A2 COURSEWORK ESSAY PROPOSAL PRESENATION

Chosen texts for study

TEXT 1: (Core text)

A Streetcar Named Desire

Play by Tennesse Williams

Chosen texts for study

TEXT 2:

Lolita

Novel by Vladimir Nabokov

Chosen texts for study

TEXT 2:

Miss Julie

Play by August Strindberg

Desire

Destruction THEMES

Morality

Essay title

Using your knowledge of the contexts in which these texts were written and the reactions of

readers over time, compare the ways in which Tennessee Williams in ‘A Streetcar Named

Desire’, August Strindberg in ‘Miss Julie’ and Vladimir Nabokov in ‘Lolita’ present

transgressive behaviour of characters leading to their downfall.

Accessing

the

AO’s

Essay points Point 1: Fate is ultimately at blame for the downfall of characters as it is fate that fuels their desires..

Point 2: Women are treated as the main instigators or culprits of transgressive behaviour.

Point 3: Transgressive behaviour in the eyes of the main characters, leading to their blindness and subsequent collapse.

Point 4: Desire is the route cause of transgressive behaviour. Point 5: Transgressive behaviour of women is deemed far more serious than

that of men.

Point 6: The downfall of characters, is not only due to their transgressive behaviour but the influence of social laws on them.

Examples of

essay points plans

Essay points Point 1 AO1   AO2   AO3   AO4  A  Streetcar  Named  Desire  

Tennessee  Williams  

Fate is ultimately at blame for the d o w n f a l l o f characters as it is fate that fuels their desires..

“They  told  me  to  take  a  street-­‐car  named  Desire,  and  transfer  to  one  called  Cemeteries,  and  ride  six  blocks  and  get  off  at—Elysian  Fields!”  Blanche  to  the  negro  woman  Scene  1  

the  play  shows  us  two  people  who  move  inexorably  forward  to  their  respecFve  fates  through  acFons  they  take  under  the  influence  of  a  sequence  of  circumstances  at  once  random  and  of  their  mutual  making.  Directors  notes,  Miss  Julie  

A  woman’s  role  was  not  down  to  fate  but  social  construct.    

Lolita  Vladimir  Nabokov  

Fate is ultimately at blame for the d o w n f a l l o f characters as it is fate that fuels their desires..

“As  for  me,  although  I  had  long  become  used  to  a  kind  of  secondary  fate  (McFate's  inept  secretary,  so  to  speak)  peRly  interfering  with  the  boss's  magnificent  plan.”    

the  play  shows  us  two  people  who  move  inexorably  forward  to  their  respecFve  fates  through  acFons  they  take  under  the  influence  of  a  sequence  of  circumstances  at  once  random  and  of  their  mutual  making.  -­‐  Directors  notes,  Miss  Julie  

Miss  Julie  August  

Strindberg  

Fate is ultimately at blame for the d o w n f a l l o f characters as it is fate that fuels their desires..

“I  curse  the  moment  I  was  concieved  in  my  mother’s  womb!”  Miss  Julie  to  Jean  

the  play  shows  us  two  people  who  move  inexorably  forward  to  their  respecFve  fates  through  acFons  they  take  under  the  influence  of  a  sequence  of  circumstances  at  once  random  and  of  their  mutual  making.  –  Directors  notes,  Miss  Julie  

A  woman’s  role  was  not  down  to  fate  but  social  construct.  

Essay points Point 2 AO1   AO2   AO3   AO4  A  Streetcar  Named  Desire  

Tennessee  Williams  

Women are treated as the main instigators or culprits of transgressive behaviour.

‘Yep,  it  was  pracFcally  a  town  ordinance  passed  against  her!’  Stanley  to  Stella  Scene  VII  

 ‘She  [women]  could  take  him  without  giving  herself  into  his  

power.  Rather  she  could  use  this  sex  thing  to  have  

power  over  him.’  Lady  Cha]erlys  Lover  D.H.  Lawrence      

 

 “Hysteria  was  historically  considered  a  

female  disease,  and  in  the  late-­‐nineteenth  century  was  defined  as  an  

illness  brought  on  when  a  woman  

failed  or  refused  to  accept  her  sexual  desires  and  did  not  become  a  sexual  

object”  

Lolita  Vladimir  Nabokov  

Women are treated as the main instigators or culprits of transgressive behaviour.

‘I  would  shed  all  my  masculine  pride—and  literally  crawl  on  my  knees  to  your  chair,  my  Lolita!’  

Miss  Julie  August  

Strindberg  

Women are treated as the main instigators or culprits of transgressive behaviour.

‘And  when  I’d  seen  you  returned  home,  I  was  determined  to  die.’  Jean  to  Miss  Julie  Ballet  

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