a streetcar named desire

in Scene Seven, Blanche sings this popular ballad while she bathes. The song's lyrics describe the way love turns the world into a "phony" fantasy. The speaker in the song says that if both lovers believe in their imagined reality, then it's no longer "make-believe." These lyrics sum up Blanche's approach to life. She believes that her fibbing is only her means of enjoying a better way of life and is therefore essentially harmless. simultaneously when Blanche is singing her fanatical thoughts away, Williams ironically juxtaposes Stanley's description of Blanche's real nature. In reality, Blanche is a sham who feigns propriety and sexual modesty. Once Mitch learns the truth about Blanche, he can no longer believe in Blanche's tricks and lies.

"its only a paper moon"

Blanche avoids appearing in direct, bright light, especially in front of her suitor, Mitch. The light exposes truth; light is harsh and critical, which is why Blanche hates it so much. She places a Chinese lantern over the harsh bright bulb in the apartment. this is a means of hiding her true self, and allows her to live in a fantasy world. She believes that magic, rather than reality, represents life as it ought to be. Blanche's inability to tolerate light means that her grasp on reality is also nearing its end. she refuses to go on dates with Mitch during the daytime or to well-lit locations. Mitch points out Blanche's avoidance of light in Scene Nine, when he confronts her with the stories Stanley has told him of her past. Mitch then forces Blanche to stand under the direct light. She also refuses to reveal her age, and it is clear that she avoids light in order to prevent him from seeing the reality of her fading beauty. In general, light also symbolizes the reality of Blanche's past being in love with her husband, Allan Grey, was like having the world revealed in bright, vivid light. Since Allan's suicide, Blanche says, the bright light has been missing. Through all of Blanche's inconsequential sexual affairs with other men, she has experienced only dim light. Bright light, therefore, represents Blanche's youthful sexual innocence, while poor light represents her sexual maturity and disillusionment.

Light and the Chinese lantern: is a motif supporting the theme of illusion vs reality.

The Blue Piano represents the present. Williams describes the sound as a 'tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers. This 'blue piano' expresses the spirit of life' (stage directions, scene one)

The blue piano

the poker game is symbolic of the violence within relationships as the last time they played poker (scene ) Stanley hit stella powerful setting she has to face the men as she leaves with the doctor she shows vulnerability as she has to walk past them mitch sobs

poker game in scene 11

in act 1, scene 2 the motif of bathing is introduced. she bathes constantly, so as to soothe her nerves. -The constant need for baths symbolises her need for emotional, spiritual and mental cleansing and rejuvenation, as though the bathwater were a Fountain of Youth. -By taking baths, she subconsciously hopes to cleanse her sins away. - The baths annoy Stanley since hot baths make the apartment even hotter. and significantly increases tension between characters. - She says that steaming hot baths are necessary to calm her nerves. The bathing motif foreshadows the eventual revelation of her sordid past. she desires to rid herself of her social blemishes and start over again after leaving Laurel.

ablutions (bathing)

white blue grey red

colours

His cruelty, combined with Blanche's fragile, insecure personality, leaves her mentally detached from reality by the play's end. Stanley treats Blanche cruelly during her birthday dinner, giving her a bus ticket back to Laurel as a present,

cruelty

Throughout the play death and desire are intricately linked, suggesting that unbridled sexual desire leads to isolating darkness and eventually death. beginning in Scene One, Williams suggests that Blanche's sexual history is in fact a cause of her downfall. The whole play in one line: "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!" This journey, the precursor to the play, allegorically represents the trajectory of Blanche's life. The Elysian Fields are the land of the dead in Greek mythology. "Death is the opposite of desire." "Flores para los muertos!" She is obsessed with youth, and she uses sex (sometimes with youths) to avoid death and return to the world of teenage bliss she experienced before her husband's suicide. but conversely, it leads her to death. After having many sordid affairs, she retreats into the shadows—literally and figuratively. Blanche's fear of death manifests itself in her fears of aging and of lost beauty. She refuses to tell anyone her true age or to appear in harsh light that will reveal her faded looks. Her husband's suicide results from her disapproval of his homosexuality. In Scene Nine, when the Mexican woman appears selling "flowers for the dead," Blanche reacts with horror because the woman announces Blanche's fate. Her fall into madness can be read as the ending brought about by her dual flaws—her inability to act appropriately on her desire and her desperate fear of human mortality.

death and desire

Both Blanche and Stella see male companions as their only means to achieve happiness, and they depend on men for both their sustenance and their self-image. Blanche realises that Stella could be happier without her physically abusive husband, Stanley. Yet, the alternative Blanche proposes—contacting Shep Huntleigh for financial support—still involves complete dependence on men after Mitch and Blanches relationship goes pear shaped, Blanche instantly thinks of another man, Shep Huntleigh who might rescue her. Because Blanche cannot see around her dependence on men, she has no realistic conception of how to rescue herself. Blanche sees marriage to Mitch as her means of escaping destitution. She sees marriage as her only possibility for survival Men's exploitation of Blanche's sexuality has left her with a poor reputation. Stella chooses to rely on, love, and believe in a man instead of her sister. this is evident in the last 2 scenes when Stella chooses to rely on Stanley instead of Blanch after he raped her. this lead to blanch ultimately being taken to a mental asylum. Blanche does not realize that her dependence on men will lead to her downfall rather than her salvation. By relying on men, Blanche puts her fate in the hands of others.

dependence on men

Both Stanley and Blanche drink frequently throughout the play. Blanches constant drinking symbolises her inability to cope with reality and her desire to forget the past. Blanches drinking= anti-social. She tries to keep it a secret. She drinks on the sly in order to withdraw from harsh reality. constantly claiming that she rarely drinks while secretly sneaking frequent shots. She uses drinking as an escape mechanism. A state of drunken stupor enables her to take a flight of imagination, such as concocting a getaway with Shep Huntleigh. she deludes herself when drunk. Stanley's drinking= social. he drinks with his friends at the bar, during their poker games, and to celebrate the birth of his child. When Stanley gets drunk, his masculinity becomes exaggerated: he grows increasingly physical, violent, and brutal. he is open about drinking, pouring himself shots in front of people. drinking leads to destructive behavior

drunkenness

The play thematically embraces the notion that reality is cruel and that we must forgive people's dependence on lies or illusions. the play is a work of social realism. Williams dramatizes fantasy's inability to overcome reality through an exploration of the boundary between exterior and interior. the use of a flexible set allows the street to be seen at the same time as the interior of the home. This expresses the notion that the home is not a domestic sanctuary. we can see and hear the life of the real world outside: fights, vendors, flashing lights- not a sanctuary from reality. the characters leave the apartment throughout the play, bringing problems in with them, one great example is just before Stanley rapes Blanche, when the back wall of the apartment becomes transparent to show the struggles occurring on the street, foreshadowing the violation that is about to take place in the Kowalskis' home. Blanche explains to Mitch that she fibs because she refuses to accept the hand fate has dealt her. Lying to herself and to others allows her to make life appear as it should be rather than as it is. Stanley, a practical man firmly grounded in the physical world who has common sense disdains Blanche's fabrications and does everything he can to unravel them. he shines the light on Blanche's secret past. Blanche tells many lies over the course of the play to protect her own fragile ego. "A woman's charm is 50% illusion." Illusions: her age, her appearance, her purity, rhinestones, fake furs, perfume, Chinese lantern, the telegram from Shep Huntleigh. The antagonistic relationship between Blanche and Stanley is a struggle between appearances and reality. It propels the play's plot and creates an overarching tension. Ultimately, Blanche's attempts to remake her own and Stella's existences—to rejuvenate her life and to save Stella from a life with Stanley—fail. reality triumphs over fantasy. At the end of the play, Blanche's retreat into her own private fantasies enables her to partially shield herself from reality's harsh blows. Blanche's insanity emerges as she retreats fully into herself, leaving the objective world behind in order to avoid accepting reality. In order to escape fully, however, Blanche must come to perceive the exterior world as that which she imagines in her head. Thus, objective reality is not an antidote to Blanche's fantasy world; rather, Blanche adapts the exterior world to fit her delusions. In both the physical and the psychological realms, the boundary between fantasy and reality is permeable. Blanche's final, deluded happiness suggests that, to some extent, fantasy is a vital force at play in every individual's experience, despite reality's inevitable triumph.

fantasy vs. reality

in Scene 8, when Stanley gives Blanche tickets back to Laurel on the Greyhound as a "birthday remembrance" (Scene 8, p110). The name of the ticket, "Greyhound" is significant, as greyhounds are dogs bred for hunting and racing. This suggests that Blanche is the game of Stanley's hunt, and will become his meat. At this moment, "The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing" (Scene 8, p111). The music continues to Scene 9, which opens with "The music is in [B

meat

Famous last line of the play: "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." described the play as "a plea for the gentle kind"—those of us who are fragile or broken. Blanche's dramatic need throughout the play is for kindness and comfort—something that the world of reality, masculinity, and blinding light does not provide. "The only thing that is unforgivable is deliberate cruelty."—Blanche DuBois Throughout the play, note how Stella "waits on" her sister. This is the nurturing she needs.

the kindness of strangers

Stanley represents a very unrefined manhood, a Romantic idea of man untouched by civilization and its effeminizing influences. His appeal is clear: Stella cannot resist him, and even Blanche, though repulsed, is on some level drawn to him. Stanley's unrefined nature also includes a terrifying amorality. The service of his desire is central to who he is; he has no qualms about driving his sister-in-law to madness, or raping her.

the primitive and the primal

The Varsouviana represents the past. It was the music playing when Blanche's first husband killed himself. It plays on an almost endless loop in Blanche's head and is always accompanied by a gunshot. Each piece of music also represents life and death Blanche associates the polka with her young husband's suicide. in Scene 8, when Stanley gives Blanche tickets back to Laurel on the Greyhound as a "birthday remembrance" (Scene 8, p110). The name of the ticket, "Greyhound" is significant, as greyhounds are dogs bred for hunting and racing. This suggests that Blanche is the game of Stanley's hunt, and will become his meat. At this moment, "The Varsouviana music steals in softly and continues playing" (Scene 8, p111). The music continues to Scene 9, which opens with "The music is in [B

varsouviana polka music