ISL: Grade 10.
December Exam / 2010 English Literature
LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 2010/22
GRADE 10
Paper 2. Drama
45 Minutes
You must answer on the enclosed answer booklet.
You will need: Answer booklet (enclosed)
________________________________________________________________________________
INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer one question in total
● Follow the instructions on the front cover of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer
paper, ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.
_________________________________________________________________________________
INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 25.
● All questions are worth equal marks.
1
#Rana R. Sherwani
ISL: Grade 10. December Exam / 2010 English Literature
SECTION A: Drama
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: A Streetcar Named Desire
Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing.
Either 1 (a)Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it:
STELLA: Haven't you ever ridden on that streetcar?
BLANCHE: It brought me here.--Where I'm not wanted and where I'm ashamed to be....
STELLA: Then don't you think your superior attitude is a bit out of place?
BLANCHE: I am not being or feeling at all superior, Stella. Believe me I'm not! It's just this. This is
how I look at it. A man like that is someone to go out with--once--twice--three times when the devil is
in you. But live with? Have a child by?
STELLA: I have told you I love him.
BLANCHE: Then I tremble for you! I just--tremble for you....
STELLA: I can't help your trembling if you insist on trembling!
[There is a pause.]
BLANCHE: May I--speak--plainly?
STELLA: Yes, do. Go ahead. As plainly as you want to.
[Outside, a train approaches. They are silent till the noise subsides. They are both in the bedroom.
[Under cover of the train's noise Stanley enters from outside. He stands unseen by the women,
holding some packages in his arms, and overhears their following conversation. He wears an
undershirt and grease-stained seersucker pants.]
BLANCHE: Well--if you'll forgive me--he's common!
STELLA: Why, yes, I suppose he is.
BLANCHE: Suppose! You can't have forgotten that much of our bringing up, Stella, that you just
suppose that any part of a gentleman's in his nature! Not one particle, no! Oh, if he was just--ordinary!
Just plain--but good and wholesome, but--no. There's something downright--bestial--about him!
You're hating me saying this, aren't you?
STELLA [coldly]: Go on and say it all, Blanche.
BLANCHE: He acts like an animal, has an animal's habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like
one! There's even something--sub-human--something not quite to the stage of humanity yet! Yes,
something--ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I've seen in--anthropological studies!
Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is--Stanley Kowalski--
survivor of the stone age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle! And you--you here--
waiting for him! Maybe he'll strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you! That is, if kisses have been
discovered yet! Night falls and the other apes gather! There in the front of the cave, all grunting like
him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night!--you call it--this party of apes! Somebody
growls--some creature snatches at something--the fight is on! God! Maybe we are a long way from
being made in God's image, but Stella--my sister--there has been some progress since then! Such
things as art--as poetry and music--such kinds of new light have come into the world since then! In
some kinds of people some tenderer feelings have had some
little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our flag! In this dark march
toward whatever it is we're approaching.... Don't--don't hang back with the brutes!
[Another train passes outside. Stanley hesitates, licking his lips. Then suddenly he turns stealthily
about and withdraws through front door. The women are still unaware of his presence. When the train
has passed he calls through the closed front door.]
STANLEY: Hey! Hey, Stella!
STELLA [who has listened gravely to Blanche]: Stanley!
BLANCHE: Stell, I
[But Stella has gone to the front door. Stanley enters casually with his packages.]
STANLEY: Hiyuh, Stella. Blanche back?
STELLA: Yes, she's back.
2
#Rana R. Sherwani
ISL: Grade 10. December Exam / 2010 English Literature
STANLEY: Hiyuh, Blanche.
[He grins at her.]
STELLA: You must've got under the car.
STANLEY: Them dam mechanics at Fritz's don't know their ass fr'm--Hey!
[Stella has embraced him--with both arms, fiercely, and full in the view of Blanche. He laughs and
clasps her head to him. Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.]
[As the lights fade away, with a lingering brightness on their embrace, the music of the "blue piano"
and trumpet and drums is heard.]
Scene 4
Q. How does Blanche's portrayal of Stanley create tension in the play?
Or 1 (b) Explore two moments in the Street Car Named Desire which Tennessee Williams makes
particularly dramatic for you?
3
#Rana R. Sherwani
