche in denial too?
Liam: generally changes the tone of the consequences in the scene, lead it to a different place
R: the essay does still call it a rape, but W might have been leaning more into the animal/sex/desire thing; Blanche might not have the words to say it was rape and she'd have experienced Stanley's complete animal nature, maybe getting into that nature resulted in the best sex she'd ever had; different from her having a complete mental break that Stella now needs to deal with, in this version, Blanche doesn't have a mental break and just carries on, and in our version, Stella is brought into it by Blanche's unwillingness to put up her facade again
D: what does "get her lily-white hooks" mean?
E: she's off to have sex again
M: that line also garners less sympathy for Blanche in that situation, would make less sense for Stella to be sobbing as Blanche was taken away
Liam: the phrase portrays Blanche as really manipulative and predatory
E: super not okay; this was rape but she enjoyed it so it was fine, it wasn't consensual but whatever; the phrase "lily-white hooks" implies Blanche got her "hooks" into Stanley so she was asking for it; this version is about sexual desire and our version is about dominance; this version is unrealistic and this isn't how rape works
N: goes back to the idea of denial and seeing things the way you want to see it; your husband having sex with your sister is a problem, but this rape seems like more of a gray area vs the black-and-white in our version; maybe makes the thing about denial and choosing the way you wanna see things a bigger theme
R: the rape has changed, but it's still clearly rape, also don't know what's before and after the scene; the arc and the dynamics are all altered; don't think it misconstrues rape. Looks at Blanche's relationship to sex and how she might view being raped bc she's made more of a bad person through it
W: W makes clear she has a baby girl, and Stella doesn't know this is happening
Lynae: the baby is in a blue banket at the end of our version, does that mean anything? how does it change our interpretation if the child's a girl?
Liam: the question–is Stanley going to abuse the child, was Stanley expecting a manly man in the house?
N: will Stella gain a sense of protection for her daughter and an awareness of rape and abuse she didn't have for herself
M: sense of protectiveness is interesting; literally as Blanche leaves this baby girls comes into her life, will continue her protection onto the child, shows the cycle of Stella's care
E; have a hard time thinking Stella alone can protect her daughter from Stanley; this book probably doesn't pass the Bechdel test; would be shocked if the point of the baby girl gave Stella a newfound way of life. Is W sexist or is he trying to prove a point?
the rape would add a newfound level of stress and fear to having a baby girl
Lynae: suggests that this might be a cycle, and the baby girl suggests this might happen again in the future
D: Stanley might want to have more dominance over both of them; he might continue with his violent behavior
R: Is W misogynist? from our distance, it's harder to really tell; some parts of him would be inherently misogynistic as a man in his time, but what he did with his primary female characters looked at what being a woman and femininity meant, and what that role in different situations required, and how women might adapt to their situations