The document provides context and analysis of three plays: A Doll's House, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Death of a Salesman. It includes summaries of key plot points, characters, themes, and symbols from each play. Discussion questions analyze important quotes, motifs, settings, and how they relate to the plays' exploration of individuals and relationships. The document appears to be study materials and discussion prompts for a literature or drama class focusing on these three plays.

1. Paper 2 Olympics
A Streetcar Death of a
A Doll’s House
Named Desire Salesman
Drama Terms Paper 2
Teams Teams Teams
Period 1 Period 3 Period 4

2. A Doll’s House
1 2 3
4 5 6

3. 1
A Doll’s House
What is the setting of play? In your answer, you
must state 1) the decade the play was published 2)
the era 3) the place of publication 4) the main
setting of the action in the play (be specific).
1) 1870s...1879 exactly
2) Victorian era
3) Norway
4) the living room

4. This era was
especially strict in many 1
respects. Talk of sex and even babies
A Doll’s House
was distasteful. Gender roles were confining.
Women were expected to be submissive to their
husbands; husbands were expected to dominate.
Women raised the children; men brought home the
bacon. So it went. Anyone who challenged these deeply
What is the setting of play? In your answer, you
entrenched values faced some serious consequences.
must state 1) the decade the play was published 2)
This charged atmosphere of gender division was the
reason that the play became such a phenomenon.
the era 3) the place of publication 4) the main
There's a good chance that, without the controversy,
we'd have never even heard of A Doll's House.
setting of the action in the play (be specific).
Needless to say, the pressure of strict
Victorian values is the spark that ignites
the play's central conflicts.
1) 1870s...1879 exactly
2) Victorian era
3) Norway
4) the living room

5. 2
A Doll’s House
List all of the characters in the play and give each
one a significant epithet.
Torvald Helmer - condescending, superficial
Nora Helmer - naive, childlike
Doctor Rank - stoic, truthful
Mrs. Linde - practical
Nils Krogstad - conniving

6. 3
A Doll’s House
List three significant themes from the play and
provide evidence.
1) Subjugation of women
2) Appearance versus Reality
3) Freedom
4) Specious love

7. 4
A Doll’s House
Who said these lines and why are they significant?
“Last winter I was lucky enough to get a lot of copying to do; so I locked myself up and sat writing
every evening until quite late at night. Many a time I was desperately tired; but all the same it was
a tremendous pleasure to sit there working and earning money. It was like being a man.”
Nora. First taste of freedom and independence. An
impetus for future revelations.

8. 5
A Doll’s House
Nora: Both you and I would have to be so changed that--. Oh, Torvald,
I don't believe any longer in wonderful things happening.
Helmer: But I will believe in it. Tell me! So changed that--?
Nora: That our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye.
(She goes out through the hall.)
Analyze the
Helmer: (sinks down on a chair at the door and buries his face in
ending
his hands). Nora! Nora! (Looks round, and rises.) Empty. She is gone. (A hope
flashes across his mind.) The most wonderful thing of all--?
(The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.)
?????????

9. 6
A Doll’s House
Compare and contrast Mrs. Linde and Nora at the
beginning of the play and at the end. What is Ibsen’s
purpose in doing this?
Nora - dependent then independent (chooses)
Mrs. Linde - independent then dependent (but chooses)
Discover your own truth.

10. A Streetcar Named Desire
1 2 3
4 5 6

11. A Streetcar 1
Named Desire
What is the purpose of the Varsouviana music
throughout the play?
- Memory of Allen Grey (dead husband)
- Sets atmosphere of remorse
- Distracts Blanche from reality
- Represents the beginning of Blanche’s downfall

12. A Streetcar 2
Named Desire
What is the setting of play? In your answer, you must
state 1) the year the play was published 2) where the play
takes place and how that impacts the atmosphere 3) the
main setting of the action in the play (be specific) 4) where
Blanche lived before.
1) 1947 2) French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana -
impoverished neighborhood contrasts the pseudo-affluence of
Blanche creating an atmosphere of conflict and disgust 3) the
Kowalski’s two-room flat 4) Belle Reve in Laurel, Mississippi

13. A Streetcar 2
Named Desire
From another perspective, A Streetcar Named Desire
can be seen as a thriving, exuberant atmosphere, one that
nurtures an open-minded sense of community. In the play's beginning, two
minor female characters are chatting. One woman is black, the other white. The
What is the setting of play? In your answer, you must
ease at which they communicate demonstrates the casual acceptance of diversity of
state 1) the year the play was published 2) where the play
the French Quarter. In the low-income world of Stella and Stanley Kowalski, racial
segregation appears non-existent, a sharp contrast to the elitist realms of the old South
takes place and how that impacts the atmosphere 3) the
(and Blanche Dubois' childhood). As sympathetic as Blanche may appear, she often says
intolerant remarks about class, sexuality (in the case of her homosexual husband who
main setting of the action in the play (be specific) 4) where
was devastated by her negative comments), and ethnicity. In fact, in a rare
moment of political-correctness, Stanley insists that Blanche refer to him as
Blanche lived before.
an American (or at least Polish-American) rather than use the
derogatory term: "Polack."
1) 1947 2) French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana -
impoverished neighborhood contrasts the pseudo-affluence of
Blanche creating an atmosphere of conflict and disgust 3) the
Kowalski’s two-room flat 4) Belle Reve in Laurel, Mississippi

14. A Streetcar 3
Named Desire
Come up with three important motifs from the play and
analyze their importance. (You may not use the
Varsouviana music.)
Light
Bathing
Playing cards
Drunkenness

15. A Streetcar 4
Named Desire
What is Tennessee Williams’ purpose in having
Stanley rape Blanche?
- Desire leads to her demise
- The “new South” is stronger and more dominant than
the “old South”
- Characterize Stanley’s bestiality

16. A Streetcar 5
Named Desire
Analyze the symbolic importance of Blanche taking a streetcar
named Desire, then transferring to one called Cemeteries, then
arriving at a street called Elysian Fields, where Stanley and Stella
live. Also, what is ironic about the allusion to Elysian Fields.
Blanche’s desire leads to her death, and the irony is that her life
was lived in vane, void of any true importance or relevance.
Elysian Fields is also the realm (paradise) where Greek Heroes
went after they died. There are no heroes in the play.

17. A Streetcar 6
Named Desire
Blanche sings the song “It’s Only a Paper Moon”
while she is bathing. What is symbolic about this
ballad?
In Scene Seven, Blanche sings this popular ballad while she bathes. The song’s lyrics
describe the way love turns the world into a “phony” fantasy. The speaker in the song says
that if both lovers believe in their imagined reality, then it’s no longer “make-believe.”
These lyrics sum up Blanche’s approach to life. She believes that her fibbing is only her
means of enjoying a better way of life and is therefore essentially harmless.
As Blanche sits in the tub singing “It’s Only a Paper Moon,” Stanley tells Stella the details
of Blanche’s sexually corrupt past. Williams juxtaposes Blanche’s fantastical
understanding of herself with Stanley’s description of Blanche’s real nature. In reality,
Blanche is a sham who feigns propriety and sexual modesty. Once Mitch learns the truth
about Blanche, he can no longer believe in Blanche’s tricks and lies.

18. Death of a Salesman
1 2 3
4 5 6

19. 1
Death of a Salesman
Provide two valid reasons why Arthur Miller wrote
Death of a Salesman and provide evidence from the
play.
Critique the American Dream
Father/son relationships
Treatment of women
Personal identity

20. 2
Death of a Salesman
There are several foil characters in the play. List
two and explain each of their roles.
Charlie
Bernard
Howard

21. 3
Death of a Salesman
“I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!”
1) Who speaks these lines? 2) When are they said and to
whom? 3) Why are they so significant in the play?
1) Biff 2) At the end of the play in the house to Willy 3)
Biff has come to terms with the fact that he is a simple
man and he embraces this reality. Will never does and
never will.

22. 4
Death of a Salesman
What are the FIVE most important motifs in the
play, and what is each motif’s purpose?
Flute
Rubber hose
Stealing & “The Answer”
Reputation
Stockings
Ben’s Appearances (Diamonds)
Insurance money ($20,000)
Seeds and the garden
Sky (setting of being boxed in)
Whistling

23. 5
Death of a Salesman
What are the two most important themes in the
play, and explain how they are conveyed.

24. 6
Death of a Salesman
What is Ebbets Field and how does it connect to
Willy or Biff or both?
It’s the stadium where Biff goes to play his football game. It is
actually a baseball field; Biff is pursuing the wrong dream along
with Willy.

25. Drama Terms
1 2 3
4 5 6

26. 1
Drama Terms
What is the definition of a tragedy in drama? Be
specific and give examples of two plays that are
tragedies.
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for
the worse. In tragedy, catastrophe and suffering await many of the characters, especially
the hero. Examples include Shakespeare's “Othello” and “Hamlet”; Arthur Miller's
“Death of a Salesman.”

27. 2
Drama Terms
What are the similarities and differences between
an aside and a soliloquy?
Both meant to be heard by the audience and not the
characters. An aside is directed to the audience.

28. 3
Drama Terms
What is stream of consciousness and why would an
author choose to use it?
A technique or method in modern literary work which attempts to
convey a character’s rambling thoughts.

29. 4
Drama Terms
What is exposition?
The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary
background information is provided. Ibsen's A Doll's House, for instance,
begins with a conversation between the two central characters, a dialogue
that fills the audience in on events that occurred before the action of the
play begins, but which are important in the development of its plot.

30. 5
Drama Terms
What is pathos when it comes to drama, and provide a
moment in each play where pathos is used by the playwright.
Evoking pity from the audience.

31. 6
Drama Terms
What is a recognition? Using two plays, explain
when these happen and how.
Biff
Nora

32. Paper 2
1 2 3
4 5 6

33. 1
Paper 2
“Drama at its best investigates the problems that beset ordinary
individuals.” In light of this statement consider the ways in which
two or three dramatists you have studied explore the problems
that affects individuals.

34. 2
Paper 2
Setting can often reflect the underlying ideas in a play. In
the light of this statement consider the importance and
use of setting in two or three plays you have studied.

35. 3
Paper 2
“Drama explains individuals, not relationships.” Paying close
attention to how individuals and relationships are presented
in two or three plays you have studied, say how far you find
this statement to be true.

36. 4
Paper 2
Compare the presentation and functions of the
openings in two or three plays you have studied.

37. 5
Paper 2
With reference to two or three plays you have
studied, examine the dramatic significance of
failures in communication.

38. 6
Paper 2
Consider the ways in which scene changes may highlight
the development of the characters and their relationships
in two or three plays you have studied.