Presentation of Power, Wealth, Gender, and Identity through truth and illusion

What is the significance of Belle Reve as a symbol?

• “Beautiful Dream” = something tantalising, unreachable, forever in the past

• Spelt incorrectly; should be “Bel” = superficiality, and flawed

• = Blanche’s appearance of wealth is an ILLUSION - wholly superficial

Scene ? ‘[] suit with a [] []’

S1: White, Fluffy

“White suit with a fluffy bodice” meanings

• suit”: formality, tightness = uncertain/unconfident

  • attempt at POWER: preservation of class/status above everything

• “fluffy bodice”: excessive, covering her body, superfluous

  • POWER is performative

  • Due to her GENDER and her fallen class position (POWER), Blanche’s sense of IDENTITY is weak, so she has to cling to ILLUSION

• “white” - purity yet faintness/deathliness. Untainted/innocent, angelic

  • GENDER ROLE: Blanche has to maintain an ILLUSION of purity and innocence to retain power as an upper class woman - idea of the Fallen Woman (link to Rossetti)

S? ‘[] [] robe”

S2 - before first interaction with Stanley - red, satin

S9 - before confrontation with Mitch - scarlet, satin

meaning: ‘red/scarlet satin robe’

• A source of POWER:

  • Through GENDER: ‘robe’ (sensual), colour symbol of red - violence and sexuality - usually for Stanley

  • Through WEALTH: ‘satin’ is a rich fabric

• However, is in fact a higher form of illusion:

  • S2: Blanche trying to prove herself equal to Stanley

  • S9: Blanche exposed, illusion of “purity” shattered - FORCED to resort to sexuality

  • GENDER ROLES: women forced to gain power through their sexuality

Significance of the Trunk?

• symbol for Blanche’s history and protectiveness

  • A yonic symbol - her gender

  • but also for the OLD SOUTH and its fall - reduced to a single trunk!

  • so = reality/vulnerability of Blanche’s power = TRUTH

‘[] it roughly open” , “[] open/out”

S2, shoves, jerks

significance: ‘shoves it roughly open’, ‘jerks’

• erratic, careless, but also EASILY

  • semantic field of violence: repetition of ‘jerks’

• Stanley, an agent of TRUTH, brutally shatters the illusion of the Old South in search of reality

  • In doing so he violates Blanche and undermines her POWER

  • Thus showing the intangible nature of Blanche’s power, and the physical tangibility of Stanley’s. POWER IS TRUTH AND VIOLENCE.

“a somewhat [] and [] white dress”

S10, soiled, crumpled

‘He [] [] her [] []”

end of S10: picks up, inert figure

Significance: ‘He picks up her inert figure’

Full realisation of power dynamic through violence

• ‘picks up’ - again, easiness, but also an air of elegance - Stanley’s COMPLETE security in his status

• ‘inert figure’ - again, Blanche helpless. But now not even fighting vocally; as if dead - FINAL DESTRUCTION OF THE VALUES OF THE OLD SOUTH, of ILLUSION by TRUTH

• Complete sympathy of audience towards Blanche

‘[]! Drop the bottle-top! [] []!”

end of S10: Tiger-tiger, Drop it

Significance: “Tiger-tiger! Drop the bottle-top! Drop it!

• Repetition: completely at ease, as if talking to a dog or child

  • Zoomorphised and infantilised: a reversal of SOCIAL roles!

    • before, Blanche’s power was all from her mental manipulation of Stanley. Now even that falls apart!

What is the contextual significance of Stanley’s victory over Blanche?

• A cynical portrayal of the changing balance of forces prior to the 1940s - the decline of the Old South and its romanticised way of life (an ILLUSION), in favour of New America, brutal, fast-paced, and industrial (TRUTH).

• Portrayed to convey Williams’ own view: “the ravishment of the tender, the sensitive, the delicate, by the savage and brutal forces of modern society.”

‘Come buy our [] []

[] [], [] [] !’

Orchard fruits, come buy, come buy

Significance: “Come buy our orchard fruits// Come buy, come buy!’

• possessive: ‘our’ - goblins hold power through their WEALTH/dominance in the social structure

  • also through dialogue - they talk whilst the sisters listen

  • equation of wealth and sexuality

• ‘Fruits’ - disrupts rhyme scheme = uncanny - again, social dominance presented negatively

• Yet repetition of spondaic “Come buy” = desperate for recognition, empty/purposeless - no IDENTITY

‘She [] a precious [] []”

clipp’d, golden lock

Significance: ‘She clipp’d a precious golden lock’

• ‘clipp’d’: careless yet ACTIVE = POWER

  • agency in own downfall - like Eve

• “golden lock”:

  • golden = commodity/purity/chastity

  • lock = DOUBLE MEANING:

    • hair: only down in bedroom (so a sexual act); a lock given to one’s fiancé

    • a literal lock: being clipped = freedom granted through sexuality

  • Thus, like Blanche, female POWER is found through SEXUALITY and ILLUSION. Laura rejects her chastity and innocence in favour of freedom, but in doing so also sacrifices her IDENTITY.

‘[] her hair out by the []”

Twitch’d, roots

Significance: “Twitch’d her hair out by the roots”

• Forcible seizure of currency/virginity (again, they are almost synonymous)

  • ‘Twitch’d’: violent verb

  • ‘by the roots’: male power is graphic, visceral

    • power fully realised: as opposed to a “lock”

‘Like the [] of a town

Which an [] [] down’

watch-tower, earthquake, shatters

‘Like a [] []

[] down headlong into the []’

foam-topp’d, waterspout, cast, sea

Significance: “Like the watch-tower of a town// Which an earthquake shatters down”, ‘Like a foam-topp’d waterspout// Cast down headlong into the sea’

• Destruction of phallic symbols = destruction of male power:

  • watch-tower: surveillance - another power symbol

  • foam topp’d waterspout - euphemism - satirising male sex-obsession - mental victory

  • ‘shattered’ - a VIOLENT verb - despite being metaphysical, still shows importance of violence to power - physical victory

• destroyed by nature = something GENUINE! So again, the victory of TRUTH over DECEPTION (of the goblins and their fruit)

What influenced Rossetti’s handling of societal questions?

Her romanticism and feminist activism:

• like Williams, believed in the superiority of past ways of life over modern capitalism

• BUT unlike Williams, was a fierce optimist - both ideologies lent themselves to this, utopian thinking a wider current of the century

  • thus able to dream of a utopian future = victory of nature, simple living, tradition, and WOMEN over capitalism and MEN

‘“[] got a [] place here” he said, his eyes [] about []"‘

Ch1 I’ve, nice, flashing, restlesly

Significance: ‘“I’ve got a nice place here,” he said, his eyes flashing about restlessly’

• Personal pronoun: “I” - disregarding of Daisy & Jordan - power lies with man

• “got” - possession - an achievement - personal importance of wealth

• ‘flashing about restlessly” - unsettled, anxious, like light

  • preoccupation with appearance and superficiality!!!

“[] boat that [] the tide”, “a [] blew through the room”

Ch1, motor, bumped, breeze

Significance: “motor-boat that bumped the tide”, “a breeze blew through the room”

semantic field of motion going nowhere, lack of purpose

“as though upon an [] []”

ch1, anchored balloon

Significance: “as though upon an anchored balloon”

• Floating+ simile = impossible = delusion as the preserve of the wealthy

  • so, again, POWER = ILLUSION

  • only in this case, this is not as a survival method, but as a luxury

    • in line with the direction of Fitzgerald’s critique of the excesses of the Jazz Age

• But [anchored] relates to gender roles - even though they are of equal wealth, Daisy & Jordan are restricted by men - in this case, Buchanan, who “[balloons] them slowly to the floor”

‘the motor road [] joins the railroad… so as to [] [] from a certain [] area of land’

Ch2, hastily, shrink away, desolate

Significance: ‘the motor road hastily joins the railroad… so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land’

• symbology: motor road, railroad = wealth and social mobility. ‘road’ as upper class, ‘railroad’ as the middle class.

  • But both unite in their distain: “shrink away”, “hastily”(advb), personified (delusion) - both terror and disgust towards poverty

    • unable even to name the Valley of Ashes!

  • Once again, the luxury of the rich in being able to delude themselves!

‘a line of [] cars [] along an [] [],… and comes to a []”

Ch2, grey, crawls, invisible track, rest

Significance: ‘a line of grey cars crawls along an invisible track,… and comes to a rest”

• Continued personification by Nick - privilege

  • colour symbolism: grey = hopeless, desolate, but also brutally real: for workers, there are no delusions, no WHITE, instead everything is dyed grey.

    • STRONG PARALLEL WITH BLANCHE’S “soiled and crumpled white dress”: DESOLATE TRUTH

• ‘line’: orderly, predictable - dehumanising

• ‘invisible track’ is fate, which ends in inevitable death. Completely fucking hopeless omg.

  • both the workers and CAPITALISM as a whole

  • EVERYONE LOSES

CH? ‘In his [] gardens [] and [] came and went like []’

CH3: blue, men, girls, moths

Meaning: ‘in his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths’

• ‘blue’ symbolism: juxtaposed with ‘gardens‘ = lurid, artificial, dreamlike, ethereal - POWER OF THE OUTSIDER THROUGH ILLUSION

  • again, wealth = privilege of illusion

  • decadence of the Jazz Age

• “moths” = fragile ILLUSIONS and IDENTITIES

  • attracted through instinct towards transient “light” - wealth - lack of IDENTITY

  • DIRECT COMPARISON TO BLANCHE: “moth-like” - CORRUPTION OF WEALTH UPON IDENTITY

  • except for Blanche, this is temporary - whereas in Gatsby the American Dream is irredeemable

CH? ‘the [] room of all… except… [] [] gold. Daisy [] the brush…’

ch5, simplest, pure dull, took

Significance: ‘the simplest room of all… except… pure dull gold. Daisy took the brush…’

• ‘simplest’: contrast with parties: Gatsby’s true self

  • Vulnerable, seeking acceptance from Daisy

  • Outsiders able to balance between truth and illusion, still value non-material things - the only HOPE in society

• ‘pure dull gold’: Daisy’s REJECTION of truth, and Gatsby

  • reason that Gatsby uses illusion: to appeal to Daisy. Illusion is synonymous with wealth

  • oxymoron: superficiality of materialism (cynicism)

Significance of the green light?

• symbol of Gatsby’s illusion: his idealisation of Daisy, and thus the wealth she represents

• Most importantly, the green light lies across the bay, OUT OF REACH

  • Essentially, Gatsby’s version of Belle Reve: only for the American Dream instead of the Old South

• Green: happiness and hope, but also greed, wealth, jealousy and illness: Gatsby’s idealisation is toxic.

  • CH9 “the orgastic future”

Overall presentation of power in Gatsby?

• Power is undefined, and rather than through wealth or violence, is expressed as the freedom of escapism

• This freedom is held only by the class of “Old Money”. But even these people are uncomfortable, living amongst delusion

• The poor are exposed to a brutal, desolate, industrial truth which they cannot escape

• Some people attempt to climb the social ladder. But such attempts are doomed to fail: they are fragile and easily crushed. Leads to DEATH

Broadly, society is hopeless, and no class is happy. Reflects Fitzgerald’s cynical attitude towards the American Dream.