In literary works, a symbol is an object or image that stands for itself and also for something else. Symbols can be things, but also names, sounds, or actions.
“..I say that symbols are nothing but the natural speech of drama. We all have in our conscious and unconscious minds a great vocabulary of images, and I think all human communication is based on these images as our dreams; and a symbol in a play has only one legitimate purpose which is to say a thing more directly and simply and beautifully than it could be said in words. I hate writing that is a parade of images for the sake of images; I hate it so much that I close a book in disgust when it keeps on saying one thing is like another; I even get disgusted with poems that make nothing but comparisions between one thing and another. But I repeat that symbols, when used respectfully, are the purest language of plays.”
-Tennessee Williams in his foreword for Camino Real, his final work
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/theatre/director-note.html
Find a symbol in the play. Who does it "belong to" and what theme or major idea of the play is it related to? Give some examples.
Alternatively, comment on the theme of self-deception in the play. Obviously, this can most readily be seen in the character of Blanche, but perhaps you can find evidence of this theme in other characters as well.
Finally, this week's trivia question: According to official reports, how did Tennessee Williams die?
40 comments:
Marieke van Lith - DENS3A
I think the paperwork for the estate is a good symbol in this play. Blanche definitely is keeping something from her sister. She is not honest about what happened to the estate and the house they grew up in. Stanley talks about papers that might prove what happened. This would show black in white whether Blanche is keeping money behind. The paperwork might give Stella and Stanley a better life. Stanley makes sure Stella starts to believe there is money in it for her. Finally Blanche gives them all the paperwork but there is nothing to be gained from it for Stanley and Stella. This makes Stanley insane. The idea of there being paperwork or proof there is money in it for them, was keeping him happy and it's gone down the drain.
A second symbol to me is the bath. Blanche feels out of place in Stella's home. She immediately takes a bath to wash it off her. She regularly takes a long bath to hide. Literally and figuratively. She doesn't want to face Stanley and Stella so she locks herself in the bathroom.
Noor Gudden, DENS3A
The name Blanche is a symbol for innocence and purity. It is a French name, which gives it an elitarian air that relates to the former role of the family in their small American town. Blanche does not live up to her name. She should behave like a lady, be polite and sensible with money. She should be honest and true. In real life she is very flirty and loose with several men. We find out that she has spent and lost a considerable amount of money. She lies about things that have happened to her and turns out to be mentally confused. In the play her character turns from white purity to black despair. Everything she should be she is not. She is not what her parents and society expect from her. On the other hand, she is a delicate flower, too frail to deal with the harsh world around her and without a strong figure to protect and comfort her. In that we she lives up to her name.
The play questions roles which we are expected to live up to and whether these roles really make us happy. It is about broken dreams, distorted reality. Also, it shows our human side, nobody is perfect. We have to deal with each others imperfections.
Loïs Berghout
VENS3C
A symbol in the play is the bath and bathing. Blanche locks herself in the bathroom quite often in the duration of the play. This is causes a lot of irritation by Stanley, while Stella defends Blanche. Blanche knowns that she is telling lies and causing trouble and she hides herself in the bathroom. She takes baths to wash away the lies and to hide away from the trouble she’s causing and to hide away from Stella and Stanley. She mainly hides for Stanley, who noticed her lies early on and who she is actually scared of.
Seda Özdemir (0914789)
VENS3C
Symbol: drunkenness
I have chosen the symbol drunkenness. The symbol refers to both Blanche and Stanley since they drink excessively in some parts of the play. However, their manner of drinking differs from each other. Stanley drinks when he is in social situation for example at a bar. Blanche, on the other hand, seems to only drink whenever she is alone. Moreover, she even tries to keep her drinking habit a secret. Eventually, drinking shows its negative results in both of their lives. Stanley becomes violent whereas Blanche becomes so delusional to the point she becomes insane. All in all, drunkenness is a symbol that returns in the play in the lives of two major characters linked to the theme: self-deception.
The symbol I have chosen is the bathing. During the play “A streetcar Named Desire”, Blanche bathes herself. She indicates that she takes these baths to calm her nerves. But, in fact she does it to forget and erase her past. Blanche can never escape the past. Contrary to Blanche, Stanley uses to sober up in order to be able to face the real world. He also took a bath after he beat up Stella to undo the misdeed.
Meryem Ozturk
Vens3c
Felicity Postma - 0881014 - Vens3C
I'm not sure if it can be called a 'symbol' but the polka song 'Varsouviana' was a major sign that Blanche was still haunted by the death of her husband, it was repeated many times, for example, when she tells Mitch and Stanley about her husband's death. The more and more she hears the song, the crazier she gets.
Stella is self-deceptive as well as Blanche, she is so in love with Stanley that she convinced herself Stanley can't do anything wrong and he's a good man to be with and raise a child with.
It has been said that Tennessee Williams died because he choked on a plastic cap of a bottle of eye drops, however, it's far more likely to believe that he accidentally overdosed because his drug and alcohol abuse lowered his tolerance of certain medications.
Besha Mahmood – VENS3C
Symbol: The Streetcar
The car represents the human condition in the play. It also shows the characters actions. In the play "Desire" is a controlling power. When this "Desire" takes over they have to submit to it, as they get carried along to the end.
Symbol: Bathing
In the plays Blanche takes frequent baths to "soothe her nerves." It was an escape for her to cleanse herself and to forget reality. She tries to forget and erase her past but the bathing provides temporary respite as she can never escape her past. For Stanley bathing is to help him sober up so that he can face the real world again.
Symbol: Alcohol and Drunkenness
In the play both Blanche and Stanley drink frequently. When Stanley gets drunk he becomes violent and hits his wife Stella. While as Blanche hided that she drinks, she claims that she rarely drinks while she secretly drinks shots. For her drinking is an escape.
Symbol: Dependening on men
In the story, we see that Stella describes the violence of Stan as 'passion'. For example, when the men are drinking, Stan throws a radio out of the window and hits Stella. Stella in the end accepts this behaviour and flies back into his arms. Blanche was confused. She offered Stella financial support through Shep Huntleigh, but Stella declined. To me, this seemed as if Stella was almost afraid of being on her own. As if the idea of being without a man, seemed illogical.
But looking at Blanche, it seems that she is not very much different. She looks at men as saviors, who could save her from her poverty and bad reputation. When Mitch rejected Blanche, she immediately thought of another man, the rich Huntleigh. With her bad reputation it was already hard for her to find a man that would marry with her, and I feel as if Blanche would take any opportunity to marry a man, as long as he is wealthy and willing to take care of her.
Debbie - VENS3C
The constant bathing of Blanche is a clear symbol. She seems obsessed with being clean, while her conscious isn't clean at all. In this way it seems almost like she wants to wash her own conscious, she wants to wash away the lies she made up, as well as her past. Being physically clean is the only way she can be clean by now, and as such that's what she tries to do.
Bart Neven VENS3C
I like to discuss the theme of self-deception, which is in my opinion, the more interesting thing to talk about.
We have Blanche, a woman who lives inside her own little world. She has had many lovers, however, she acts like she had never experienced any indecencies. This clearly indicates that she is avoiding reality. She prefers to believe her own fabricated little world than to face reality. However, she is not the only woman who refuses to believe reality. When Blanche tells Stella that Stanley does not like her she does not believe her sister. Even when Blanche tells her that she has been raped by Stanley she still does not believe it.
The sisters both choose to believe their own imaginations. Which is very interesting. In the end, they do not differ that much from each other.
Trivia: Williams died suffocating on a plastic bottle cap.
One of the symbols I could find was alcohol and drunkenness. It was evident that a lot of characters in this book relied on alcohol for all kinds of different reasons.
Both Stanley and Blanche, for example, drink quite a lot. Once Stanley gets into his trance of drunkenness, he becomes overly exaggerating in terms of his masculinity. He becomes violent and physical. Stanley makes kind of a show out his drinking, it is as if he wants everyone to know that he drinks. Blanche, however, tries to almost hide her alcoholism, claiming she rarely drinks when it was obvious that she did. To me, it seemed like her drinking behaviours were used as a coping mechanism.
Answer to trivia question: The Chief Medical Examiner of New York City reported that (Tennessee) Williams had choked to death from inhaling the plastic cap of bottle of the type that might contain a nasal spray or eye solution (Wikipedia, 2017)
Zenab Zamil, 0909703, VENS3C
One of the symbols I think I picked up while reading A Streetcar Named Desire was Blanche’ age. She mentions being afraid to tell Mitch her age to Stella and she also changes the subject when he finally asked about it. I think Blanches age might be a symbol for the larger secret she had carried around then. I also believe this, because the secret is still unknown to the readers/audience at the point of the play when she talks about her worries about it to Stella. When she does, she does not mention her actual age – and therefore what she is really afraid of telling Mitch – and this carries forth when Stanley asks how many candles Stella will put on the cake. Stella says, “I’ll stop at twenty-five”, her age – or secret – is still a big mystery to the readers/audience here.
Lisanne Bakker VENS3C
The noticable symbol for A Streetcar Named Desire is the bath / bathing. Blanche hides in bathrooms quite often. She bathes to cleanse, not just her body, but to also rid herself of vile history. Though, it is not just Blanche that does this. Stanley, after hitting Stella, takes a shower. It can be seen as an effort to calm ones nerves.
Another is the music that plays in scene 1, where Blanche is asked about her husband by Stanley. The music plays when Blanche tells the story of her husband to Mitch. (It was the tune Blanche and Allen danced to before he shot himself)
The music, a polka, represents Blanche loss of her former self.
For the moment that she lost her husband and after. Blanche hears the tune every time she panics and loses her ability to separate reality from fantasy
Dalina VENS3C 0883915
There are many symbols in “A Streetcar Named Desire”. However, In the play a notable symbol is bathing. The symbol refers to Blanche. Blanche is looking for a way to escape reality and all the torment she is going through. That’s why throughout the play Blanche bathes herself a lot. Her fixation with taking baths is a symbol for cleansing herself of her past sins. These bathes present image of her effort to clean herself from her reality and to wash of her body of the dirt of everyday life. After taking luxurious baths she feels like a brand new person. She thinks by taking baths she is cleaning her soul. This way she can deal with her past.
Tamara Salem - 0920243 -VENS3C
I think the most obvious symbol in the play is: 'bathing'. Blanche and Stanley both take baths for a strange reason. Blanche's reason is to forget the past, even though she doesn't admit this. She hides in the bathroom, because she doesn't want to face Stanley. For Stanley, taking a bath has a different reason. By taking a bath, Stanley sobers up and prepares himself to go outside.
I think this is quite sad. People should be happy and feel like they are stuck in a bad period of their life
Lisa Aalmers VENS3C
One of the symbols in a Streetcar named Desire is the song Blanche and Allen danced to after Blance walked in on Allen in bed with another man. This dance was the last time Blanche saw her husband before he died, and it reminds her of him and his indiscretion.
The song is first heard in Scene One, when Blance and Stanley talk about Allen.
The second time it occurs when Blanche tells Mitch the story of Allen.
Bedra Mohamud / 0908880 / VENS3C
An interesting symbol in the play was the song ‘Varsouviana’. Blanche could be described as a mentally unstable woman who had a difficult time coping with certain events and letting go of the past. This song is used to represent her mental instability as she slowly disassociates and loses grip on reality. The polka music is played each time she is reminded of her husband or when she is troubled and distressed by the past.
Example 1:
You were married once, weren't you?
[The music of the polka rises up, faint in the distance.]
BLANCHE:
Yes. When I was quite young.
STANLEY:
What happened?
BLANCHE:
The boy -- the boy died.
[She sinks back down]
I'm afraid I'm - going to be sick!
Example 2:
On the table beside chair is a bottle of liquor and a glass. The rapid, feverish polka tune, the "Varsouviana," is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster closing in on her, and she seems to whisper the words of the song.
A pattern can be spotted throughout the play, as it progresses, the ‘Varsouviana’ is played more frequently. This symbolises Blanche’s mental deterioration and slow descent to insanity.
Babette Sutter
VENS3C
An obviously symbol in the book were Blanche’s excessive and obsessive bathing habits. It’s like she’s trying to stay as physically clean as possible, because she has done some horrible things that – mentally – she can’t wash off, kind of like Macbeth. Drinking is also an important symbol. Both Blanche and Stanley drink a lot, and nothing good comes out of it.
As for the theme of self-deception, Blanche is quite a delirious woman. She lives in her own world and pretends she is the self-embodiment of purity, while she has done many horrible things. Stella also deceives herself by holding Stanley in such high regard, even though he hit her (while she was pregnant with his child, might I add) and did horrible things behind her back.
Trivia question: Tennessee Williams choked on a plastic cap of a bottle, but there are other theories about his death.
Yessica van der Veere, VENS3C, 0893804
Blanche seems to be he expert at self-deception, but she is the only one who notices that the relationship between Stella and Stanley is toxic. Everyone else, including Stella deemed it normal that Stanley physically hurt her. This kind of self-deception while in an abusive relationship leads to Stella running back to Stanley every time he physically abuses her.
The same situations occurs with Eunice and Steve. He hits her, she throws something at his head; they drink and make up resetting the time on the clock until it blows up in their faces again.
Cornelis van der Klooster VENS2B
Blanche is a perfect example of someone stuck in their own fabricated reality. The other sister lives the same life even when she's told the truth about Stanley's abusiveness. Everyone (including Stella) just think it normal that he treats her that way. In the end the sisters were much alike, both choosing to live in a lie. This same sort of relationship is seen between Steve and Eunice. Their names are probably stated in the dictionary next to self-deception.
The best example of symbolism in this play is probably the polka that plays in certain scenes with Blanche. It serves as a kind of leitmotif, as it is paired several times with her memories of her late husband, as well as her own mental state.
It isn’t the music itself that matters to her, but rather the way it has become linked to her last memories of her husband. The context is what gives it value, making it her symbol more than anyone else’s. More importantly, it conditions the audience to link the polka and Blanche’s retelling of events. Towards the end, we no longer need to be told she’s having trouble separating fact and fiction, or that she’s thinking of her husband; the music does that all by itself.
Mehmet Coskun - VENS3C
I feel like the immodorate bathing symbolises cleansing. I do not mean physical cleansing, since that wouldn't be much of a symbol. I mean that Blanche washes herself so much to cleanse herself from the past. She tries to forget everything that has happened and wants to get rid of her past. Stanly washes himself to clear his mind and get his head straight during intoxication. They're both trying to get rid of mental demons by washing themselves physically.
I believe that the names of the characters carry a symbolic meaning, therefore I will exemplify one character, Stella.The English translation of the Latin word Stella is star. Stars in general are considered to be the light which breaks through the darkness.
Stella's role in the play is revealed by the deep significance of her name. The symbol of a star illustrates light, hope and stability. These characteristics are reflected in the piece, since she has a relationship with Blanche and Stanley. She possesses characteristics of both characters, therefore she can empathize with both worlds. Blanche and Stella share the same background and belonged to what was once a very rich and powerful family. On the other hand, it is obvious that there is a sexual relationship between Stella and her husband Stanley. For this reason, I think that she can be regarded as a balanced and mild-mannered woman. It is clear that she mediates numerous times between the two so very different characters.
In conclusion, Stella lives up to her name, both characters can always rely on her solid, steady presence.
Bea Viergever DENS3A
Throughout the play Blanches bathing routines come forward as a major symbol for impurity. Blanch, a disturbed character in the play, uses the rinsing of her body in such a manner that the reader/viewer might interpret this as more than a physical cleaning routine. Blanche portrays herself as a woman who enjoys the finer things in life such as luxuries perfume and quality clothing items. Her personality quickly becomes the balancing act between who she portrays to be and who she we really is. Blanche uses the bath as way of escaping from her current reality including the people and the surroundings she finds herself in but even more so Blanch chooses to keep up the delusion to herself by soaking up her reality to become the woman she wants to be which eventually catches up with her as the balance between reality and the fictional persona Blanche created collide and eventually lead to her demise.
Finally, this week's trivia question: According to official reports, how did Tennessee Williams die?
It was reported by the chief medical examiner that Williams died from choking due to inhaling a plastic cap of some sort (from either a nasal spray or eye solution).
One of the symbols in this play is “playing poker or cards”. Playing cards is obviously a game in which one can enrich himself by winning. The men who were playing poker (Stanly, Mitch and their friends) didn’t have much money or at least had to work hard for the money they owned. Playing cards is a simple way in which you can feel as if you’re getting rich whenever you have the right cards. Playing poker therefor stands as a symbol of freedom or a way out of the poor region they’re living in.
As a lot of my classmates mentioned in the previous posts I also like to mention that drinking is another symbol in this play. Stanley and Blanche do a lot of drinking during the play which to me can also be seen as a way out. Drinking distorts ones reality for a few hours and brings some strange feeling of mental freedom with it, or at least makes you think it does. Blanche is obviously a troubled person. I didn’t figure out if she was honest or not but I think both don’t apply to her. I think she’s mentally ill, a liar who believes her own lies but on the other hand knows they’re not true and therefor she starts drinking whenever someone mentions that she’s lying.
To end my post I’d like to mention that I couldn’t figure out why the play is called “a streetcar named desire”. Though the car is mentioned two or tree times in the play I didn’t quite understand what the meaning or purpose of this car was.
Claudia Crenshaw DENS3A
Belle Reve, the name of Stella and Blanche’s ancestral home is a symbol of delusion. The name is inaccurate French for ‘beautiful dream’, thereby symbolizing that their home and its supposed greatness was founded on false pretenses. Blanche lives in a dream world based on delusions of grandeur. Her posturing revolves around a world of old Southern gentility and wealth when in reality Belle Reve was rife with debauchery and mismanagement of money. Blanche was forced to live with Stella and Stanley because there was no money, but she continues to romantically portray her life at Belle Reve throughout the play.
In reality, Blanche had to foreclose on the property due to bankruptcy. Stanley is the one who discovers that she has had many sexual relations with men, including one with a student that led to her dismissal from her teaching job. Blanche for all her talk was run out of town because of her promiscuous lifestyle. Moreover, she did not have any money to her name. Belle Reve is therefore not an apt name for the house, but rather symbolizes the artifice of the Dubois family. Blanche continues the legacy of her predecessors to feign Southern elegance and virtue. But it is a charade for which she ultimately pays too high of a price, namely her sanity.
Dagmar Dubois DENS3A
The recurrence of Blanches excessive bathing rituals can be considered a major symbol in this play. As a reader/viewer, this habit comes off as rather obsessive - as if it’s supposed to mean something else. The physical act of bathing is obviously to get rid of anything that shouldn’t belong. Yet the figurative meaning behind it seems more complex. It is as if Blanche wants to rid herself of of her past and things she has experienced. Perhaps we can even say that her excessive bathing is more for her mental well-being rather than her physical state. The fact that she locks herself in the bathroom and spends so much time there could indicate that for Blanche, the bathroom symbolizes her own kind of safe haven from reality.
Blanche shows recurring traits of self-deception. She has the ability to “check-out” from reality and believes that she is absolutely pure and innocent. This is an interesting characteristic as she definitely doesn’t have a clean slate. Stella also shows these traits as she chooses to keep going back to Stanley even though she really knows he treats her horribly.
Symbol: Alcohol
Both Blanche and Stanley drink alcohol frequently. Stanley becomes violent when he is drunk and his Stella. While for Blanche alcohol in an escape.
The story is about a woman who lived a rough past with her husband and an affair he had with a man. After that incident she started to be mean at her job in a school. In addition, she had an affair with one of her students, so she got fired. She had money but at this point she was broke and lost her mansion. She went to look for her sister and started living with her. It was a small two-rooms house in which her sister and her sister’s husband lived. While living with them, Blanche fell in love, but because of her superior attitude her sister’s husband and her didn’t treat each other very well. Months later he told the boy Blanche was in love with everything she did in her past. Her love left her. Her sister’s husband hurts and abuses her. At the end she is taken to a special place with doctors and nurses, because she went nuts.
Obviously, the bathing of Blanche is a symbol in this play. All the bathing rituals refer to Blanche trying to get rid of everything that is not pure. One could say that the bathing rituals refer to a christening, because of the Christian meaning. Getting baptised is also a symbol about getting rid of everything that is unpure before God.
Martijn van Oudheusden
DENS3A
Ercan Yilmaz DENS3A
The theme of self-deception is most visible in the character of Blanche. She still pretends to be an English teacher while she actually lost her job, making an impression of a classy Southern Belle while in reality she’s exhausted and poor.
At the end of the day Stella who chooses to play down and accept Stanley’s violent behavior.
Her greatest act of self-deception seems to be her denial, or the fact that she’s unwilling to admit to herself and others (=self-deception) that Stanley raped Blanche.
Some colours used by Tennessee Williams
Since 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 features. One could think that Blanche is a very innocent and pure person, but throughout the play it becomes clear that Blanche cannot call any of these qualities her own.
Her last name, however, stands in contrast to her first name. ‘Made of wood’ suggests something solid and more stable, 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 different men, this could also refer to the many trees in a forest.
Throughout the play Williams also uses the colour blue to express masculinity, authority and honesty to describe the nature of characters such as Stanley and Mitch.
Later, in scene nine, Mitch “comes around the corner in work clothes. In this scene he meets Blanche, who is wearing her red satin robe. The confrontation of the colours red and blue, symbolises the confrontation between femininity and masculinity.
One of the most noticeable symbols for me is bathing. Bathing is used as a way of getting rid of old sins, washing away the bad and evil. Also, bathrooms play a big part in this story as Blanche hides in bathrooms quite often.
Another symbol is self deception. Blanche acting as if she still was an English teacher is probably the best example of this.
Trivia: Died from choking on a plastic cap
Water is a symbol in the story. Blanche constantly bathes in order to feel clean. As if she can wash away her “sins” and erase her past. She is obsessed with bathing. She also seems to use it to escape her contemporary reality. She is in reality unable to escape her past.
Bathing is also a symbol of youth. She is very fixated on her appearance and wants to look younger than she actually is.
In contrast Stanley uses water in order to sober up and get a grip on reality.
Symbolism 2:
The Varsouviana Polka
A tune she danced with with Allan Grey before he died. Everytime she thinks or hear the tune she feels guilty about Allan’s death. His death was also a turning point in her life as this is when she started having mental problems. The tune also symbolizes her losing control over reality
Self deception:
Stanley: convinces himself that Blanche represents everything he dislikes in a woman, he looks down on her fantasy world. But he is actually attracted to her.
Stella: she is convinced her husband is a good man and refuses to believe what Blanche is trying to tell her about her husband. She chooses to believe his words instead of that of her sister.
Hamilton Sousa Pires
A Streetcar Named Desire is steeped in symbolism. To mention a few:
Light: Blanche puts paper lanterns over the bare light bulbs in Stella and Stanley’s house. She feels uncomfortable in harsh light as she tries to shield herself from the truth.
Later in the play deceives Mitch by telling him she’s Stella’s younger sister. The dimmed light helps her revealing her true age.
After her confession to Mitch she explains to him that true love equals illumination, and since she’s lost her true love she’s been wanting to hide in dimmed light. She describes her true love as follows: ‘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’ (Scene VI, page 56)
Music: The reappearing hints of the ‘Varsouviana’Polka symbolize her feeling of guilt about her husband’s suicide.
The sound of the ‘blue piano’ is a symbol for the atmosphere of the French Quartier, a neighborhood in New Orleans, where the play is set.
Bathing: Blanche takes baths very frequently. It symbolizes her relentless urge to cleanse herself from her ‘dirty’ past.
Poker game: Symbolizes Stanley’s virility, to which Blanche secretly feels attracted.
Streetcar: symbolizes sexual desire, the ‘engine’ that makes all the characters tick.
Martin Steegmans – Dens2A
The theme of self-deception is apparant in Blanche’s character. During the course of the play her increasing ‘use’ self-deception functions as a magical coping device for Blanche. Never in her life did Blanche has to survive in the real world. She grew up in the isolated higher classes in the south, rendering her an incapable relic from the old times living in the ever more changing new world of immigrants of social mobility.
Therefor Blanche exchanges the fake reality of her families wealth after her families estate, her reputation and job are lost. She exchanges this for the surreality of an escape into the arms of a wealthy genteel savior. Eventualy, as her reality becomes more and more difficult she loses sight of this and flees unconsciously into her self-created fake reality, therefor making the self-deception complete.
Her self-deception is probably unconscious as she sings the song of ‘the paper moon’. This songs serves to illustrate Blanches fantasy/conviction that when two loved ones believe the same fake reality, this fake reality eventually becomes the reality. This scene is set against the reality of Stanley introducing Stella to the true past and actions of Blanche in Laurel.
Trivia: According to official reports Tennessee Williams died by choking on a medicine-bottle cap. This happened at the Elysée Hotel in New York in an incident involving alcohol.
I believe that the use of light, especially with the paper lantern, in relation to Blanche is a very relevant symbol in this story. On the one hand, because Blanche feels like she’s getting older and doesn’t want her flaws to show. At one point Mitch says:
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in the light. That’s a fact!” and then he continues “You never want to go out in the afternoon. […] You never want to go out till after six and then it’s always someplace that’s not lighted much.” Finally saying “What it means is, I’ve never had a real good look at you.” (Scene 9, lines 28-36).
But I believe it goes beyond Blanche’s insecurity about her appearances. I believe that she is also hiding her shame from her past. Keeping those secrets in the dark. Something I’ve noticed most when she talked about her first love, as it’s a clear contrast.
“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.”
The positive feeling of love brings a blinding light, while she hides the negative feelings of her past in the shadows.
Andrea Moreira Santos 0765744
Throughout the pay, Blanche frequently hears a polka tune: the varsouviana polka. Blanche and her husband were dancing to this tune when, suddenly, Blanche tells Allen how disgusted she is by his homosexuality. He then goes home to take his own life. Blanche is haunted by his death and feels remorse whenever she hears this tune.
The suicide of her young husband triggered her mental stability, she loses grip on reality everytime when in panic.
Saliha Ballah
0860327
DENS3A
Self deception:
Stella, Stanley and Blanche all are in a web of self-deception. In Stanley’s case, the moment he meets Blanche is a moment of distrust and he is convinced that she is the root of all evil, where everything she does is disliked. Yet when he is in a state of intoxication he feels attracted to her.
Stella can’t believe her husband has done something wrong and refuses to believe the accusation of Stanley raping Blanche. Even where there is proof that Stanley crossed a line when he showed abusive behavior, she still thinks the best of him.
Blanche has been through a lot of misdemeanors and has made a lot of mistakes, but still she convinces herself that everything is going alright and there are no problems. She hangs onto this believe until it drives her mad.
0880341
Ed Kraak
DENS3A
Symbol: Music
Williams uses music in A Streetcar named Desire to subliminally convey Blanche Dubois’s emotions. While the “Blue Piano” is used to show a sense of desperation and loneliness in the character, the “Varsouviana Polka” is employed to signify a confrontation with Blanche’s past and conveying her anxieties. The song “It’s only a paper moon” ties together Williams’ view of Blanche, that her deception and lies only succeed when other people believe her, and it only takes one person to tear them apart.
Melisa Maria VENS3C
Symbol: Sex and death
I think Blanche is afraid of dying and this is visible in her fears of aging and the loss of her beauty. She will not share her age with anyone and will not enter harsh lights afraid that it will reveal her real ‘’old’’ self. She thinks that if she has sexual relations, especially with younger man, she will remain beautiful and avoid death by staying young.
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