Blanche's Character

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  • Created by: ashlule
  • Created on: 24-03-18 11:17
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  • Blanche's Character
    • Luxurious. expensive manner of dress- Southern Belle
      • "She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat" (Scene One, first introduction) (Scene One)
      • "[Fanning herself with a palm leaf]" (Scene Five)
      • "Entertain-ment, teas, cocktails and luncheons" (Scene Five)
    • Prejudiced or racist due to her status and childhood at Belle Reve
      • "I'm looking for my sister, Stella DuBois. I mean-Mrs Stanley Kowalski" (Scene One)
      • "This-can this be-her home?" (Scene One)
      • (To Eunice) "No" "Thanks" (Scene One)
      • (To Eunice) [Wanting to get rid of her]" (Scene One)
      • "I thought you would never come back to this horrible place!" (Scene One)
      • "Oh, you do have a bathroom!" (Scene One)
      • "They're something like Irish, aren't they?" (Scene One)
      • "Hetero-genous-types?" (Scene One)
      • "His civilian background" (Scene One)
      • (When Stanley touches the letters from Allan) "The touch of your hands insults them!" (Scene Two)
        • "Now that you've touched them I'll burn them!" (Scene Two)
      • "Maybe he's what we need yo mix with our blood now that we've lost Belle Reve"(Scene Two)
      • "Is this a Chinese philosophy you've-cultivated?""This shuffling about and mumbling" (Scene Four)
      • See Blanche's speech on Stanley as a caveman in Scene Four
      • "A man like that is someone to go out with-once-twice-three times if the devil is in you. But live with! Have a child with!" (Scene Four)
      • "You healthy Polack" (Scene Eight)
        • "In bed with your-Polack!" (Scene One)
    • Constantly lying, leading to an appearance vs reality motif throughout the play
      • "There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth" (Scene One)
      • "Y'know how indifferent I am to money" (Scene Four)
      • "Money just goes-it goes places" (Scene Four)
      • (Talking about her astrological sign) "Virgo the Virgin" (Scene Five)
      • "Flamingo? No! Tarantula was the name of it! I stayed at a hotel called The Tarantula Arms!" (Scene Nine)
    • Feels the need for constant baths
      • Stanley: "Her Highness in the tub?" (Scene Seven)
      • Eunice: Blanche? Stella: Bathing. (Scene Eleven)
      • "I think I will bathe" (Scene Three)
    • Uses her sexuality to her advantage/to get what she wants
      • (When Stanley asks if he can take his shirt off) "Please, please do" (Scene One)
        • "Why don't you take off your coat and loosen your collar?" (Scene Six)
      • "[Blanche comes out of the bathroom in a red satin robe]" (Scene Two)
      • "[Blanche throws off her robe"(Scene Two)
      • "May I have a drag on your cig?" (Scene Two)
      • (To Stanley) "You're simple, straight-forward and honest"(Scene Two)
      • "Have got to be seductive" "Men don't-don't even admit your existence unless they are making love to you" (Scene Five)
      • "[She enters the bedroom with the drinks and the candle]" (Scene Six)
    • Traumatised by the death of her husband Allan
      • "The boy-the boy died." (Scene One)
      • "I loved him unendurab-ly" (Scene Six)
      • "There was something different about the boy, a nervousness, softness and tenderness" (Scene Six)
      • "[She claps her hands to her ears and crouches over]" (Scene Six)
    • Dependant on drink for emotional support
      • "[She springs up and crosses to it, and removes a whilst bottle. She pours half a tumbler...and tosses it down]" (Scene One)
      • "[She rushes to the closet and removes the bottle: she is shaking all over and panting for breath"] (Scene One)
      • "A shot never did a coke any harm!" (Scene Five)
      • (Mitch to Blanche) "You ought to stay off his liquor. He says you been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat!" (Scene Nine)
    • Early on, but mostly towards the end of the play, emotionally unstable and hysterical
      • "[She begins to speak with feverish vivacity as if she feared for either of them to stop and think]" (Scene One)
      • "I can't be alone! Because-as you might have noticed-I'm not very well..." (Scene One)
        • "[Her voice drops and her look is frightened]"(Scene One)
      • See her speech towards the end of Scene One about Belle Reve
      • "[She presses her knuckles nervously to her lips]" (Scene Four)
      • "Answer me! What? What?" (Scene Four)
      • "[Shakily she twists a cigarette into her holder]" (Scene Four)
      • "[She laughs nervously and brightly, touching her threat as if actually taking to Shep]" (Scene Five)
      • "[Blanche laughs breathlessly as she touches the cologne dampened handkerchief to her temple]" (Scene Five)
      • "[[Blanche] slams the mirror face down with such violence that the glass cracks]" (Scene Ten)
      • "[Blanche turns wildly and scratches at the matron]" (Scene Eleven)
    • Utilises 'aloof' or academic reference and metaphorical or poetic language in order to feel superior to others
      • "Only Poe! Only Mr Edgar Allan Poe-could do it justice!" (Scene One)
      • "Why the Grim Reaper had put up his tent on our doorstep" (Scene One)
      • "I attempt to instil a bunch of bobby-soxers and drug-store Romeos with reverence for Hawthorne and Whitman and Poe" (Scene Three)
      • "My Rosen-kavalier!" "Merciiii!" (Scene Five)
      • "I'm looking out for Pleiades, the Seven Sisters" (Scene Six)
      • (To Mitch) "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" (Scene Six)
      • "I'm looking for the Peiades, the Seven Sisters" (Scene Six)
        • Note that 'Pleiades' is a constellation in Taurus and one of Taurus' qualities is sensuality
    • Hates light shining on her and people knowing her age
      • "Turn that over-light off! Turn that off! (Scene One)
      • "Don't you look at me Stella, no, no, no" (Scene One)
      • "Daylight never exposed is total a ruin!"(Scene One)
      • "I can't stand a naked light-bulb" (Scene Three)
      • "I mean I haven't informed him-of my real age!" (Scene Five)
      • "[fearfully] Light? Which light? What for?]" (Scene Nine)
    • Needs constant reassurance of her appearance or attention
      • "You know I haven't put on one ounce in ten years" (Scene One)
      • "How do I look?" "Do I look done in?"(Scene Three)
      • Eunice: Such fine hair! Blanche: [accepting the compliment] It's a problem" (Scene Eleven)
    • KEY QUOTE: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" (Scene Eleven)

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