Streetcar Named Desire INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAY

This is an introduction to the play, going over the key context points, to provide an overview before students begin to study the text: it covers Rose, Williams’s homosexuality, his promiscuity, the setting of New Orleans, the idea of the Old South and the Southern Belle, as well as looking at stage setting and set designs.

There are then detailed slides on how to analyse the opening of scene 1, as well as how to analyse characterisation and stage directions - taking the class up to scene 4.

From slides 68-86, I’ve included various notes that I made when teaching this play to my Edexcel cohort - they are conclusions and key ideas about characters/symbolism/relationships

I have included worksheets, which take pupils up to scene 4 of the play - these are designed for CIE English Literature, but would work just as well for A-Level (you’d just need to cut the CIE mark scheme and assessment pages).