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blanche - Coggle Diagram
blanche
themes
light
"turn that off" "merciless glare" Blanche's avoidance of light as a way to avoid the truth and exist in an illusive state - particularly aims to mask her transgressive sexuality - later on the destruction of the light symbolises the destruction of her facade and the exposure of her 'impure past'
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femininity
“have got to be seductive” - her desire is moreso a need - women only able to flourish with the help of a man
"daintily dressed" "in a white suite and a fluffy white bodice" - white symbol for purity
desire / sexuality
"red satin robe" connotations of promiscuity, desire, passion and even violence (foreshadowing the r scene? )
illusion v reality
"carefully replaces the bottle" attempts to maintain the illusion of mental stability , forcing her to disguise her alcoholism
class
" pig" "swine" - while these animalistic references are littered with racial prejudice, from a marxist lens Blanche represents the everlasting bourgeois dominance - even as a character with little capital (no income, marital status or reputation) her social class alone allows her to diminish WC characters as well as the illusion of social mobility as hard-working stanley is still subservient to Blanche in many ways through barriers e.g. cultural capital
"never in" her "worst dreams" could she picture a place like this (new orleans) this disdain towards a meritocratic, multicultural area sets up the class-related tensions which build up during the play
tragedy
"i stayed and fought"/ to some extent blanche is a victim who has battled with loss alone
her mental state leads her to a tragic exclusion from society
she is punished for trangressing the social expectations for women - feeding into her own sexual desires and attempting to reintegrate into society without punishment
race
"in bed with your Polack" "pig" "swine" - attempt to dehumanise and bring to light racial differences
her entitlement is exemplified from the very beginning of the play, where she assumes that a black woman will go fetch Stella on her behalf highlights the culture of racial inequality even in 'multcultural' new orleans
symbols & stagecraft
bathing and water
"llanche is bathing' symbol for her desire to be cleansed - emotionally, mentally etc.
the 'polka'
"the music of the polka rises up, faint in the distance" scene1 - This music symbolises her trauma , this repeats and intensifies as the play develops symbolising her mental fragmentation
costume
"costume jewelley" symbolises her extensive self-fashioning and the lengths she goes to to take control over her perception, this is exemplified from her first entrance as she is "daintily dressed" in a "fluffy white bodice"
the blue piano
a symbol for blanche's loneliness/ depression etc. "sounds louder" when she finds out Stella is pregnant - reaffirms her loneliness
context
Blanche du Bois is a caricature-like embodiment of the fading south; a place of traditional values and huguenot heritage; but also a place papering over the cracks of moral corruption on which its basis was founded - while 'Belle Reve' translates to beautiful dream its origins are based on a hellish history of slavery and prejudice
“Blanche and Stella are the last remnants of
the Southern idealism” (Abjadian, 2010)
the power struggle between blanche and stanley eflects the wider conflict in American society in the 40s as there was an influx of immigrants entering the US - establishing a new working class and a new set of ideals which conflict those of the wealthy, RC ideologies adopted by Blanche - creating a resentment and blaming of the Wc for the dwindling of the Old South which 0
key quotes
'her apearance is incongruous to the setting'
'daintily dressed in a white suit and a fluffy bodice'
'delicate beauty'
'carefully replaces the bottle' (after drinking'
'touches her forehead, shakily' hints at mental instability)
"a different species" (about stanley)
"i can't stand a naked light bulb"
"ape-like" , "he'll strike you"
"Virgo is the virgin" (she's NOT a virgin)