Compare the significance of female protagonists in two of the texts that you have studied. One drama and one prose text.

Drama text: A Streetcar Named Desire Prose text: Mrs Dalloway In preparing to answer any question in an exam you must define your terms; in this case it would be outlining which of the female protagonists you would be examining and the key similarities and differences between the two. An opening sentence could go as follows: Blanche and Clarissa Dalloway are two female protagonists attempting to come to terms with a society in the process of change; Blanche, ostracised by patriarchal dominance, is forced to regress into madness while Woolf shows Clarissa facing a society where male-defined norms are slowly crumbling. The first sentence is crucial - in it you should show that you have understood the question and immediately bring in the element of comparison. Very sophisticated and highly marked answers weave the two texts together: looking at them together rather than individually. Following points after this introduction could include: association between femininity and illness: Blanche is prone to moments of psychosis whilst Clarissa is recovering from the Spanish Flu. The former is an archetypal example of the link between women and hysteria and the latter a new epidemic that swept through Europe in the wake of the war. One protagonist is shown as conforming to the stereotype while another is scarred, yet a part of, a new society tainted by the war. what is the change that the characters are facing? A Streetcar Named Desire dramatises the power shift in America that saw the antiquated wealth of the South, founded by slavery, move into the North. Industrialisation symbolised through Stanley is the challenge that Blanche faces: she is a southern belle the antithesis of everything that Stanley represents. Mrs Dalloway, on the other hand, examines the irrevocable change caused by World War One. Woolf highlights this in Clarissa's shared kinship with Septimus, particularly towards the end of the novel, and through the declining respectability of men. Septimus's mental condition is never properly diagnosed, he is left bereft of comfort in a society that is continuing to live by pre-war norms. Woolf uses Clarissa as a vessel to highlight the need to reassess our relationships to each other in a society that is beginning to reject overt patriarchal rule. contrast the female protagonists to their antithesis and examine the effect of this. Stanley and Richard Dalloway are the antithesis of the female protagonists. Stanley symbolises the rise of the working classes and an increasingly labour-orientated, male orientated society; Richard meanwhile is represents the crumbling ruins of the British Empire. The latter's power is waning while A Streetcar Named Desire demonstrates the inexorable control and power of masculinity against a wavering, quaint embodiment of femininity figured through Blanche.