1. Mastering the art of Critical Essay Writing
January 2015

2. Learning Intentions We will be reviewing the following-
Extracting key information from ‘Drama section’ questions.
To consider key quotations.
To expand upon our analysis.
To constantly relate back to the essay question.

3. Noteworthy techniques

5. This is an ideal question for dealing with Tennessee William’s characterisation of Blanche Du Bois.
Blanche’s Instabilities-
Drinking,
Flirting yet claiming to be virginal,
Lying,
Consuming nervous energy…
Reasons for her behaviour-
The loss of her young husband.
Guilt surrounding his death.
Feeling surrounded by death at Laurel.
Need to stay young and desirable.

6. PEAR 1
Primarily, Blanch DuBois’s instability emerges in the early scenes of the play when she drinks nervously and in secret.
Stanley:.. [He holds the bottle to the light to observe its depletion] Have a shot?
Blanche: No, I – rarely touch it.
Although this initial behaviour from the character of Blanche is not too shocking or erratic, it is our earliest indication that she is an unstable character. We acknowledge her character’s capability for deciet as she blatantly lies about her drinking habits to Stanley. Despite claiming to rarely drink, she has already managed to locate the bottle and have several shots before Stanly even appeared. At this stage in the play we condemn Blanche for her irritation lies and instable behaviour, however, as the play emerges we understand that she drinks in order to block out the pain caused by the death of her young husband. It becomes clear that the horrors in Blanche’s past are so extreme that she has to block them out by using alcohol.
This, in turn, helips us to fully appreciate the main theme of illusion versus reality ad Blanche is an unstable character who used alcohol ito block out reality so that she is able to function in a world where she has know severe pain.

7. Task Select 4 other times when Blanche acted unstable.
Find a quotation that corresponds with each of these occasions. (use pack on blog)

8. Further Instabilities
Blanche acts as though she is prim and easily offended, yet she undresses when she is aware that she is in full view of Stanley and his friends.

9. Instabilities
Blanche completely overreacts by screaming and acting pained when her sister spills some cola on her skirt.