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Madness :explode: Mental Illness Dorothy Li :girl::skin-tone-2:…
Madness :explode: Mental Illness Dorothy Li :girl::skin-tone-2:
Symbols :red_flag:
S6 (P103) [Polka music sounds...in a minor key...major key...fades out.]
Varsouviana Polka was playing when Blanche's husband committed suicide.
S6 (P102) "...you suddenly turned a blinding light..." Love is the hope of Blanche's world.
S3 (P44) "One that's been picked a few days."
Blanche views herself as old and is insecure about her age.
S7 (P107) "...it's only paper moon...believed in me!"
Blanche sings while showering and the song justifies her lies.
S10 (P138) [The shadows are of a grotesque...]
Blanche tells Stanley to stay away from her.
S3 (P54) "I can't stand a naked light bulb..."
Blanche is uncomfortable with being under light.
S3 (P48) [She moves out the yellow streak of light.] Blanche does not want to be exposed in the light.
S8 (P120) [The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing.]
Music plays in her mind when Stanley tells her she is leaving on a bus.
S1 (P24) [The music of the polka rises up, faint in the distance.] When Blanche's marital status is mentioned the first time.
S9 (P122) "The rapid, feverish polka tune..."
Blanche is hallucinating music before her intense encounter with Mitch.
S9 (P129) [The polka tune fades in...fades away.]
Music begins and ends when the Mexican women comes and goes.
S11 (P145) [The "Varsouviana" rises audibly...faintly plays...distantly...]
The music rises when Blanche is about to be sent to the asylum.
S11 (P151) [The "Varsouviana" is filtered into a weird distortion...] Blanche is resisting from being taken to the asylum.
S9 (P129) "...gaudy tin flowers...display at funerals..."
Mexican women who sells flowers appears outside of the house.
S9 (P129) "Flores? Flores para los muertos?"
Mexican women offers Blanche some flowers.
S4 (P74) "...poetry and music...new light have come..." Blanche regards art as a sign of advance civilisation.
S5 (P82) "...paper lantern over the light..."
Blanche claims self-insufficient people should be soft.
S6 (P92) "Let's leave the lights off."
Blanche doesn't want Mitch to see her appearance clearly.
S11 (P152) [She cries out as if the lantern was herself.] Stanley tears off the paper lantern and Blanche is in pain.
S10 (P139) [The shadows...move sinuously as flames...] Blanche calls with the phone and is haunted by illusions.
S11 (P153) [The lurid reflections fade from the walls...] The doctor calms her down and the shadows fade.
Tone :sound:
S5 (P83) [Blanche gives a piercing cry.]
Blanche cannot control her extreme actions and emotions.
S2 (P38) "Now that you've touched them I'll burn them!" Balance is extremely emotional about the old poems.
S6 (P100) "...that man is my executioner! That man will destroy me..."
Blanche is frightened by Stanley's violence and rough masculinity.
S7 (P108) "...she has been washed up like poison"
Stanley describes that no one wants to approach Blanche.
S1 (P19) "I, I, I took the blows in my face and my body!" The deaths around Blanche have greatly traumatized her.
S3 (P62) "There's so much--so much confusion in the world." Blanche seems lost and hesitant after witnessing violence.
S4 (P63) [...beside Stella in a rush of hysterical tenderness.] Blanche is caring and loving but in a slightly crazy manner.
S8 (P120) "She clutches her throat and then runs into the bathroom." Blanche's physical condition declines rapidly after hearing bad news.
S9 (P128) "...from one to another, hunting for some protection..."
Blanche's past events has left her in panic and insecurity.
S10 (P139) "...desperate circumstances! Help me! Caught in a trap..." Blanche is in fear and calls for help although no one is on the other end.
S11 (P151) [...re-echoed by other mysterious voices behind the walls...]
Blanche hallucinates echoes while trying to avoid leaving with the doctor.
Things Left Uncertain :question:
S1: What exactly happened to Blanche's husband and how did his event traumatise her?
S2: What is the reason behind Blanche's ridiculous act of flirting with her sister's husband?
S3: Would Mitch become a cure to Blanche's madness or another key figure contributing to her descent?
S4: Is Blanche's fibbing a result of her madness and a contributor to her escape from reality?
S6: Is Blanche's attraction to young boys a result of her madness after her husband's death?
S7: Is Blanche's constant bathing her cure to her madness or a way to wash away her sins?
S5: Does Shep Huntleigh actually exist and what is his true relationship with Blanche?
S8: Is Blanche's insecurity about her age a result of traumatic past events or it is just part of her identity?
S9: What is Mitch's relation with the rise and fall of the polka tune going on in Blanche's head?
S10: Should Stanley's rape of Blanche be seen as the ultimate contributor to Blanche's loss of sanity?
S11: Is Blanche finally considered to be truly insane the moment she walked out with the doctor willingly?
Setting :deciduous_tree:
S6 (P103) "...the searchlight which had been turned on...turned off..."
The light of her life has left her after her husband's suicide.
S5 (P86) [There is a glimmer of lightning about the building.]
Ominous natural sign hints Blanche's madness and descent.
S6 (P103) [The headlight of the locomotive glares...thunders past...]
The car brings out Blanche's fear and foreshadows the story of her past.
S8 (P114) [...pierced by pinpoints of lighted windows...] Blanche's fibbing will soon be uncovered painfully.
S9 (P131) [...pale blue square of the soft summer light]
Desaturated colour brings out Blanche's melancholy after Mitch's rejection.
Characters :silhouettes:
S7 (P108) "Regarded as not just different but downright loco--nuts." Stanley calls Blanche with a derogatory name that shows his distaste.
S5 (P88) "...you look like a young Prince out of Arabian Nights!" Blanche falls into her altered perception of reality.
S7 (P108) "A seventeen-year-old boy--she'd gotten mixed up with!"
Blanche has been in an unsuitable affair with a young school boy.
S7 (P108) "...told by the mayor to get out of town!" Blanche scandalous actions have led to her exile.
S1 (P14) "I can't be alone! I'm--not very well..." Blanche feels ill and wants to stay with Stella.
S2 (P40) "Yes--I was flirting with your husband, Stella!" Blanche tells Stella that she explained about Belle Reve.
S1 (P11) "I was on the verge of--lunacy, almost!" Blanche is on a leave from teaching at school.
S2 (P25) "I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours..."
Blanche's taste in colors is extreme.
S1 (P8) "What am I saying? I didn't mean to say that." Blanche's fast-paced contradictory talking.
S1 (P19) "Funerals are pretty compared to deaths." Suggests that Blanche's madness originates from deaths.
S6 (P93) "...pretend that we are sitting in a little artists' cafe..."
Blanche has fantasies of being rich and fancy despite her poor conditions.
S6 P(91) "...a girl alone in the world...firm hold of her emotions"
Blanche wants to keep hold of her emotions although she is unable to.
S6 P(91) "All in a bunch going home from their little bridge party"
Blanche descends into her world of fantasy when she looks to the sky.
S6 (P89) "...which only a neurasthenic personality"
Brings out Blanche's mental problem of being emotionally disturbed.
S5 (P88) "I want to kiss you, just once, softly and sweetly..."
Blanche can't control herself for seeking young boys and new love.
S5 (P83) [clutches Stella's free hand..presses the hand to her lips.]
Blanche's oddly intimate and peculiar interaction with Stella.
S5 (P84) "I don't know why I screamed!" Blanche does not understand her own actions.
S5 (P86) "Her eyes fall shut...the palm leaf fan drops from her fingers" Blanche seems tired and not physically well.
S5 (P85) "I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again!"
Blanche wants Mitch to save herself from her insanity.
S5 (P77) [brightly] "Did he kill her?"
Blanche inhuman reaction towards Eunice's fight with her husband.
S4 (P74) "...some creature snatches at something--the fight is on!"
Blanche describes Stanley and his friends as uncultured brutes.
S4 (P71) "Money just goes--it goes places."
Blanche is hiding the truth of her financial loss from Stella.
S3 (P52) "Sick people have such deep, sincere attachments."
Blanche talks about Mitch's mother but relates to herself.
S3 (P53) "Two is the limit--and three!"
Blanche lies about her alcoholism and claims to barely drink.
S3 (P45) "My nerves are in knots." Sign of blanche not feeling well.
S7 (P108) [...little breathless cries...frolicking in the tub.]
Blanche childish actions contrasts with the serious conversation outisde.
S7 (P113) [...brushing her hair vigorously.]
Blanche rough behaviour towards herself reveals her unstable mentality.
S7 (P113) [...gay peal of laughter...look of panic...]
The quick contrast between Blanche's emotions demonstrates her madness.
S7 (P110) "This beautiful and talented young man was a degenerate."
Blanche madness is likely linked to her ex-husband.
S8 (P115) [She throws back her head and laughs.]
She entertains herself with her own jokes in front of others.
S8 (P120) [Coughing, gagging sounds are heard.]
Blanche is unable to take the news and becomes physically unwell.
S8 (P120) "But people like you abused her, and forced her to change."
It is apparent that Blanche's madness is caused by the others around her.
S9 (P122) "...she is drinking to escape....the sense of disaster closing in on her..."
Drinking is Blanche's attempt of avoiding her problems.
S9 (P129) "Crumble and fade and--regrets--recriminations..."
Blanche thinks back to how she caused her husband's suicide.
S9 (P124) "I can't hear what you're saying..."
Blanche chooses to ignore the real fact that Mitch has just rejected her.
S9 (P128) "My youth was suddenly gone up the water-spout..."
Blanche worries about losing her youth and losing her ability to find love.
S9 (P127) "I don't want realism. I want magic!"
Blanche wants to live in her fantasies and escape from the real world.
S9 (P128) "...a cleft in the rock of the world that I could hide in!"
Blanche views Mitch as her saviour from eternally loneliness in the world.
S9 (P129) "Never inside, I didn't lie in my heart...."
Blanche strong urge to escape has led her to believe that her stories are true.
S10 (P131) "...a mood of hysterical exhilaration came into her..."
Blanche is in a mentally unstable state.
S1 (P25) "I'm afraid I'm-going to be sick!"
Blanche is unable to face her husband's death.
S9 (P131) [Her throat is tightening with hysteria.]
Blanche spirals further into madness as she has lost another love.
S10 (P132) "Oh, that's right. You left before my wire came."
Blanche continues to lie to others and herself while living in her fantasy.
S10 (P136) [Improvising feverishly.]
Blanche clings on to her lies as her imaginations motivate her to live.
S10 (P136) "But beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit..."
Blanche tries disregard her aging and believe that men still love her.
S10 (P137) "He returned with a box of roses to beg my forgiveness!"
Blanche lives in the idea that she is attractive and all men long for her.
S10 (P138) "There isn't a goddam thing but imagination!"
Stanley exposes Blanche's lies and tries to pull her back into reality.
S11 (P145) "Didn't I get a call?"
Blanche still lives in the fantasy that she's connected to a wealthy man.
S11 (P148) "I shall die...unwashed grape...nice-looking ship's doctor..."
Blanche romanticizes her death and spirals into her fantasy.
S11 (P153) "Blanche turns wildly and scratches at the Matron."
Blanche breaks out from her fantasy and resists from being taken away.
S11 (P153) "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
Blanche vulnerably falls back into her delusions and leaves with the doctor.
S11 (P144) [with faintly hysterical vivacity]
Blanche continues to retain a tint of madness in her actions.