"A Streetcar Named Desire," Vocabulary from the play 70 words
play that is meant to be performed, it is also a wonderful book to read, and the presence of this poem underscores the fact that it includes more than stage directions. EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
1. desire
the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state NOTES: The title is a metaphor for the theme of the story. The streetcar is named Desire after the name of the (actual) street to which it goes. Incidentally, a "streetcar" is a rail vehicle that runs on tracks, used as public transportation. Nowadays, they are not as popular as they used to be, and not as many cities use them. EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And so it was I entered the broken world To trace the visionary company of love, its voice An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled) But not for long to hold each desperate choice.
3.
And so it was I entered the broken world To trace the visionary company of love, its voice An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled) But not for long to hold each desperate choice.
A Streetcar Named Desire
2.
visionary not practical or realizable; speculative NOTES: This quotation is from the opening poem. Even though this is a
hurl throw forcefully NOTES: Though first showing up in the opening poem, this word is used in the stage directions, and it usually depicts Stanley's actions. EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
4.
attenuate
weaken the consistency of (a chemical substance) EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
7.
The sky that shows around the dim white building is a peculiarly tender blue, almost a turquoise, which invests the scene with a kind of lyricism and gracefully attenuates the atmosphere of decay.
5.
infatuated marked by foolish or unreasoning fondness EXAMPLE SENTENCE: In this part of New Orleans you are practically always just around the corner, or a few doors down the street, from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers.
6.
There he throws back his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife's name: "Stella! Stella, sweetheart! Stella!�
8.
cosmopolitan composed of people from or at home in many parts of the world; especially not provincial in attitudes or interests EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The white woman is Eunice, who occupies the upstairs flat; the colored woman a neighbor, for New Orleans is a cosmopolitan city where there is a relatively warm and easy intermingling of races in the old part of town.
bellow shout loudly and without restraint NOTES: This is another routine reaction from Stanley used in the stage directions. EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
delicate exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury NOTES: This word, as used in the sample sentence, is using every sense of its meaning: exquisitely fine, subtle, and easily broken. EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light.
9.
stare look at with fixed eyes EXAMPLE SENTENCE: They stare at each other across the yellow-checked linoleum of the table.
10.
vivacity
characterized by high spirits and animation EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
professing feelings or virtues one does not have EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
She begins to speak, with feverish vivacity as if she feared for either of them to stop and think..
11.
spasmodic affected by involuntary jerky muscular contractions; resembling a spasm EXAMPLE SENTENCE: They catch each other in a spasmodic embrace.
12.
glare an angry stare NOTES: Compare with the vocabulary word, "stare." EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare!
13.
glance a quick look NOTES: Compare with the vocabulary word, "stare." EXAMPLE SENTENCE: She laughs, but her glance at Blanche is a little anxious.
14.
hypocritical
19.
Oh, I’m not going to be hypocritical, I’m going to be honestly critical about it!
15.
verge the limit beyond which something happens or changes EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
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background a person's social heritage: previous experience or training EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Such as his civilian background!
18.
radiant radiating or as if radiating light EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Stella looks up with a radiant smile.
burden an onerous or difficult concern EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I’m not meaning this in any reproachful way, but all the burden descended on my shoulders.
nip a small drink of liquor EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I am going to take just one little tiny nip more, sort of to put the stopper on, so to speak.
23.
Well, Stella—you’re going to reproach me, I know that you’re bound to reproach me—but before you do— take into consideration—you left!
I was on the verge of— lunacy, almost.
16.
reproach express criticism towards EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
21.
Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.
24.
dialogue the lines spoken by characters in drama or fiction EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
implicit implied though not directly expressed; inherent in the nature of something EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes.
gaudy tastelessly showy EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.
As the men enter, we hear some of the following dialogue.
22.
auxiliary functioning in a supporting capacity EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
25.
perpetual uninterrupted in time and indefinitely long continuing EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Stanley enters the kitchen from outside, leaving the door open on the perpetual “blue piano” around the corner.
26. quarter
perform an act, usually with a negative connotation EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
a district of a city having some distinguishing character NOTES: Note that in the sample sentence it is capitalized. It is in fact the very colorful French Quarter of New Orleans. EXAMPLE SENTENCE: So we’ll go to one of the little places in the Quarter afterwards and you’d better give me some money.
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30.
vice versa with the order reversed EXAMPLE SENTENCE: In the state of Louisiana we have the Napoleonic code according to which what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa.
28.
I don’t understand what happened to Belle Reve but you don’t know how ridiculous you are being when you suggest that my sister or I or anyone of our family could have perpetrated a swindle on anyone else.
31.
swindle deprive of by deceit EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
perpetrate
He crosses through drapes with a smoldering look.
33.
cordial politely warm and friendly NOTES: In the sample sentence, this word is used ironically in order to be sarcastic. EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I understand there’s to be a little card party to which we ladies are cordially not invited!
32.
smoldering showing scarcely suppressed anger
glamorous having an air of allure, romance and excitement EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I once went out with a doll who said to me, “I am the glamorous type, I am the glamorous type!”
34.
Look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in!
It looks to me like you have been swindled, baby, and when you’re swindled under the Napoleonic code I’m swindled too.
29.
preen dress or groom with elaborate care EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
hundreds of years, affecting Belle Reve as, piece by piece, our improvident grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers exchanged the land for their epic fornications—to put it plainly!
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
abscond run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along EXAMPLE SENTENCE: What’s in the back of that little boy’s mind of yours? That I am absconding with something, attempting some kind of treachery on my sister?
35.
antiquity extreme oldness EXAMPLE SENTENCE: These are love-letters, yellowing with antiquity, all from one boy.
36.
improvident not provident; not providing for the future EXAMPLE SENTENCE: There are thousands of papers, stretching back over
37.
lurid glaringly vivid and graphic; marked by sensationalism EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The kitchen now suggests that sort of lurid nocturnal brilliance, the raw colors of childhood's spectrum.
38. blues
a type of folksong that originated among Black Americans at the beginning of the 20th century; has a melancholy sound from repeated use of blue notes NOTES: The music that runs in the background of the story sets a a mood that is inseparable from the story. At times, it almost shows up to emphasize the emotions or the events that are happening. It is almost like the weather that comes and goes. The
music is often mingled with unintelligible voices that underscore this new environment that is hot, humid, and noisy to Blanche. EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The "blue piano” plays for a brief interval.
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coarse lacking refinement or cultivation or taste EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
lurch walk as if unable to control one's movements EXAMPLE SENTENCE: He lurches up and tosses some watermelon rinds to the floor.
41.
flinch draw back, as with fear or pain EXAMPLE SENTENCE: She returns his look without flinching.
I ran into Shep Hundeigh—I ran into him on Biscayne Boulevard, on Christmas Eve, about dusk... getting into his car—Cadillac convertible; must have been a block longl
Why, that’s from my favorite sonnet by Mrs. Browning.
The poker players—Stanley, Steve, Mitch and Pablo— wear colored shirts, solid blues, a purple, a red-andwhite check, a light green, and they are men at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colors.
40.
the time of day immediately following sunset EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
sonnet a verse form consisting of 14 lines with a fixed rhyme scheme EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
threshold the entrance (the space in a wall) through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The table is sloppy with remains of breakfast and the debris of the preceding night, and Stanley’s gaudy pyjamas lie across the threshold of the bathroom.
44.
47.
ajar slightly open EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The outside door is slightly ajar on a sky of summer brilliance.
45.
cultivate foster the growth of EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Is this a Chinese philosophy you’ve—cultivated?
46.
dusk
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effeminate having unsuitable feminine qualities EXAMPLE SENTENCE: There was something different about the boy, a nervousness, a softness and tenderness which wasn’t like a man’s, although he wasn’t the least bit effeminate looking—still —that thing was there.
53.
inanimate not endowed with life EXAMPLE SENTENCE: You must have had lots of banging around in the army and now that you’re out, you make up for it by treating inanimate objects with such a fury!
affectation a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Blanche speaks with an affectation of demureness.
wince draw back, as with fear or pain NOTES: Similar in meaning to "flinch." EXAMPLE SENTENCE: At each noise Blanche winces slightly.
prim affectedly dainty or refined EXAMPLE SENTENCE: What I mean is—he thinks I’m sort of—prim and proper, you know!
quaint strange in an interesting or pleasing way EXAMPLE SENTENCE: I’m compiling a notebook of quaint little words and phrases I’ve picked up here.
48.
50.
saccharine overly sweet EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Blanche is singing in the bathroom a saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapuntally with Stanley’s speech.
54.
outlook
a habitual or characteristic mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
with brilliants set in their heels.
58.
A hot bath and a long, cold drink always give me a brand new outlook on life!
55.
beau a man who is the lover of a girl or young woman EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
Now she is placing the rhinestone tiara on her head before the mirror of the dressing-table and murmuring excitedly as if to a group of spectral admirers.
59.
Is it because I’ve been stood up by my beau?
56.
obscure not clearly understood or expressed EXAMPLE SENTENCE: There is some obscure meaning in this but I fail to catch it
57.
telegram a message transmitted by telegraph NOTES: This was an older form of communication. EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
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slander an abusive attack on a person's character or good name EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
inert unable to move or resist motion EXAMPLE SENTENCE: He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed.
64.
destitute poor enough to need help from others EXAMPLE SENTENCE: How strange that I should be called a destitute woman!
incompatible not easy to combine harmoniously EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
silverbacked mirror in her hand and a look of sorrowful perplexity as though all human experience shows on her face.
66.
Our attitudes and our backgrounds are incompatible.
I received a telegram from an old admirer of mine.
soil make soiled, filthy, or dirty EXAMPLE SENTENCE: As the drinking and packing went on, a mood of hysterical exhilaration came into her and she has decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed silver slippers
spectral resembling or characteristic of a phantom EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
And to repeat slander to me, vicious stories that he had gotten from you!
gaze a long fixed look NOTES: Compare with the vocabulary word, "stare." EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
A Doctor and a Matron have appeared around the corner of the building and climbed the steps to the porch.
67.
perplexity trouble or confusion resulting from complexity EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Blanche stands quite still for some moments—the
gravity a manner that is serious and solemn EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The gravity of their profession is exaggerated— the unmistakable aura of the state institution with its cynical detachment.
68.
At the sound of Blanche’s voice Mitch’s arm supporting his cards has sagged and his gaze is dissolved into space.
65.
matron a woman in charge of nursing in a medical institution EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
sinuous curved or curving in and out EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes.
69.
divest take away possessions from someone EXAMPLE SENTENCE: Divested of all the softer properties of womanhood,
the Matron is a peculiarly sinister figure in her severe dress.
70.
muted in a softened tone EXAMPLE SENTENCE: The luxurious sobbing, the sensual murmur fade away under the swelling music of the “blue piano� and the muted trumpet.