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Blanche - Coggle Diagram
Blanche
• Stella’s older sister, from a once-wealthy Southern family.
• Arrives in New Orleans due to poverty, unemployment, and disgrace.
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- Weaknesses & Vulnerabilities
• Alcoholism: disguised through euphemisms, used to dull emotional pain.
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• Recklessness: flirts dangerously (e.g., with young man), threatens her stability.
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• Williams subverts this: Blanche is vain, deluded, flawed – yet gains tragic stature.
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• Despite downfall, Blanche becomes heroic in suffering – audience sympathises deeply.
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• Even when offstage, heard singing (Scene 7) – often used in dramatic counterpoint to expose her delusions (e.g., while Stanley reveals the truth).
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- Personality & Contradictions
• Snobbish, especially towards working-class characters (Eunice, black neighbour).
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• Claims modesty but behaves seductively (e.g., young man in Scene Five).
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• Pretends not to understand Belle Reeve’s loss, yet hints at awareness.
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• Famous last words: “Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (p. 107).
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• Contrast: Final line of play from Steve (“This game is seven-card stud”) – cold indifference, deepens pathos.
• Not a classical tragic hero (no hubris), but gains dignity through suffering.
• End evokes pathos – her delusion, isolation, and vulnerability become poignant.
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• Light avoidance: truth, age, reality.
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• Burning poems: emotional sacredness, violation by Stanley.
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• Moth-like, fading beauty, delicate, vulnerable.
• Symbolises fragility, illusion, and faded Southern grandeur.
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- AO2 – Language & Stagecraft
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• Staging emphasises isolation and inner collapse (e.g., players’ reactions, lighting, music).
• Repetition, irony, symbolism all deepen audience’s emotional connection.
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• Stella – emotionally broken, chooses denial.
• Stanley – crude victor, emotionally manipulative.
• Players stand when she passes – gesture of respect, highlighting her altered status.
- AO2 – Language, Symbolism, Structure
• Baths: symbolic of guilt, purification, psychological escape.
• Costumes & props (e.g., costume jewellery): represent artificiality, illusion.
• Lighting: avoids bright light to hide truth (age, reality).
• Music (Varsouviana polka): recurring motif – trauma, mental breakdown.
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• Final line: “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” – tragic resignation to illusion.
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• “Young man! Young, young, young, young – man!”
• Excessive, yearning for youth, connection to romantic fantasy (Arabian Nights).
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