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‘Soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown’
parody of a wedding dress
Deterioration of her facade is shown in her costume - her perfect clothes are now creased, suggests she has been exposed, reflects idea she is no longer as pure as audience thought
Also reflects her mental state
[The bottle cap pops off and a geyser of foam shoots up. Stanley laughs happily, holding up the bottle over his head.]
STANLEY: When the telephone rings and they say, ‘You’ve got a son’, I’ll tear this off and wave it like a flag.
Stanley doesn’t know what gender the baby is
Highlights the importance of men in a patriarchal society - Blanche begins to feel effects of this preference
BLANCHE: Physical beauty is passing. A transitory possession. But beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart […] aren’t taken away, but grow.
Williams suggests Blanche understands a lot more than the audience originally believes
She recognises she cannot stay young forever, but she needs youth to attract men
Obsession with beauty is mor pitiful as without it she cannot be protected/secure - society suggests it prefers clean women over young and beautiful ones as Mitch didn’t care about her age but did care about her lies
Audience can see what Blanche truly values, attempting to convince herself she it still desirable despite her fading beauty
BLANCHE: deliberate cruelty is not forgivable
evokes sympathy for Blanche as she empanels how various men in her life have been cruel to her
However, she was cruel to Stanley and to Allan which she will never forgive herself for
[lurid reflections appear on the walls around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque menacing form.]
animalistic imagery highlights Stanley’s animalistic nature - emphasises Blanche’s complete vulnerability
[The barely audible ‘blue piano’ begins to drum up louder. The sound of it turns into the roar of an approaching locomotive.]
the piano, which symbolises Blanche, is drowned out by the train which symbolises Stanley e.g. New America drowning out the Old South.
[The inhuman jungle voices rise up.]
bestiality Blanche has tried to hard to avoid has caught up with her
STANLEY: Oh! So you want some rough-house! All right, let’s have some rough-house!
Inclusive pronoun suggests both of the together - removing the blame for him, as if they are both responsible
He wants resistance so he can win - everything is a game to Stanley
[He springs towards her, overturning the table. She cries and strikes at him with the bottle top but he catches her wrist.]
physically attacking him, but she threatens him back
Entertaining for him how easy she is to overpower
STANLEY: Tiger - Tiger!
animalistic insult reveals Stanley sees Blanche as a threat just as she sees him - both use animalistic insults
Predator, exotic, ‘cat fight’, derogatory
STANLEY: We’ve had this date with each other from the beginning.
fate/inevitability - implication it was only a matter of time before Stanley asserted his dominance of Blanche
May also suggest Blanche’s time in the modern world was running
She was “incongruous” from the beginning, therefore Blanche was living on borrowed time and it has now run out
Idea that Blanche’s as born into a role she could not fulfill, suggesting it was going to happen - dates motif 15th September is Blanche’s birthday but also anniversary of the Battle of Salerno as well as the day that Stella is in labour - all interlinked suggests inevitability
[The hot trumpet and drums from the Four Deuces sound loudly.]
piano has gone - desire gone
Blanche completely overpowered
