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A Streetcar Named Desire (Additional Notes (Blanche's fear of death…
A Streetcar Named Desire
Scene One
Williams "gracefully accentuates the atmosphere of decay" at the start of the play. Although it's elegantly decaying, there is tangible vibrancy of new money.
"They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!"
ANALYSIS: Blanche was initially bright with magnetic beauty and youth, "a streetcar named Desire" but has aged considerably and is not as sexually appealing she once was in which she "transfer to one called Cemeteries". Ultimately, she ends up at "Elysian Fields" wherein Greek Mythology, heroes went to rest after death. The streetcar is a metaphorical journey of Blanche's life. The fact that this is mentioned at the beginning of the play echoes the poignant and tragic state of Blanche's sanity slowly dissipating.
"-you left! I stayed and struggled!"
ANALYSIS: There is a degree of resentment and jealousy within Blanche's tone. Perhaps she feels envy for her younger sister to be married and her sexual life as well as not having dealt with the aftermath of losing Belle Reve. Blanche has become insecure and seeks attention and companionship after losing her young husband.
Context
- Blanche is a literary vehicle to express the metaphorical death of the structured manner of old American life. She represents old America in terms of classical and polka music running throughout the play which accompanies a highly stylised dance. Blanche is the epitome of the chivalric tradition of sophisticated America. The juxtaposition of Blanche is Stanley who illustrates the new America in its form of modernism and industrialisation. Jazz is the opposite of classical music which is improvised, open and sexualised.
- ASND was performed in 1949 where the play was set in New Orleans. This was a place of tolerated integration of races.
- Blanche portrays the decaying values of old America's values whilst Stanley portrays the renewed values of new America. Williams is critical of the transition from old America to new America due to the corrupting and decadent nature they hold - it has not changed. Williams' depiction of both characters are described in harsh light; Stanley to have "animal force" whilst Blanche, according to Mitch, "is not clean enough." Despite them being repellent characters, I can infer that Williams feels sympathetic for Blanche due to her vulnerable disposition as she slowly falls into uncontrollable and inevitable madness. She is a tragic hero that evokes pathos to the audience.
- The play is a work of social realism. The antagonistic relationship between Blanche and Stanley is a struggle between appearance and reality.
Characters
Stanley Kowalski
- Over-sexualised with brutal strength and primal alpha behaviour in his blunt and straightforward dialogue, "Naw! We gotta have odds!"
- Obnoxious and ill-mannered and very lasvicious
- Stanley is a straightforward character in comparison to Blanche. He isn't very articulate but he is attractive in his sexual attributes. Stanley is a character that is both simultaneously appealing and repellent to the audience in that he is a vehicle that expresses modern and roaring America to have turned its back to traditional American values and traditions.
- According to Blanche, Stanley is a "different species" which dehumanises him and pictures him in a stark viewpoint; that Stanley and Blanche are vastly different.
- Stanley is irrational, abrupt (which he prides himself in) and doesn't follow any social conventions in human civilisations.
Blanche Dubois
- Blanche is immensely out of place, "her appearance is incongruous to this setting" which foreshadows she has no place in this society.
- Blanche is a well-educated woman from a well-mannered background and so she has been indoctrinated to feel entitled and condescending to those she feels are inferior to her.
- an outcast in that she no longer belongs to the world of New America.
- Blanche has an exterior of sophistication etiquette but she also has underlying sexual depravity about her. She is morally decaying.
- Her quiet determination to depend "on the kindness of strangers"
- Blanche and Stanley's dynamic is a metaphor for old money trying to stay relevant in a new money world.
- Both characters have a paradoxical quality of being simultaneously repellent and attractive.
- Ultimately, she is forced to anguish in her madness.
Techniques
- The symbolism of colour is significant. Stanley is associated with bright primary colours, "coloured comics" which contrasts against the "washed-out colours" that he is surrounded by in his flat. This displays Stanley being basic and simple in his attitudes and behaviour. This essentially strips away the illusions embedded in his past whereas Blanche tries to cover up her past; adamant that she cannot stay underneath the light, "Turn that over-light off! Turn that off!" (showing how she has something to hide as she wishes for it to stay in the dark) Stanley is violent and refuses to cover up his sexuality which contrasts to Blanche, "her shoulders slightly hunched and her legs pressed close together"
ANALYSIS: The interpretation of Blanche avoiding standing under the light demonstrates Blanche acknowledging her natural beauty fading and is determined to not be seen up close. She wishes to stay away from any scrutiny but her veneer cracks when it's revealed she is alcohol dependent, "she springs up...and removes a whiskey bottle." and her past with her young husband. Although Blanche is assured of her sexuality, she is also self-aware because she understands the limits of her sexuality.
- The blue piano and the varsouviana polka music are running motifs used throughout the progression of the play to symbol the regression of Blanche's sanity and overwhelming emotions of grief and guilt. The blue piano increases in volume when Blanche is in high emotion, especially during her moments with Stanley. It is concerned when her emotions of guilt, conflict or desire. It is said that the blue piano is an "approaching locomotive"
ANALYSIS: a "locomotive" is the engine of a train. I can infer from this that Blanche is an engine fueled from her self-delusion and illusions she has created in her mind. It can be implied that her madness will cause her destruction as it approaches her.
Additional Notes
- Blanche's fear of death manifests itself in her fears of ageing and loss of beauty. She's seen to have deluded herself that by continually asserting her sexuality, she will be able to avoid death and return to the state of tranquillity before the suicide of her husband.
- Williams suggests that Blanche's sexual history is in fact the cause of her downfall. The journey in the streetcar named Desire allegorically represents the trajectory of her life and at the end of the play, she is expulsed from society at large.
- Blanche represents the grandiose etiquette and chivalry that existed in old America. This destructive and corruptive new America she is not accustomed to and the reality of never belonging is a major cause of her insecurity and ultimately her sanity to profoundly escape her.
- Blanche lives in a deluded fantasy because she cannot face the world that Stanley represents. His sexual harassment and brutality of her is the final conquest and the complete breakdown of her sense of reasoning and nerve. - she has lost the voice of reason and her own victim of her illusions.
- Blanche is severely insecure in her appearance as it decays with age. - her sexual magnetism being the only valuable quality to a patriarchal society. Her beauty was her only power. Her beauty and youth represents the only aspect that made her life easier in a heavily dominated male society.
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