A Streetcar Named Desire

[Stanley carries his bowling jacket and a red-stained package.] S1

Theme: Man and Masculinity

Literary Device:

1. Characterization of Staley.

2. Red - Stained: Its symbolic for his masculinity and Stanley's "primitive" masculinity.

Meaning:

• FIRST TIME the audience is introduced to Stanley.

• The bowling jacket is an indirect characterization of sort as it portrays his manly nature and the red-stained further symbolizes that he is dominant.

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.

"Stanley, Steve, Mitch, and Pablo wear colored shirts, solid blues, a purple, a red-and-white-check, a light green..."

There are vivid slices of watermelon on the table, whiskey bottles and glasses.

Theme: Masculinity

Literary Device:

1. Characterization

Dramatic Technique:

Stage Directions

Meaning:

• Williams uses physical props - or, in this case, clothing - to make his point about Stanley's masculinity.

• These vivid, virile colors contrast with Blanche's white, moth-like clothing + Her name.

- The primary colors are the main colors and are symbolic of the men being the main pillars in the society.

STELLA: [There is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out.] S3

Theme: Marriage, Men and Masculinity

Literary Device:

1. Situational Irony - Stella was the one who was attracted to his animal-like-nature and this is what she gets in return.

2. Foreshadowing

Meaning:

• It is through this action; the audience understands that Stanley uses violence to assert his dominance over Stella.

• This also foreshadows his rape scene later on in the play, as if he has used violence once he is going to use it again.

• It also tells that Stanley uses violence to get his own way.

STELLA: He was as good as a lamb when I came back...S4

Theme: Sex

Literary Device:

1. Simile

2. Metaphor: Lamb

3. Juxtaposition

Meaning:

1. Stanley's dual nature makes it difficult for the audience to condemn him.

2. Juxtaposes his nature to that of a sweet lamb.

STANLEY: "I want my baby down here. Stella, Stella!"

• Blanche is threatening the marriage

• Impact on the audience

• Very pitiful - A vulnerable position Stanley

Stanley: "Hey, canary bird! Toots!

• Instigate her sister to advise her to leave.

• Not a man's right to threaten a women's livelihood.

• Reducing her to an animal

• Degradation - reducing her to an animal

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

STANLEY: "Some people rarely touch it, but it touches them often."

Themes: Masculinity

Literary Device:

Meaning:

• It refers to the truth

• Blanche is full of BS

• Alcohol is something that she's addicted to

• Alcohol is used to cover up a lot of things

• Double meaning

• Stanley Ambiguous person

STELLA: can hardly stand it when he is away for a night (1.161-6)

Themes: Marriage, Men and Masculinity, Sex

Literary Device: Hyperbole

Meaning:

• She can't live without a man

• Very co-dependent on Stanley

• Needs a man to offer some stability

• Stanley has proven himself in society - Hardworking, Strong, Confident

STANLEY: when do you give me orders? (2.70-1)

Themes: Men and Masculinity

Literary Device: Conflict (Man vs. Man)

Meaning:

• Blanche changes the dynamics of their marriage.

• This is the reason why Stanley hates Blanche She's ruining the dynamics of their relationship

• Stanley forced Stella to take the position of a subservient women.

• Plays a power struggle

• Clearing the table Relate it to the table clearing Only women are supposed to clean and have to day to day activities

STELLA: Stanley doesn't give me a regular allowance; he likes to pay bills himself. (4.79)

Themes: Men and Masculinity, Marriage

Literary Device: Metaphor

Meaning:

• This tiny detail is rather telling about Stanley's approach to marriage.

• This is no partnership between equals - he wants to be in complete control.

• He needs to exercise any form of control that he can onto Stella

• Money here is a metaphor for power and strength

[Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.] S4

Themes: Society and Class, Men and Masculinity, Sexuality

Literary Device: Diction

Dramatic Technique: Stage Directions

Meaning:

• The two opposing forces of Stanley and Blanche, both trying to draw Stella to their side of the battle, are constantly at odds throughout the play.

• However, Stanley's raw sexuality ultimately triumphs over Blanche's wheedling and misguided attempts at reasoning.

• Stanley establishes his power over Blanche through his 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.

daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat

(1.14)

Themes: Appearances, Mortality

Literary Device: White color as a motif

Dramatic Technique:

Meaning:

• This is a fitting initial description of Blanche, since she does indeed spend all of the play feeling "out of place."

• Blanche tries to alter her surroundings to suit her persona.

• Color only covers up the faults they don't make things disappear - Blanche's superficial personality.

• Color is used to romanticize the world and create her 'pleasant illusions'

• In this case, there is a lack of color, as Blanche is simply wearing white.

• This conveys the idea that the upper class is declining, as it lacks the vivacity of the working class, which Williams believes will replace the upper class as the new driving force in America.

EUNICE: A great big place with white columns. (1.63)

Themes: Society and Class

Literary Device: Color as a motif

Meaning:

• Firstly, it is used to emphasize the theme of class struggle, as the lower class characters and settings are described as being bright, colorful and lively, which contrasts with Blanche's appearance, at least initially, as she is dressed all in white; and absence of color.

• This could show the decline in the upper class compared to the lower, working class, as the upper class is losing its vitality and its energy, while the lower class is growing much stronger.

STANLEY: Nobody's going to get up. (3.3.38-9)

Themes: Men and Masculinity,

Literary Device: Contrast, Aggressive tone

Meaning:

• It shows to the audience the contrast between Blanche's ideal of the Southern gentleman contrasting with the reality of the men here in New Orleans.

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...

STANLEY: "Pig - Polack - disgusting - vulgar - greasy!"

And I am the King around here, so don't forget it! (8.14)

Themes: Man and Masculinity

Literary Device: Aggressive tone, Descriptive language, Direct Characterization

Meaning:

• Many critics have pointed out that Stanley represents the new America - land of opportunity and equality - as opposed to Blanche's more archaic ideals.

• King Symbol of power and dominance

• Pigs are disgusting - lazy and full of fat

• Insulting someone's history

• He is quite hurt here

• Responds to this through violence

• Every is an absolute statement completely

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.

The room beyond is a bedroom. (1.40)

Themes: Sex, Marriage

Dramatic Technique: Setting

Meaning:

• In the first scene, They're bedroom is immediate and obvious presence of Stanley and Stella's bed

• Blanche finds herself right on the edge of their sex life.

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.

[The low-tone clarinet moans ... come together with low, animal moans. ](3.198)

Themes:

Literary Device:

Dramatic Technique:

Meaning:

• Sex seems to be the strongest bond between Stella and her husband.

STELLA: I was - sort of - thrilled by it. (4.18-22)

Themes:

Literary Device:

Meaning:

• There is definitely an undercurrent of sexuality to Stanley's violent aggression - and one that Stella finds very attractive.

• Sexual tension that makes her aroused

STELLA: "Your face and your fingers are disgustingly greasy."

• Validating what Blanche said about Stanley

• Not strong or have some sort of standpoint

• This could be what Stella thinks about on the inside about Stanley

• Metaphor For how disgusting he really is.

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.

STELLA: But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark — that sort of make everything else seem — unimportant.

• Here it is suggested that Stella's marriage is entirely founded on desire. Blanche speaks contemptuously about this foundation of matrimony; Stella responds by asking her whether she has ever "ridden on that street-car" (Scene 4, p70), and Blanche replies that the street-car brought her where she is "not wanted and where [she is] ashamed to be" (Scene 4, p70). This exchange is symbolic. It is indeed the case that desire has led both Blanche and Stella to Elysian Fields, Blanche by her sexual escapades and Stella by her animal attraction to Stanley. The aforementioned linear progression seems applicable only to Stella, however.

STELLA: But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark — that sort of make everything else seem — unimportant. continuation #1

Stella marries Stanley based on her desire and a part of herself "dies" — her connection to Belle Reve. More importantly, Blanche mentions earlier that Stella left Belle Reve the summer that Blanche and Stella's father died, and the deaths of their mother, Margaret, and cousin Jessie followed. This suggests that Stella's departure played a role in her family's deaths. Finally, however, Stella arrived at Elysian Fields and found herself a content life.

• The linear progression seems reversed for Blanche, however. It is made clear that Blanche prefers Belle Reve over staying at Stanley's. Belle Reve was Blanche's "Elysian Fields", but she was left to face others' deaths, notably Allan's. After the death of Allan, as Blanche claims, came her desire: "After the death of Allan — intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with" (Scene 9, p118). This is because Blanche believes that "The opposite [of death] is desire" (Scene 9, 120).

STELLA: But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark — that sort of make everything else seem — unimportant. continuation #2

However, Blanche's desire ultimately leads to the destruction of her own character. Later she is cared for by a kind doctor who takes her away. At this point, Blanche finally seems to follow the linear progression of desire -> death -> paradise. This suggests that the processes involving desire, death, and paradise are in fact a cycle, not a progression. Blanche went from paradise -> death -> desire -> death -> paradise. In fact, so did Stella, from paradise (Belle Reve) -> death (of father) -> desire (for Stanley) -> death (of her family and herself) -> paradise (marriage to Stanley).

• This leads us to both question the attainment of paradise through desire, because it involves the consequence of death, and to sympathize the descent from paradise to desire, because this also involves the suffering of death. This leads us to denounce Stella's decision and to pity Blanche.

Poker

1) The aspect of luck, fortune and destiny: One underlying theme of "A Streetcar Named Desire" is that people are sometimes arbitrarily subjected to hardship, such as when Blanche and Stella's family lose their home "Belle Reve." Hand-in-hand with this idea, though, is counter statement that people can take charge of their lives and are not necessarily at the mercy of fate (as Blanche often supposes).

2)The leit motif of deception and appearance versus reality: Blanche puts a lot of emphasis on putting forth a good image and making things seem better than they really are. This is certainly a mechanism of defence, but it keeps her from dealing with her problems. Instead she puts on "a poker face" until she talks more honestly with Mitch in the end.

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.

Stella #2

• Stella is the connection between Blanche and Stanley, the two major characters, because she contains character traits of both of them, and can therefore relate to them better than anyone else can.

• Therefore, she can be considered to be the stabilizing element of the play.

• She is the negotiator between the two so very different characters.

• Stella and Blanche have the same rather wealthy and cultivated background, which is the connection between the two women.

• Stella also has several things in common with Stanley.

• One of them is their love for wild sex (Ehrenhaft 72).

• During a conversation with Blanche, Stella tells her about her wedding night:

Stella #3

• This excerpt clearly shows the connection between Stella and Stanley, but there is something else that ties them together.

• Stella is, just like Stanley, very down to earth and has a very open and honest nature.

• She does not lie or try to hide anything in her life by creating a false image of herself, as Blanche does.

•For both, Stanley and Blanche, Stella is their star and their hope.

• They always seek her support and shelter.

• Stella is the stable element of the play, because she does not show any sign of rapid mood swings like Blanche and Stanley do, and this is what makes her the small and quiet star of the play.

Belle Reve

•Belle Reve is the name of the sisters' family's plantation in their hometown Laurel.

• The name is again of French origin and means beautiful dream, which again emphasises Blanche's tendency to cling to her illusions.

• The term suggests an illusion, which is not quite true, for the plantation really once existed.

• On the other hand, beautiful dream suggests that something beautiful, which has once existed, faded away. Therefore, the name's symbolic meaning became true.

Belle Reve #2

• But in contrast to Blanche's other illusions, this is the only one that ever truly existed, and it s the only one that Stella and Blanche are both connected to, because it is their heritage, and it was real.

• However, looking more closely at the name, it reveals that there is a grammatical mistake.

• The adjective belle is feminine, but it should be masculine, for reve is masculine.

• Tennessee Williams probably did this on purpose and not by mistake, because it underlines the fact that Belle Reve was just a dream which crumbled.

• The grammatical mistake also implies a certain imperfection, which is also apparent and true for Blanche's beautiful dream, her net of lies and false illusions.

Desire, Cemeteries and Elysian Fields

•At the beginning of the play Williams introduces three terms which do not reveal their symbolic meaning right away, but the reader comes to realise their sense and importance later in the play.

• In scene one, Blanche describes to Eunice her journey to her sister's place: "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" (Williams 117).

• Blanche's journey on New Orleans' streetcars represents the journey of her own life.

• Desire is her first step, just as it was the first step of her life after her husband Allan had died.

• Still struggling with this loss, she was desperately longing for love and companionship, but ended up leading a life which was filled with sex with random men, who never cared about her: "Yes, I had many intimacies with strangers.

Desire, Cemeteries and Elysian Fields #2

After the death of Allan - intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with..." (Williams 205). At this time she was hence obsessed by desire.

• The next step of her journey is Cemeteries, which is an obvious symbol for death.

• Her promiscuous lifestyle had got her into trouble.

• She lost her job because she had had an affair with one of her students, and was banned from Laurel:"The opposite (of death) is desire"(Williams 206).

Desire, Cemeteries and Elysian Fields #3

• This underlines that her life turned into the exact opposite of what it had been.

• Elysian Fields is the name of the street where Stella and Stanley live, and it is a mythical allusion to Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid.

• According to Roman mythology, Elysium (or Elysian Fields) was a part of the underworld and a place of reward for the virtuous dead.

• Elysian Fields, though, was just a temporary place of the souls' journey back to life.

The light as a symbol for truth and reality

•The light plays an important symbolic role throughout the play because it clearly reflects Blanche's and Stanley's characters.

• The light is considered to be the basis for sight and recognition, and, as already mentioned above, it is the opposite of darkness which symbolises intellectual dullness and ignorance (Becker 171).

• Blanche and Stanley stand in contrast concerning their attitudes towards light, which again underlines their different characters.

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).

Stanley's affection for light

•Stanley has a different attitude concerning light and reality. He is very down to earth and realistic and displays this with his brutal honesty.

• For Stanley, the bright light exposes everything for what it is. He can only accept a literal truth, which can be experienced by his fanatic investigation of Blanche's past: "You showed me the snapshot of the place with the columns. I pulled you down off them and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going" (Williams 199).

• In this passage, Stanley tries to remind Stella of the fact that when they met she was just like Blanche, but that he made her face reality again.

• As already mentioned above, light is the opposite of darkness and therefore the opposite of ignorance.

Stanley's affection for light #2

• Stanley considers himself to be knowing and constantly tries to increase his knowledge, especially the one concerning Blanche's past.

• This remark shows that Blanche would rather hide behind polite phrases than accept truth and reality.

• The paper lantern is not very stable, though, and it can easily be destroyed, just like Blanche's illusions.

• In scene six, she takes Mitch home with her and says, " Let's leave the lights off" (Williams 177).

• Blanche thinks of Mitch as a future husband, and therefore she does not want him to know her past or her true age, and the best way to hide her age is to stay out of bright light where he could possibly see her wrinkles and fading youth in her face.

Stanley's affection for light #3

• Later in that scene, Blanche tells Mitch about her husband Allan: 'When I was sixteen, I made the discovery - love. All at once and much, much too completely.

• It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me' (Williams 182).

• Therefore, in her past, light used to represent love, but now it represents something destructive for her.

Stanley's affection for light #4

• Allan's suicide erased the light or love, and thus she now does not believe in it any longer and tries to escape from the light and therefore escapes reality: "...electric light bulbs go on and you see too plainly" (Williams 196). This again shows her fear of light since for her it represents reality, and in scene nine this becomes even more obvious.

• When Mitch tears off the paper lantern in order to take a closer look at her in the bright light, "she utters a frightened gasp" (Williams 203). Then she tells him: 'I don't want realism...I'll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth.

• I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! - Don't turn the light on' (Williams 204).This is Blanche's first statement concerning her true intention and nature, and it is probably the only time where she ever confesses that she builds up an illusory image of herself

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.

The blue piano [the distant tune of the blue piano is heard]S9

• The blue piano is first mentioned in the introductory stage directions of the first scene: "This 'blue piano' expresses the spirit of the life which goes on there" (Williams 115).

• Throughout the play, the blue piano always appears when Blanche is talking about the loss of her family and Belle Reve, but it is also present during her meeting and kissing the young newspaper man.

• The blue piano thus stands for depression, loneliness and her longing for love, which the adjective blue already suggests.

• This quality is not identical with the colour symbolism of blue.

The blue piano #2

• It describes Blanche's emotions and represents her need for companionship and love, but also her hope, as the scene with the paper-boy shows.

• Mitch tells her in scene nine that he will not marry her due to her promiscuous past, "the distant piano is slow and blue" (Williams 207).

• Later, in scene ten, it grows louder when she is on the phone trying to get in touch with Shep Huntleigh.

• In this situation, her hopes are rising, and so does the piano.

• In the last scene, Blanche is being taken away to a mental institution, and Stanley and his friends play poker again: "The luxurious sobbing, the sensual murmur fade away under the swelling music of the 'blue piano' and the muted trumpet" (Williams 226).

• The blue piano, accompanying the card game, symbolises Stanley's victory over Blanche.

Blanche the moth

• In the first scene, Blanche is compared to an animal: "There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth" (Williams 117).

• Both butterflies and moths start life as ugly caterpillars and only later transform into something more beautiful.

• The butterfly and cocoon symbol reflects Blanche's attempts to re-create herself and, so to speak, spring forth a new, beautiful person from her cocoon of lies.

Blanche the moth #2

• In contrast to the butterfly, who lives during daytime, the moth mainly lives during the night, which makes it a creature of the darkness, and the butterfly one of the light.

• As already mentioned above, the butterfly leaves the dark cocoon to live in the light, but the moth stays in darkness for that is the time when it is feeding.

• This can be adapted to Blanche as it seems as though—contrasting with her name—it is her fate to live in the darkness, which symbolises ignorance.

• Blanche does not find a way out: at the end of the play she is being taken away to the mental institution, which means that she finally does not conquer her fate.

Stanley the ape

• In contrast to Blanche, Stanley displays brutal and wild behaviour—from her perspective.

• Stanley is at this point compared to an ape.

• Characteristic traits of apes are mobility, intelligence, deceit, but also lasciviousness, the drive to imitate and quarrelsome stinginess (Becker 11). Especially the lasciviousness matches Stanley's character, for it can be detected in his love for wild sex, and his raping Blanche.

• With Stanley's connection to the ape, Williams again builds up a link to the jungle. Apes often live in the jungle, for it is their habitat. Therefore Stanley's habitat, the Elysian Fields, can be considered to be a jungle.

• It appears to be an appropriate place for Blanche to visit, when the "white woods" actually camouflage the "noises of the jungle" dominating her mind.

This "blue piano" expresses the spirit of the life which goes on here.

• There is another major factor that could be found in the stage directions of Williams.

• They are highly related to music.

• From the first page of scene one, you will be able to see "blue piano" playing.

• Tennessee Williams believed that music and sound effects are important for the perfection of the play.

• The music all have deep meanings that applies throughout the whole play.

• In some of Tennessee Williams' stage directions, the author himself directly explains the effect of the music.

[Polka music sounds, in a minor key faint with distance.] S6

• In contrast to the symbolism of 'life', the polka music (AKA Varsouviana music) represents 'death' in the play. It is first played in scene 1, when Stanley Kowalski asks about Blanche's husband.

• It is also played in scene 6, when Blanche confesses to Mitch that her past and about the fact that her husband, Allan Grey, had killed himself. Blanche noticed that Allen Grey was actually homosexual after their marriage, and she couldn't hold herself and told Allan that he disgusted her.

• This event is significant, because this could be seen as the start of critical declination of Blanche's life.

• Her mental becomes loose since this event occurred, and the music starts to play whenever she starts to lose herself.

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.

[the colored woman a neighbor]scene 1

she is given no identity unlike Eunice - Represents the backward and traditional society --> Depicts the societal norms that existed in those times.

STANLEY : "a solid-gold dress" , "genuine fox fur-pieces" scene 2

- Used to depict Blanche's character - They are al her costumes that she uses to play her role

BLANCHE : "feeling like a brand-new human being"scene 2

Simile

- Depicts her bathing rituals

-

BLANCHE : "i like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours, primary colours." S2

Primary and bold colors are the colors that are used to mix with each other in order to form secondary colors and also primary colors are the main colors in a color wheel and this is symbolic of the kind of person that she desires. Someone who is strong and who is a pillar of society

BLANCHE : "love-letters, yellowing with antiquity"scene 2

Yellow

STELLA : "I ought to go there on a rocket that never comes down"scene 2

Metaphor

- Escape reality

['blue piano' and the hot trumpet sound louder]scene 2

- Stanley has just over heard a conversation between Stella and Blanche, in which Blanche is asking Stella not to "hang back with the brutes" (page 164).

- However, when Stanley walks in, Stella immediately goes to him and "embraces him with both arms" which makes the music of the 'blue piano' more significant as the blue piano represents Stanley's blue-collar working class and the vibrancy of that class, it foreshadows the triumph of Stanley over Stella at the end of the play, and in turn emphasises Williams social comment on 40's America where he can see Stanley and the values of his class replacing those of Blanche and her class.

[kitchen now suggests that sort of lurid nocturnal brilliance...raw colours of childhood's spectrum]scene 3

"Lurid" means unpleasantly bright in color, especially so as to create harsh, unnatural effect ("Lurid").

- The ominous, raw colors foreshadow the crude act of violence which the harsh male figure of Stanley would later perform.

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.

MITCH : "Poker shouldn't be played in a house with women " S3

- Very tradition ideals

- Porrays the violence of the poker game

[come together with low, animal moans]

[STANLEY charges after STELLA]

S3

STELLA : "He smashed al the light-bulbs with the heel of my slipper" S4

Animalistic kind of relationship

[followed by a man's angry roar, shouts, and overturned furniture] S5

- Eunice's husband

- Violence is present in all relationships

- Shows the william's feels that this how a "normal" relaitonship ought to be

- Parallels from his own family

- Trying to depict the idiocracy of the relationships that are based on violence.

BLANCHE:"have got to be seductive- put on soft colors, the colours of butterfly wings and glow"S5

Soft colors as opposed to primary colors

-

Young man : [evening star]

MITCH:"I'II walk over to Bourbon and catch an owl-car"

-

[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.