A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - MOTIFS & SYMBOLS

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  • Created by: jade
  • Created on: 09-05-17 12:21
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  • Motifs & Symbols - A Streetcar Named Desire
    • The Varsouviana Polka
      • Blanche hears polka music whenever referencing her late, young husband
        • “the noise of the ‘blue piano’ grows louder”
        • Suggests her desire for her husband is still quite strong
          • Reflects Blanche's hamartia - why she was exiled from Laurel and her preference for young boys
        • "the rapid, feverish polka tune"
        • "she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster closing in on her"
      • Plastic Theatre / Expressionist
      • Blanche tells Mitch he“stopped the polka tune in my head”
        • suggests that he is the distraction she needs to get over Alan
          • however Mitch "pushed past her" indicating that Blanche's past desire caused the death of their relationship - Blanche is unable to escape the consequences of her desire
      • polka and the moment it evokes represent Blanche’s loss of innocence
        • Blanche hears the Varsouviana whenever she panic and loses grip on reality
    • Shadows and Cries
      • Plastic Theatre / Expressionist
      • "Lurid reflections appear on the wall" "The shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form"
        • "the inhuman jungle noises rise up"
        • contribute to Blanche's ananogrisis - she has been found out and is no longer viewed as who she wants to be
          • Anagnorisis
      • dramatize Blanche's final breakdown and her departure from reality in the face of Stanley's physical threat
    • Light
      • Blanche avoids appearing in bright light in order to prevent other to see her fading beauty
        • Blanche's inability to tolerate light reflects her inability to tolerate reality
        • "Turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won't be looked at in it's merciless glare"
      • also symbolises the reality of Blanche's past
        • She is haunted by the ghosts of what she has lost—her first love, her purpose in life, her dignity, and the genteel society (real or imagined) of her ancestors.
    • The Streetcar
      • Williams called the streetcar the “ideal metaphor for the human condition.”
        • Allegorical journey of Blanche's life
      • The Elysian Fields are the land of the dead in Greek mythology. Blanche’s lifelong pursuit of her sexual desires has led to her eviction from Belle Reve, her ostracism from Laurel, and, at the end of the play, her expulsion from society at large.
    • It's Only a Paper Moon
      • 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.”
        • 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.
      • Stanley tells Stella the details of Blanche’s sexually corrupt past
        • Williams ironically juxtaposes Blanche’s fantastical understanding of herself with Stanley’s description of Blanche’s real nature. In reality, Blanche is a sham who feigns propriety and sexual modesty.
    • Bathing
      • Blanche takes frequent baths throughout the play to “soothe her nerves.”
      • Blanche’s constant washing is reminiscent of Lady Macbeth’s famous hand-washing scene in Shakespeare's Macbeth in which the queen tries and fails to wash the blood from her guilty hands
      • In contrast with Blanche’s use of bathing to escape reality, the men dunk Stanley in the shower to sober him up so that he face the real world.
        • represent her efforts to cleanse herself of her odious history
    • Paper Lantern
      • represents Blanche’s attempt to mask both her sordid past and her present appearance
        • diffuses the stark light, but it’s only a temporary solution that can be ripped off at any moment
          • Blanche feigns modesty and a coquettish nature, but behind the veneer, she hides a much darker past
      • “I don’t want realism––I want magic!”
        • Mitch ********* down the paper lantern is symbolic of Blanche's innocence being stripped from her
          • Hamartia
      • "You left nothing here but spilt talcum and old empty perfume bottles–unless it’s the paper lantern you want to take with you. You want the lantern? "
        • "I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action."

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