Blanche quotes, A Streetcar Named Desire

The "blue piano" sounds louder.

Theme: Music, Masculinity

Literary Device:

1. Mood - The Louder the music tells the audience that a devastating event has taken place and also it is symbolic for Stanley's dominance.

Meaning:

• This occurs after Stanley tells Blanche about Stella's pregnancy.

• Stanley says this deliberately in order to hurt Blanche.

• He's just been a bit humiliated since Blanche proved her story about Belle Reve with the financial papers, so this is his way of asserting his dominance once more.

BLANCHE: only way to live with such a man is to - go to bed with him! (4.90)

Theme: Sex

Literary Device:

1. Foreshadowing

Meaning:

• Foreshadowing the rape scene.

• At this point she is belittling her sister's choice of man, as she believes he's only good to fulfil Stella's sexual desires, which she backs up to a point saying: things between a man and women must stay in the dark.

• Blanche recognizes this and calls it 'brutal desire' suggesting that's all there is to her sister's relationship; which isn't a good basis at all.

• Stella is rebelling against her proper upbringing in Belle Reve with Stanley who provides a clear contrast to her roots.

Marriage

BLANCHE: I want to rest! I want to breathe quietly again! (5.85-7)

Themes:

Literary Device: Metaphor

Meaning:

• Blanche wants to marry as she need safety and security.

• Direct contrast to Stanley's and Stella's passion.

• Blanche is still emotionally not over her husband's death and she compensates by behaving like she thinks she should and even alludes to not behaving herself around young men and then kisses a young delivery boy to show it.

• With mitch she sees herself reflected in his eyes, it's the way she wants to be seen, as the beautiful, young, refined, innocent belle she's not anymore.

• Mitch's love provides an escape route to Blanche.

• Blanche's desires to 'have' Mitch are expressed; although it seems that she desires him more for the protection

• that he can offer her from the harsh world than out of true love.

• But this line is delivered as though by a tired prostitute, and not by a woman with a sincere desire to escape from her past and begin life anew with the security of marriage.

BLANCHE: I won't have you cleaning up for him!

Themes: Society and Class, Marriage

Literary Device:

Meaning:

• Blanche somehow manages to maintain her superior air while staying as a penniless guest in her sister's already cramped apartment.

• This just speaks to the power of denial...

He sizes women up with a glance...crude images flashing into his mind... (1.205)

Themes: Men and Masculinity

Literary Device: Direct Characterization

Dramatic Technique: Stage Directions

Meaning:

• Directly characterizes Stanley.

• It tells the audience of his animalistic nature.

• "Animal joy in his being is implicit in all his movements and attitudes.

• Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence, dependently, but with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens.

• Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his, that bears his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.

Blanche moves back into the streak of light. (3.88)

Themes:

Literary Device:

Dramatic Technique:

Meaning:

• Blanche tries to use her sex appeal to gain influence over men.

• It's essentially the only tool she has at her disposal.

• This is interesting, since Stanley's overt masculinity is his only tool.

Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures.

Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear. (3.164)

Themes: Music

Literary Device: Symbolism

Dramatic Technique: Stage direction

Meaning:

• Blanche's subtle charms and sophistication are clearly lost on Mitch.

• It's interesting that, because of the almost caricature-like nature of the awkward Mitch, the audience is inclined to side with Stella's choice of a partner, rather than Blanche's.

• This certainly complicates our reading of the play.

BLANCHE: What you are talking about is brutal desire - just - Desire! - ...(4.103-4)

Themes: Desire and Fate

Literary Device:

Meaning:

It's interesting that Blanche seems to identify lust as a vulgar, common emotion, considering that she is guilty of it herself.

BLANCHE: I want to kiss you, just once, softly and sweetly on your mouth! (5.116)

Themes: Marriage

Literary Device: Hyperbole

Meaning:

One of the most fascinating aspects of Streetcar is the tension between Blanche's Southern belle demeanor and what is obviously a very sexual and very hidden self.

She pours a half tumbler of whiskey and tosses it down. S1

Themes: Alcohol

Literary Device: Direct Characterisation

Dramatic Technique: Stage Direction

Meaning:

Notice that drinking is essentially the first thing Blanche does in the Kowalski home...

- Blanche recognizes that her drinking threatens her reputation. This is why she tries to hide it all the time; it contradicts her Southern belle persona.

[The rapid feverish polka tune, the "Varsouviana," is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape.] S9

Themes: Music

Literary Device:

Dramatic Technique:

Meaning: This is a key stage direction from Williams because it lets us know WHY Blanche drinks the way that she does. Indeed, many of her actions and words have to do with escaping both her past and the harsh reality of her current situation.

Blanche tries to hide both her age and her drinking - two things that threaten her potential match with Mitch.

MITCH: "you been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat." S9

Themes: Alcoholic

Literary Device: Simile

Meaning:

- This is meant to be insulting to Blanche because her alcohol consumption is incongruent with her stereotypical over-the-top femininity.

She (Blanche) has decked herself out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed silver slippers... (Stage Directions, Scene Ten)

Themes: Alochol

Literary Device: Characterisation, color as a motif

Dramatic Technique: Stage Directions

Meaning:

Alcohol is fuel to the fire, as far as Blanche's mental illness is concerned. She uses it to further delude herself.

BLANCHE: I won't be looked at in this merciless glare! S1

Themes: Appearences

Literary Device: Tone

Meaning:

This first instance is the most important, and reveals Blanche's fear of showing her age.

BLANCHE: a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion... S2

Themes: Fantasy vs. Illusion

Literary Device: Symbolism

Meaning:

- As is Blanche's self-image and her veneer of innocent charm.

- What's so interesting is that she KNOWS she's full of it, but continues to operate on a level of fantasy anyway.

- Or, as she later says to Mitch, "I don't want realism — I want magic!"

- She does claim that when something is important, a woman - herself included - will always resort to the truth.

- In other words, a woman knows between right and wrong.

- Blanche explains that she knows she fibs a lot, because "after all, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion," but when something is important she always tells the truth.

- The truth that Blanche shares is what she has already told - that the estate was lost, not sold.

- She shares with him the papers, and explains the mismanagement of funds and slow decline of the estate.

BLANCHE: "casting my pearls before swine!" S10

Themes: Appearances

Literary Device: Connotation

Meaning:

• It gives the audience an insight about the society in those times.

• It depicts the subservient position of women and exactly how society has belittled them into thinking that life is all about appearances and what's on the outside.

Madness

BLANCHE: And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. S1

Themes: Death, Madness

Literary Device: Metaphor

Meaning:

- We get the sense from lines like this that all these deaths - of her family members and also her husband - are really at the source of Blanche's madness.

-

BLANCHE: I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. S11

Themes: Madness, Desire

Literary Device: Foreshadowing, Dramatic Irony

Meaning:

• Blanche begins to retreat into her own fantasy world at the first display of real violence from Stanley.

• This foreshadows her breakdown at the end of the play as the result of Stanley's sexual violence against her.

• Slowly slipping into madness.

• Sad as she doesn't know whom to trust.

• Evokes pathos in the world

• She is telling the truth - Confused by why she got cast out, why her ex-husband was gay Blanche's famous line is full of terrible irony. -It is true that Blanche has often depended on the kindness of strangers, but all of them have abused and abandoned her. In the end, even her own sister has betrayed her. - Her fragility, her inability to fend for herself, and her self-deception has brought her to madness. - For so long, she has known only strangers; first as a young girl in a house full of the dying, and then a woman losing her looks seeking protection from callous men. - Therefore as the doctor escorts Blanche out of the house, she sees the kindness in his face. - She associates kindness with the end of loneliness. The doctor instills strength in Blanche and does not force her to walk out of the house alone. Through the kindness and companionship of the doctor, she willingly walks out of the house. In a potential reversal of fortune it may be that the doctor is in fact a stranger who will help Blanche. There are encouraging signs of hope: the fact that he becomes 'human' when he takes off his hat; the fact that he enables Blanche to leave with some of the dignity and composure that she has lacked throughout the play; the fact that the men do actually stand for her as she leaves.

BLANCHE: "you look like a young Prince out of the Arabian Nights!" S5

Themes: Appearance, Fantasy vs. Illusion

Literary Device: Simile, Metaphor,

Meaning:

• Blanche's physical attraction towards the young man enhances the idea of a pleasant dream and temporary magic as she describes him as a 'Prince out of the Arabian Nights' which is representative of her constant attempt to Romanticize things by depicting them as more attractive than they really are.

• This 'dressing up' of events and attempts to romanticize them, contrasts to Stella and Stanley's relationship, which is blunt but pure.

BLANCHE: "I don't want realism. I want magic!" S9

Themes: Madness, Desire and Fate, Fantasy's Inability to Overcome Reality

Literary Device: Extended Metaphor

Dramatic Technique: Monologue

Meaning:

• Blanche's fear of the strong light is about more than the age showing on her face.

• She's not only hiding her appearances from the world, but refusing to look at the world in a harsh light herself.

• The reference to magic suggests that Blanche has not intended to deceive anyone but instead has simply been trying to make the world a better place.

• While this could be interpreted as a further attempt at manipulation the impression we are given here is that Blanche is genuine and that, unable to accept the world as it really is, she would rather dress it up in the colors of butterflies wings.

• Blanche has been portrayed as living her life as according to her fantasy, still trapped in her past where she still had Belle Reve and continued living her life as in a higher social class.

• This is the most sympathetic reading of a character who, more cynically, could be called deceptive and manipulative.

• However, regardless of the motivation for lies, it is clear that the fantasy world Blanche has tried to create has been destroyed by the harsh realities of the world that she actually finds herself in.

• The image of a tin can be being tied to the tail of a kite in the previous scene encapsulates this idea nicely as Blanche as does the image of Mitch turning on the light to reveal the, literal, ugliness of the reality before him.

BLANCHE: "Now that you've touched them I'll burn them!"

• Stanley is contaminated

• Fire remove the contamination of her past

BLANCHE: I'll be buried at sea sewn up in a clean white sack and dropped overboard! S11

Themes: Romanticism of death

Literary Device: Metaphor

Meaning:

• Blanche's delusions have grown more romantic and literary as she retreats further into madness.

• She's given up on trying to reconcile her visions with reality and surrendered completely to fantasy.

• Blanche romanticizes even her death.

• This final image of mortality is saturated with desire and love....

• White Represent calmness

• Blanche's request to be buried at sea, however, is probably related to the association of water and the color white with purity and cleanliness.

• She wants to be washed away of her past and die pure. - The sea, due to its shear size, has connotations of grandness and power. In this context, it may be interpreted as Blanche's final liberation. This correlates strongly with the motif of death. The sea is truly symbolic as its vastness gives a sense of release for Blanche. But the sea may also reflect the unpredictability of the Kowalski household.

BLANCHE: They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at — Elysian Fields! S1

Themes: Death, Desire and Fate

Literary Device: Extended Metaphor

Meaning:

• Elysian Fields are heaven in ancient Greek Mythology.

• In other words, "death" is written all over this scenery before we even jump into much of the play.

• Blanche's first action in the play is one of confusion, ambivalence, disorientation.

• She cannot believe where she has ended up, standing at her sister's rundown New Orleans door step, or determine how she got there, on a pair of streetcars named Desire and Cemeteries.

• The blue piano is usually invoked in scenes of great passion; Williams states in the opening stage directions that it "expresses the spirit of the life" of Elysian Fields.

• It is indicated that this music should be most present in the parallel scenes of Stella's lustful reunion with Stanley in Scene 3 and Blanche's rape in Scene 9, as well as at the very beginning and end of the play, in the two moments that the Kowalskis share without Blanche in their lives.

• The route that Blanche takes to arrive at Elysian Fields seems almost a linear progression in reality.

• Desire leads her to death (Cemeteries), which then leads to the afterlife (Elysian Fields is known as a paradise that the dead enter in the afterlife).

BLANCHE: I was on the verge of — lunacy, almost! (1.109)

Themes: Madness

Literary Device: Metaphor, Imagery

Meaning:

Mr. Graves, eh? Oh, Williams, we just wouldn't put it past you. Looks like we've got even more death imagery, and we haven't even left Scene One yet.

BLANCHE: One that's been picked a few days. (3.33-4)

Themes: death

Literary Device: Imagery and Symbolism, Flowers as a motif

Meaning:

• Stella means to suggest that Blanche is attractive (desire), but Blanche feels as though she's past her prime (death).

• This shows how Blanches own negativity brings her down and affects her life, however it can also be interpreted as her fishing for more compliments.

• Flowers are the perfect symbol of this odd pairing of lust and destruction.

• To start, take a look at the end of Scene Five, when Mitch brings Blanche roses.

• He's using flowers to court Blanche, this represents Blanches desire of love.

• In Scene Nine, when the Mexican Woman comes around selling Flores para los muertos, or "flowers for the dead."

• This shows juxtaposition between desire and death and how the desire of individuals lead to their death.

BLANCHE: That man will destroy me. (6.102)

Themes: Man and Masculinity

Literary Device: Foreshadowing

Meaning:

Interesting choice of words, isn't it? Notice how rape - a sexual act and therefore one that involves desire - brings about the effective "execution" of Blanche's sanity.

BLANCHE: The opposite is desire. (9.68-71)

Blanche here states that desire is the opposite of death - this explains her attempt at taking refuge from death through "intimacies with strangers," and why she relies so heavily on her looks in relating to others.

BLANCHE: "something - ape-like about him!"

Themes: Men and Masculinity

Literary Device: Simile

Meaning:

• Compares him to that of an ape.

MITCH: "I don't think I ever seen you in the light"

Themes: Madness

Literary Device: Symbolism

Meaning:

• According to Blanche, Light is equivalent to the truth.

• The truth being that she is old and not young anymore and thus cannot come to terms with this fact.

• Light Symbol of truth

BLANCHE: No,no,no not till I've bathed and rested!

Themes: Cleansing herself from her past

Literary Device: Irony

Meaning:

• These are her cleansing rituals.

• IRONY: As she is trying to clean herself of her past

• Past->Dirt

• This one of the ways that she copes with her sad and tragic past.

Blanche DuBois

Blanche DuBois is the main character of the play and also the most thoroughly described one.

- The name Blanche is French and means white or fair.

- Her last name DuBois is of French origin as well and translates as made of wood.

- Since the colour white stands for purity, innocence and virtue, the symbolism of Blanche's first name reveals these qualities, which stand in contrast to her actual character traits.

- The name suggests that Blanche is a very innocent and pure person, but throughout the play it becomes obvious that Blanche cannot call any of these traits her own.

- Only the illusory image which she tries to create for herself suggests these traits, but her true nature is not like that at all.

- She constantly tries to hide her embarrassing past from all of her new acquaintances, because she fears that they might not accept her anymore.

- In order to maintain her apparent social status among her new neighbours and friends, she builds this intertwined net of lies which creates a false image of herself.

- She herself believes in this imaginary world, and as soon as there is the slightest sign of its destruction, she seems to be lost, and her nervous condition worsens.

- Therefore all she cares about is to keep that image alive.

- Her first name is therefore quite ironic since it means the exact opposite of Blanche's true nature and character.

Blanche DuBois C#1

Her last name, however, stands in contrast to her first name. 'Made of wood' suggests something solid and hard, which is the exact opposite of her fragile nature and nervous condition.

- However, wood can also be associated with forest or jungle, and regarding her past, the connection becomes clear.

- Blanche used to indulge in a rather excessive lifestyle.

- She had sex with random strangers and was known throughout her hometown Laurel for that. So her former life was more like a jungle or a forest, because it was hard to see through all this and detect the real Blanche.

- As in a jungle, Blanche could not find a way out of this on her own.

- The term jungle appears in the play as well. In scene ten, when Stanley is about to rape Blanche, "the inhuman jungle voices rise up" (Williams 215).

- The jungle can be associated with wildness, brutality and inhuman behaviour.

- As already mentioned above, wood represents something hard, or hard-working. The Du in front of that, however, suggests something aristocratic and noble.

- There seems to be a contradiction in these two terms which can be explained with the nature of her character.

- The way Blanche tries to create an aristocratic and sophisticated image of herself, but is in fact the complete opposite, displays this ambiguity.

Blanche DuBois C#2

Combined with her first name, her entire name would translate as "white wood," which she explains to Mitch in scene three, "It's a French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean white woods" (Williams 150).

- Blanche DuBois cannot only be translated as white wood but also as white and made of wood, which makes it easier for the reader to detect that she seems pure and innocent on the outside, but is really quite tough and calculating when it comes down to her image and her future, especially concerning her search for a husband.

- Overall, Blanche's entire name is heavily symbolic because it reflects her true nature in a very clear way. - Just as first and last name are being read out in an exact order, Blanche's character is revealed in the same way.

- At first she seems to be innocent and pure, but later her past and her true nature can be discovered.

Stella

• Stella is a Latin term which simply means star.

• Stars in general are considered to be the light which breaks through the darkness.

• Considering that light is the opposite of darkness, and darkness itself stands for not-knowing and intellectual dullness, the stars can be regarded as reality and knowledge shining through ignorance.

• Stars can also be a symbol for high ideals or goals set too high.

• Stella represents Blanche's ideal concerning the fact that she is leading a contented life.

• The deeper significance of her name reveals her role in the play.

• The symbol of a star suggests light, hope and stability.

• This is quite a good description of her role and her position in the play.

Blanche's aversion to light

• Blanche's relation to light is quite obvious because she tries to avoid bright light of any kind as well as she can.

• Her reaction to light can be regarded as an attempt to hide her true nature as well as her vanishing beauty and youth.

• By hiding from the light she tries to escape reality, for light clearly represents reality in this play.

• The first time that Blanche's aversion to light becomes obvious is in scene one: "And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in this merciless glare" (Williams 120).

• In scene three, she covers the naked light bulb with a Chinese paper lantern: " I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action" (Williams 150).

Blanche

•The first apparent use of colour in the play is the symbolic meaning of Blanche's name, which, as already mentioned above, is French and means white. When she appears in scene one, "she is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and ear-rings of pearl, white gloves and a hat..." (Williams 117).

•As already mentioned above, the colour white stands for purity and innocence, but it is also the colour of light and represents perfection and virginity (Becker, 330). This association stands in complete contrast to her actual behaviour and actions. Blanche is a seductive and promiscuous woman, who lies in order to maintain her image, and therefore Williams' use of this colour for her name and her outer appearance is quite ironic.

•In scene two Blanche talks to Stanley about honesty: 'Yes - yes - cards on the table....Well, life is too full of evasions and ambiguities, I think. I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours, primary colours. I don't like pinks and creams and I never cared for wishy-washy people' (Williams 137).

Blanche #2

• This paragraph clearly shows the irony in her words, because she herself is the one who is embodying a distinct difference between her actions and her statements.

• She is the one who is neither straight-forward nor honest, but pretends to expect this from other people to a certain extent.

• In scene nine, she changes her clothes from soft colors to strong bold ones for the first time: "She has on her scarlet satin robe" (Williams 200).

• The color red symbolizes love, passion and fertility on the positive side, but also fire and blood on the negative one, so this is the first time that her outer appearance actually matches her intentions (Becker 244).

• She is meeting Mitch in this scene, and her dress certainly shows the seductress in her.

• Mitch refuses to marry her because of her past, and after that, in scene ten, she wears a white satin evening gown, which implies that she returned to her habit of soft colors in order to underline her pureness and virtuous nature.

The Varsouviana Polka

•The Varsouviana Polka on the other hand appears when Blanche is being confronted with her past and the truth, or when she talks about Allan.

• The reason for this seems obvious, for exactly this polka had been played when her husband Allan committed suicide.

• The polka represents death and immanent disaster. Blanche tells Mitch in scene six about Allan, and how she caught him cheating on her: "Polka music sounds, in a minor key faint with distance" (Williams 183).

• When Stanley gives her a ticket back to Laurel for a birthday presents, the situation means disaster for Blanche.

The Varsouviana Polka #2

• She realises that she is not wanted anymore, and that she has nowhere to go, for Laurel is an unacceptable place to go to after all the incidents there: "The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing" (Williams 198). Again, the polka represents disaster.

• In scene eleven, the connection between the polka and Blanche's state of mind and emotion becomes even more obvious.

• She gets totally lost in her illusions about Shep Huntleigh and runs into her room when the doctor arrives: "The Varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle" (Williams 222).

• Thus the polka's weird distortion matches the confusion in her mind.

Structure

• Tennessee Williams divides A Streetcar Named Desire into eleven scenes each one leading naturally to a climax, either a dramatic gesture (in Scene 1 Blanche sinks back, her head in her arms, to be sick) or a punch line (Blanche again, in Scene 3, 'I need kindness now', or in Scene 6, 'Sometimes —. there's God — so quickly!'). The effect is a sense of conclusion, as if a mini- playlet has drawn to a close.

• The action of the play covers a period of some five months.

• The first six scenes stretch over the first few days of Blanche's visit in May, but Scene 7 moves abruptly to mid- September when Scenes 7 to 10 take place within one day.

• The last scene follows a few weeks later.

• As such the first group of scenes sets the stage for the calamities that will take place in the second group, and the last scene, which takes place some weeks later, shows the outcome of these events.

• There is a clear chronological progression of events between the three groups of scenes with each group having a noticeably different mood, almost as if the play were split into three acts.

Structure #2

• Dramatic tension is heightened early in the second group of scenes when Stanley denounces Blanche while she, blissfully unaware, is singing contrapuntally off-stage in the bathroom.

• In Scene 8 the mounting tension culminates in Stanley's cruel birthday present of a bus ticket back to Laurel.

• In Scene 9 the first of the symbolic - one might say Expressionist - figures appears, the Mexican seller of flowers for the dead, followed by Mitch's attempt at raping Blanche.

Structure #3

• The readers or audience may have guessed what will follow in the next scene.

• Scene 10 starts amiably enough, with Stanley even offering to 'bury the hatchet', but soon the tone of the conversation, and the mood of the set, changes.

• As Stanley strips off Blanche's pretensions, menacing shapes appear on the walls of the apartment and the street outside is filled with violence.

• The climax is now inevitable, foreshadowed by Blanche's terror. The condensed period of time in this 'Act' creates the impression of Blanche hurtling irrevocably to her doom.

BLANCHE : "I can't stand a naked light-bulb" S3

- The electric bulb, on the other hand, stands for the more unpleasant side of life; it is the harsh glare of reality, which strips away all pretensions and pretence, exposing ugly truths.

- It is not surprising that Blanche, who so often attempts to weave illusions, wants the light bulb covered up:

- It is even more significant that Mitch is the one she asks to cover the bulb, with a paper lantern she has brought.

- Mitch is the man she hopes to marry, to bring true romance into her life and also at last to provide her with some security. However, this does not happen; Mitch ends up disenchanted with her when he finds out about her sordid past and symbolically tears off the lantern to expose her to the glare of reality.

[the polka stops abruptly...polka resumes in a major key]S6

- The polka music is being played when Blanche is telling Mitch about her boyfriend who shot himself.

- This piece of music is played whenever she is thinking about him but it is only ever her that hears it, this is to perhaps show that she is beginning to lose her sanity. - Furthermore, the fact that it stops when Mitch enters suggests that Blanche sees Mitch as some sort of escape from the past that is haunting her.

BLANCHE: "Only a paper moon sailing over a cardboard sea" S7

- Conveys the sense of delusion within Blanche's character and ironically foreshadows the idea that her relationship with Mitch is fake and fanciful. - This contributes to her character, as she is slowly crumbling with this false sense of reality and also condescended with the idea of her self-defense mechanism being fantasy and irrationality.

- The song serves irony and contrast between the characters, especially the relationship between Stanley and Blanche. - Which in this scene Stanley exposes Blanche's crude lifestyle while she was staying at the Flamingo and her lies to Stella. - Where contrarily, Blanche is carries on her daily routine, unknowingly of what is going on.

- The song to some extent is a metaphor of Blanche's love for her dead ex-husband, which the lyrics portrays her unwillingness and discontent with her pass and reality and that she fails to forget about him.

BLANCHE: [Scarlet satin robe, drinking to escape] S9

- Biblical allusion

- Worn by a christian martyr

- Someone who is saint

- Scarlet as oppose to crimson : very exotic material --> She likes to be exotic and unique

- Sense of purity - If not white then red

[hot trumpets and the drums from the four deuces sound loudly] S10

- The music from the four deuces is played just when Stanley has picked up Blanche and put her on the bed.

- We know the upstairs of the four deuces is a brothel and therefore the fact that the music from there can be heard from there implies the rape that will follow.

- This is the crucial moment when the complete destruction of Blanche, her beautiful values and the class which she represents becomes evident.

BLANCHE: "Casting my pearls before swine" S10

Biblical Allusion

- Blanche thinks that she is all high and mighty

BLANCHE: [ tragic radiance in her satin robe] S11

- Satin : Generally used by the upperclass

- She is lost everything

- Her tragic and metaphorical death

[BLANCHE has a tight, artificial smile on her drawn face]S7

- Artificial - Depicts that she is only playing a role

- It portrays that everything about her is artificial

Significance of Title

- It is important to realise that the names of these different locations have immense importance.

- Desire is precisely what Blanche has followed, and as a result she has experienced a kind of death, indicated in the name of Cemeteries, as she has been branded a social outcast.

- Now, she has arrived at Elysian Fields, which was the place where Greeks believed they went after death to contemplate their life and face their mistakes.

- This is precisely what happens to Blanche during the course of this play, as she is not able to run away from her mistakes and the consequences of her actions any further and has to face them.

- The title of the play is important therefore in indicating the "epic fornications" that Blanche has committed and the way that she allows desire to drive her life.