WILLIAMS - STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE



The notes below are directed at A Streetcar Named Desire but may be adapted to all drama, indeed, much of literary analysis.

Art of Drama

Study of Drama works can be contained in several key questions

• How does the play construct the ‘human condition’, human nature and society?

• What does the play represent/ image the human condition, human nature, and society?

• How do the dramatic devices and the style of drama convey these?

• What is the play’s attitude to aspects of humanity and society?

• What does it view affirmatively, are its core values, and what does it view critically?

Note: the exam questions can focus on methods or content. Both require you to engage with the particular aesthetic of drama and the specific methods and meanings in your particular text.

Notes

• Make notes on characters, dramatic methods, themes and view and values

• Read and summarise important points from the critical articles to help you deepen your interpretation of the play.

• Make notes on dramatic methods, characters, themes, views and values.

Preparing for writing Essays

• Always ground your interpretation in a close reading of the text’s dramatic methods. As you read and discuss, collect important short quotes and scenes and learn them off by heart to use in an exam.

• Important quotes are those revealing significant aspects of dramatic method, characters, themes, views and values and are often memorable in their language quality.

• Note important scenes or moment Important scenes are those revealing significant aspects of dramatic method, characters, themes, and are often memorable in their language or stylistic quality, etc.

• Summary notes must include an analysis of the key elements of drama and meanings conveyed

Tennessee Williams’ “Streetcar” combines modes of Realism, Naturalism, Expressionism and Symbolism, advancing a social analysis, social critique, psychological analysis, delving deeply into the inner psyche of the characters. He explores some contemporary as well as universal themes.

Realism and naturalism

While not the same, ‘realism’ and ‘naturalism’ are conventions whose central feature is ‘verisimilitude’, ‘mimesis’, that is reflecting the surface appearance of ‘life’. Such methods, at their best, offer complex interpretations of the humanity and society they depict. They offer deep insights into characterization, conditions of existence and the universal human condition.

Expressionism and symbolism

Expressionism, at its simplest, is a dramatic mode relying on a range of indirect means of conveying inner states, psychological, spiritual and emotional states that are often unconscious and not readily expressed through dialogue, explicit action or surface details

Critical approaches to Williams

Most analyses of Williams’ plays argue that Williams employs such methods consciously to deepen and enlarge the scope of the play, beyond the readily accessible psychological, social, historical and cultural reality he evokes, to embrace universals. While we are presented with a ‘slice of life’ in Realism, Naturalism, and Williams certainly relies on such aspects of verisimilitude, if we see the play as simply ‘a slice of life’ we miss its ’most ambitious theme’.

Equally, ‘to see SND as merely social protest is to misread its deeper meanings and respond only to its surface’, ‘Williams gets his social licks while groping for a more universal statement.’

Williams claims that Expressionism allows him a ‘closer approach to the truth’ He assures us that he is not escaping he ‘responsibility of dealing with reality or interpreting experience’ but insists that Expressionism makes for a ‘closer approach, a more penetrating and vivid expression of things ‘as they are’.

He draws the analogy with the ‘unimportance of the photographic in art’ and argues that a ‘poetic imagination can represent or suggest an essence only through transformation’, that is, ‘changing the forms into other forms than those which were merely present in appearance.’

Williams states in one interview that the best theatre is ‘something wild, something exciting, and something you are not used to. “Unconventional. Off beat is the word.’

Dramatic features: elements of drama

Plot and narrative details

Direct action

Structure and sequence

Gestures

Settings

[historical, geographical, time of day or night, season, place]

Characterization

[psychological state, moral state, depth, complexity, development, static character, stereotype, trajectory, turning points, climax, play’s attitudes to aspects of character; tragic stature; pathos; character’s inner conflict; characters in conflict; character contrasts and parallels; allegorical status; symbolic role; character role in text’s thematic development; character’s role in play’s moral landscape; ideas represented through the character, play’s attitude to character, etc]

Dialogue

[what is said, how it is said [language quality] reveals character’s attitudes and advances themes]

Monologue

[self address or single character addressing the audience]

Motifs

[recurring patterns – images, gestures, statements, symbols, actions, etc

Symbols: [revise symbols in literature]; symbols are figures of literary ‘speech’, usually objects or sensory events representing deeper aspects of life, beyond its surface signification]

Structure

[patterns of organization of action and character and thematic development; structure can include factors such as patterns of concealment, disclosure, foreshadowing, dramatic irony; structure can be linear, sequential, fragmented, cyclical; it can include flash - backs; abrupt breaks in action; short or long scenes; opening scenes; key scenes; juxtapositions; contrasts and parallels; climaxes, anti climaxes; turning points; end scene; resolutions; all structural elements contribute to the mood, atmosphere, vision of human life; thematic and character development]

Costumes

[what the actors wear; their change of costumes; fabrics and style of dress; symbolic costumes; realistic costumes; simple; elaborate; can convey themes, moral stature; psychological state; status; class; surface and inner life tension; etc

Props

[objects; can hold symbolic or practical significance; can be part of motifs]

Colors

[as above; can be symbolic, realistic or emotionally evocative; etc]

Sounds

[realistic sounds, symbolic sounds, evocative of mood, state of mind; sounds can be music, crashes, cat calls, car horns, laughter, cries, etc]

Language and details of the stage direction:

[directions often include statements about the inner state of character, character profile, direction for action and gesture, details of setting; stage directions can be infrequent, implied, direct, indirect direction; direction can carry the author’s attitude to the character and/life depicted, etc]

Major characters:

Blanche

Stanley

Stella

Mitch

Minor characters:

Eunice

Steve

Consider

psychological construction,

social construction,

moral construction,

symbolic / thematic construction;

attitudes to characters and what they represent;

how they are established by the dramatic strategies?

sites for the exploration of themes

sites for the establishment of values

depth, complexity, development

static character; stereotype

trajectory/turning points - climax; tragic stature;

pathos character’s inner conflict

characters in conflict with other character

character contrasts; parallels

character role in text’s thematic development;

character’s role in play’s moral landscape

character’s role in the play’s social analysis

ideas represented through the character

play’s attitudes to the characters and what they represent

how we are positioned - what do we admire - what do we view critically

Supplementary / absent / symbolic characters

Mexican woman

Negro woman

The delivery boy

Shep

Alan

Doctor

Matron

Consider

What is their role in the text: symbolic / thematic construction

play’s attitudes to the characters and what they represent

how they are established by the dramatic strategies?

Themes (Note: some of themes overlap. Follow the guiding questions and flesh out the key themes)

- Pragmatism and idealism

- Reality and illusion

- Dionysian and Apollonian aspects of self and culture

- Physical life and inner life

- Body and Mind

- Love and death

- Conflict between New South and aristocratic Old South values

- Fate and willed self determination

- Sanity and madness

- Class

- Gender

- Sexuality/homosexuality and repressed sexuality

- Madness and sanity

Some themes have been briefly summarized for you

The conflict between aristocratic Old South and the New South society

Who represents Old South society and who represents the New South?

The Old South

Blanche

The values and qualities of the Old South are partly represented by [embodied by] the complexly psychologically developed, paradoxical and some see as tragic figure of Blanche Dubois [French derivation; symbolic/ironic name: White Woods]; Blanche is deeply conflicted, yearning to be loved, seeking erotic passion, entrapped by the values of the old south, insist on purity, female virginity as well as seductiveness; old south [as new south] is a male dominated, sexually repressive society; Blanche symbolically represents aspects and some values of the old south, as well as particular human psyche: she is dispossessed, desperate, lonely, lost, neurotic, verging on madness, morally compromised, self - deluded, escapist, and prone to lying but also graceful, refined, elegant, sophisticated, idealistic, imaginative, complex, intellectual, artistic, literary, etc. Williams’s directs both sympathy and criticism at the character and the values she represents; she can be seen as a character in her own right as well as embodying values central to her Old South culture; Williams constructs Blanche through her physical appearance, settings, positioning, language, motifs of moths, lamp shades, white and pale colors, allusions to literary contexts, gestures, costumes, sounds, settings, telephone, etc

Minor and absent character, Alan, B’s homosexual and suicidal husband also reflects aspects of the Old South: he represents literary sophistication, complexity, sensitivity, aesthetic refinement, guilt and a propensity to self - destructiveness, etc.

Old South is shown to be homophobic as reflected in B’s ‘disgust’ with her husband’s homosexual passions: Williams constructs Alan’s character by reference to death, dancing, literary allusions, and language use

Stella

Blanche’s sister, formerly of the Old South, married to new south symbolic representative, Stan; some assertiveness but essentially defined by her erotic passion, marital loyalty, female procreative fertility, maternal role, baby,

The New South

Stan

The New South is explored through a number of characters: Stan Kowalski [Kowalski means Smith, a relatively common Polish name], working class, rough, assertive, aggressive, belligerent, brash, raw, sexual, physical and a Dionysian pragmatist. Williams relies on vibrant, primal colors, bright silk shirts [costumes], brash, direct, practical and colloquial language register; Williams relies on strategy of definitive dramatic action, [S’s angry, violent, uncontrolled outbursts; ready expression of remorse; expression of love for his wife]; conflict with and resentment of Blanche symbolizes class conflict and conflict of values; W’s attitudes to Stan’s values are ambiguous: he celebrates the animal instinctive passions, part of what Williams sees as the redemptive aspects of the New South, while he insists on the darker, violent and destructive side of such New South, raw, Dionysian humanity.

Mitch

The softer, gentler sexually repressed side of NS is represented by the mild, sensitive, romantic, sentimental, simple, relatively well – meaning, prudish Mitch.

Eunice and Steve

The minor characters such as Eunice and Steve represent aspects of the NS: relaxed, sexually expressive, physical, culturally hybrid/mixed, socially accepting, pragmatic realists.

Stella

Symbolically named Star, Stella represents a quasi - utopian vision of the New Culture, where the spent, self - destructive, self - deluded, gentile, Old South is reinvigorated by aspects of the New South’s physical vigor, raw passions, sexual self – expression, racial tolerance, relaxed morals, uncompromising pragmatic practicality, etc.

Stella is seen affirmatively as direct, honest, simply spoken and relatively self assertive woman, who needs to balance her loyalty to her sister and her passionate love of her husband. She harbors little inner conflict as W advances a hopeful projection of the future fusion between the two cultures. Stella, significantly Blanche’s sister, formerly of the Old South, is married to New South symbolic representative, Stan; Williams allows her some assertiveness but she is largely defined by her erotic passion, marital loyalty, female procreative fertility, maternal role, her baby, her acceptance of the new direction in American culture

Characterization is a site for the exploration of cultural values. The dominant values of the Old South and New Society, respectively, are as follows:

Old South:

Formerly affluent upper class, its wealth and power, some of its values and traits now lost; at its best, it is granted cultural and literary sophistication, social graces, civilized self – restraint [even if its also harbors repressive sexuality and oppressive traditional gender roles], some Apollonian aspects of life such as intellect, art, civilized conduct, social refinement, literary tastes, learning, etc.

Note that not all such largely admirable traits are actually adhered to by the OS representatives

W conveys some ambiguity in his attitudes to the various cultural and human traits. Blanche saddened mourning the loss of Belle Reve [beautiful dream]; B’s allusions to many illnesses and deaths, B’s reference to ‘epic fornications’, etc are W reflections on the demise and moral malaise of the OS; the aristocratic class is destroyed by its hedonistic excesses, leading to loss of wealth, confusion between reality and illusion, its moral corruption, its loathing of ‘degeneracy’, its homophobia, its sexual repression, its oppressive and exacting female gender roles and expectations, etc.

Williams bemoans the loss of some of the old values, such as cultural sophistication, complexity, refinement, sensitivity, artistic temperament; W indicates affirmations by the play’s affirmative positioning to the characters representing these; the play’s attitude to the OS is marked by ambiguity…. [See below and above]

New South society as represented by the less psychologically complex is characterized by an easy cultural and racial mix, what W sees as ‘raffish charm’, working class ethos, a relaxed life - style, primal passions, sexual vigor, sexual self - expression, raw physicality, closeness to instinctual life, the easy co - existence of different races and cultures, ostensible transcendence of racial and cultural differences in a fusion of cultures, practical pragmatism, materialism, more relaxed gender roles, even if vestiges of traditional gender roles persist, etc.

The play does not suggest that the NS is not without its short - comings, often ambiguously emerging from its strengths; representing its darker side is Stan’s raw passions expressed in his brutality, the darker strains of the Dionysian aspects of the psyche. Mitch also personifies the limiting and judgmental prudishness of the working class….

Ambiguity is the key to W’s attitudes to both societies. What does he endorse, celebrate, admire in each? What does he criticize in each?

In the OS, W endorses refinement, imagination, idealism, sophistication, grace, learning, art, complexity, gentility, sensitivity, etc. embodied in Blanche, but he sees traditional gender roles, gender and sexual repression and homophobia, etc regretfully. He sees OS critically as a culture given to self - defeating clinging to illusion, unable to face reality, in a state of moral malaise, corrupt, perverse, verging on a loss of its bearings [a form of ‘madness’]

In the New Society, the play affirms human values such as raw energy, masculine vigor, passions, sexual openness and easy relaxed manner as well as the productive cultural fusion; ambiguously, he sees the rawness descend into brutality; raw physicality and a practical simple life can mean the absence of refinement, grace, artistic appreciation, an under developed inner life, absence of complexity, imagination, etc. But it is the NS that will endure; in gesture possibly utopian, W sees it as representing the future, as it invigorates and redeem the Old South, symbolized by the ardent love between Stella and Stan, the birth of the baby; again utopian, Williams celebrates its fusion of classes and cultures.

Most celebrated, albeit ambiguously, are the idealism, imagination, sophistication, complexity, artistic tastes, refined grace represented by the Blanche [Old South], and in the New South, vigor, raw energy, the unfurling of passionate self, primal humanity close to its instincts, and while male dominated, some gender roles relaxation; etc

Develop further [See the start of notes below]

How does W’s play convey its attitudes, in dramatic terms?

How does W show what he endorses, celebrates or admires in each?

How does the play convey its ambiguity?

Dramatic strategies

The Old South and New Society and W’s attitudes can be explored by reference to characterization, plot details, settings, language, symbolic motifs and contrasts. B’s decent to madness, her recourse to lies and illusion, metaphoric reflects on crumbling of, the corruption and refusal to face reality of the Old South. W’s stage direction in the opening pages of the text, convey W’s sympathy for the delicate and highly strung,

Blanche; the use of the motif of ‘drink’ dramatizes B’s escapist and self delusion, while the ‘red robe’ reflect on the themes of secret, repressed sexual desires, a desperate attempt to appear seductive and desirable. .

Stan’s raw primal humanity, symbolized by the ‘blood stained’ package and primal colors of his shirts, his masculine vigor fondly noted in the stage directions, may be seen as wholesome, an expression of a relaxed, open sexuality, connected to W’s affirmative view of the New South. But, in the climactic ‘rape’ of Blanche W highlights the danger of such unchecked Dionysian energies, the Old South symbolically destroyed by the New South. Blanche’s decent to madness suggests that the Old South cannot bear to face the truth, preferring the dubious comfort of a saving illusion. .

Stella: Stella’s sexual passion for Stan and the birth of the child reflect on W’s view of the New South and its relationship with the old south.

W explores the symbolism of Stella’s pregnancy to suggest the possibility of the new south invigorating the old south and the possibility of an accommodation between the two cultures.

How is the conflict between the two societies depicted through the characterizations and character conflict?

How does the end exile of Blanche comment on the Old South and its relationship with the new south?

Traditional class conflict is represented by the hostility between B and Stan. W indicates the potential for accommodation and signals a note of optimism through the sexually passion and tender love of S and S, the birth of their baby, the couple’s resigned acceptance of the rape and S’s exile of Blanche.

Q. How does W’s characterization of Mitch comment on class relations?

Mitch represents the more puritanical aspects of the lower classes, its sensitivity, its aspiration to refinement, its attraction to the cultivated upper classes, etc

Idealism and pragmatism

Broadly idealism and pragmatism can be explored as embodied in the Old and New South and the lower and upper classes.

What is involved in each of these approaches to life and values?

Who represents which? How? Stan? Blanche? Stella? Stan? Mitch?

How are these two approaches to life manifested in the play’s characterization, language, action, conflicts between characters, inner conflicts, ending, etc?

What key moments explore these?

How do some characters represent both of these, in different ways?

What are the moral strengths and limitations of each of the above approaches to life, according to W? Which does W present more / less affirmatively?

For example: Does W see any moral limitations / shortcomings with Stan’s materialistic pragmatism? What? Where? Does he see such qualities as morally admirable? Tease out the ambiguities?

Is the romantic and sentimental idealism of Blanche and Mitch a morally negative or a positive trait? How? Where? How does W see its moral credentials? Tease out the ambiguities.

Is the life of the imagination [a from of idealism] seen to be morally admirable? Where? How? Ambiguity?

Does her ‘idealism’ drive B to madness? Self - delusion? Self - defeating anxiety?

Broadly, idealism and pragmatism can be explored by reference to the Old and New South, the lower and upper classes, as well as themes of the tension between reality and illusion.

Idealism and Pragmatism: notes towards answers to above questions

What do the two approaches to realism and pragmatism entail?

Idealism and pragmatism represent different approaches to life. Idealism enshrines the life of the imagination, understands life in other than material terms, and often but not always, posits and seeks a utopian perfection, eschewing compromises.

Pragmatism allows for practicality, a material fulfillment, and above all accommodation to the realistic possibilities of life, often involving compromise.

While all the characters harbor a degree of both, Blanche is the most idealistic in constructing a vision of romantic love, passion, youthful beauty and desirability, even if life insists on necessary compromises. Her working class, somewhat unprepossessing Mitch is not the romantic, dashing ‘cavalier’, her ardent first love, Alan, turns out to be ‘degenerate’, she is no longer the beautiful, youthful, virginal, refined Southern Belle, elegantly attired in expensive jewels and furs, occupying a stately home. While her imagination is evident in her literary allusions to Poe and Browning, her tender kiss on the ‘lovely mouth’ of the ‘young prince’, as well as her elaborate, albeit deluded, fantasy of a rescue from Shep, her elaborate lies hide the deny the reality of such imaginings and they are, after all, merely evidence of wishful thinking, hiding the sordid truth of her former life, her carefully maintained illusions about youth and beauty, etc. Moreover, Blanche must compromise her idealism, accept the attention of her very prosaic suitor, Mitch, compelled an anguished need to end a desperately lonely existence, erase the ‘stench’ of death and memory of the ‘epic fornications’. More happily, and less of a compromise, Stella finds passionate love with the lower class, Stan, a pragmatic accommodation to the realities of life.

Stan, a pragmatist, takes advantage of what life has to offer in a new country. Eunice, like wise, counsels accommodation to life’s realties when she advises Stella to forgive Stan’s violent sexual assault on Blanche

How are these two approaches to life manifested in the play’s characterization, language, action, conflicts between characters, inner conflicts, ending, etc?

B’s literary language reflects her idealism, alluding to literary sources, such as Elizabeth Browning and Edgar Alan Poe; her memory of significant pieces of music reveals her artistic sensibility.

Stan’s language of practicalities, the Napoleonic code, his money talk, as well as his favorite pass time, bowling, reflect his pragmatism. He has no illusions about his physical attractiveness, has little time for compliments, to ‘good looking ‘’dames’, a little tolerance for

B’s desperate self – illusions;

Stella’s simple language reflects her practical, prosaic, down to earth humanity, her honesty to her self, her accommodating pragmatism.

Conflicts between the two approaches are expressed through the dialogue between the sisters about Stan’s ‘brute’ crudeness, the fight between Stella and Stan, about B’s furs and jewels, Blanche’s insistence on soft romantic music, S’s murderous impatience with her elaborate lies and illusions, and overwhelmingly, the rape scene, where S’s ruthless, vengeful, brutal pragmatism exposes B’s carefully maintained fantasy, confronting her with the reality of her secret sexual desire.

Conflicts and inner conflicts: B’s inner conflict can be partly understood in terms of a tension between her practical necessity and idealisms. Her moral limitations may emerge from the warring sides of the psyche. While presenting the idealistic side of life with a mixture of sympathy, affirmation and sensitive understanding, W sees it dangers. B’s idealism cannot stand too much bright light and her self - confrontation with the reality of sexual desires drives her to madness. The practical side of life triumphs and persists when the idealist is relegated to a life of perpetual illusion, in the mental asylum. But W sees moral limitations within Stan’s materialistic pragmatism, made clear with the rape and brutal exile of B. The brief romantic and sentimental idealism of Blanche and Mitch is morally positive. The life of the imagination, a form of idealism is seen to be morally admirable. It allows B to feel remorse for her mistreatment of the young homosexual husband.

Reality and illusion: self – delusion and self – knowledge

Explain each of these concepts. What does each involve?

Who represents each?

How are these themes and traits explored in each characterization?

Do any of the characters harbor an inner tension between those states? How?

How does W judge such conditions?

How sympathetic or other wise is W to such character and cultural attributes he attributes?

How far does he criticize such traits? Ambiguity?

Explore, in reference to each representative character.

Consider how W employs the various dramatic strategies to explore and judge such traits?

How are these traits connected to escapism and confronting reality

Is there any negative side to Stan’s realism?

Is there a redemptive side to B’s self - delusion?

Is Stan admired for being the agent of reality?

Can Blanche’s self - delusion be excused? How?

Is self - delusion ever admired? How?

How does W connect Blanche’s need for self - delusion and escapism to his social critique?

Is Blanche’s self - delusion connected to her decent to madness?

Is Stella also deluded?

Brief answers to above questions

To a large extent the recourse to illusion and the denial of reality, resorting to self - delusion, reflects some of the insights into idealism and pragmatism. What do the two approaches entail?

Illusion and reality reflect the tension between Idealism and pragmatism. Idealism pushes the character of Blanche into the arms of illusion: her imagination, often but not always, posits and seeks a utopian perfection, eschewing compromises. Acceptance of reality will involve pragmatism, practicality, accommodation to the realistic possibilities of life, and compromise.

While all the characters harbor a degree of both, Blanche is the most idealistic and hence deluded. Her yearning for romantic love, sexual, ardent passion, youthful beauty and persistent desirability, is impossible at her age and her status in life, and must involve necessary compromises, compromises she tires hard to avoid. Granted, her working class, somewhat unprepossessing Mitch is not the romantic, dashing ‘cavalier’, her ardent first love, Alan, turns out to be ‘degenerate’, she is no longer the beautiful, youthful, virginal, refined Southern Belle, elegantly attired in expensive jewels and furs, occupying a stately home. Her idealistic desires compel the to construct a life of illusion, a feat of elaborate imaginative laps of fancy, to some extend foreshadowed by W’s ironic reference to the lurid imaginings of Poe.

B’s tender kiss on the ‘lovely mouth’ of the ‘young prince’, as well as her elaborate, albeit deluded, fantasy of a rescue from Shep, are part of her elaborate lies that deny the reality of, evidence of mere wishful thinking, hiding the shameful sordid truth of her former life. Her carefully maintained illusions about youth and beauty, as well as the fantasy of a vain woman are, more significantly, also desperate attempt to deny the stench of death.

Moreover, Blanche does compromise her idealistic desires as she, realistically, accepts the attention of her very prosaic suitor, Mitch, compelled by an anguished need to end a desperately lonely existence, and as mentioned above, erase the ‘stench’ of death and the memory of the ‘epic fornications’. More happily, and less of a compromise, W explores in Stella, the less compromising side of realism; she finds passionate love with the lower class, Stan, more than a pragmatic accommodation to the realities of life. Stan is the prime realist and pragmatist, indeed an agent of reality in B’s life. A conflict between reality and illusion can be demonstrated by reference to the second last scene. B’s brutal encounter with the truth, foisted upon her by the reality agent, Stan, occurs in the penultimate scene, the rape. It dramatizes the necessary, albeit destructive, encounter with the truth: her inner desires of the hitherto more and more deeply deluded B, are exposed. She is destroyed by the realization that she longs for sexual passion and indeed harbors sexual passions for her sister’s husband.

Blanche is destroyed by such truths, as she requires a saving illusion, even if it only the ‘comfort of strangers’. Stan, the realist, takes advantage of what life has to offer in a new country. Eunice, like wise, is realist: she counsels accommodation to life’s realties when she advises Stella to forgive Stan’s the violent sexual assault on Blanche. It is not only ‘for the sake of the child’, so to speak, but recognizes the authority of passion.

Q How are these two approaches to life manifested in the play’s language, action, conflicts between characters, inner conflicts, endings, etc?

B’s Language:

B’s literary language reflects her idealism, an idealism driving her self - delusion and her recourse to elaborate illusions. She alludes to literary sources, such as Elizabeth Browning and Edgar Alan Poe; her memory of significant pieces of music reveals her artistic sensibility.

Stan’s language

Stan’s language of materialism, practicalities, as evidenced by his boastful allusion to the Napoleonic code, his money talk, etc reflect his reality principles. He has little time for compliments, to ‘good looking’ ’dames’, a little tolerance for B’s desperate self – illusion.

Stella’s language

Her simple language reflects her realistic, practical, prosaic, down to earth humanity, her honesty to her self, her readiness to accommodate to reality

Conflicts between characters

The tension between reality [realism] and illusion is partly expressed through dramatic conflicts between characters, conveyed through dialogue and action. The argument between Stella and Stan on the subject of B’s furs and jewels tackles the realistic and the illusionary approaches to life, where Stan, the arch realist, is shown to be partly deluded in his belief that the furs are real. Stella is the realist here, able to see that the jewels are just ‘cheap imitations’. B constructs her own deliberate illusion, even if not completely deluded, where the furs and jewels serve to fill her need of appearing to be rich and beloved. In another dialogue exchange, Blanche’s insists on ‘soft light’, as she can’t stand a ‘naked light globe’ a much needed and defended illusion of youth and beauty, brutally destroyed by the tearing away of such cover up.

The overwhelmingly dramatic and eloquent rape scene, where S’s ruthless, vengeful, brutal devotion to realism exposes B’s carefully maintained fantasy, confronting her with the reality of her secret sexual desire is important in exploring the theme of illusion and reality

Inner conflicts

B’s inner conflict can be partly understood in terms of a tension between her practical necessity or realism and illusion driven partly by idealisms. Her moral limitations, exemplified by her hankering for youthful flesh, sordid past of sexual abandon, with ‘strangers’ emerge from the warring sides of the psyche, need for illusion to hide an unbearable reality. While presenting the deluded side of life with a mixture of censure pathos, sympathy, sensitive understanding, W sees it dangers in the pursuit of illusion.

As B’s idealism cannot stand too much bright ‘light’, fuelling her delusion, B’s self - confrontation with the reality of her sexual desires drives her to madness. Visual images partly expressionistically convey B’s inner conflict between illusion and reality. Her conflicted mind and her sexual desire are externalized by the chaotic images and sound jungle sounds, her broken bottle, threatening Stan, belies her inner desires. The realistic side of life triumphs as the deluded idealist [blanche] is relegated to a life of perpetual illusion, albeit saving illusion, in the mental asylum. But W sees moral limitations within Stan’s reality principle and his pragmatic realism, made clear with the rape and brutal exile of B. The illusionary romantic sentimentalism of Blanche and Mitch is morally positive, even if deluded. B’s life of the imagination, a form of idealism, forces driving her delusion, is seen to be morally acceptable if not admirable.

Sexual repression, homosexuality, sexual self - expression

- What sort of sexuality do the following main characters represent? Stan? Mitch? Stella? Blanche?

- Who is free to express themselves sexually/sensually?

- Who is repressed in their sexual self - expression?

- Who is the most divided character, as far as attitudes to sexuality are concerned?

- How and why does Williams make sexuality a central concern?

- How does it serve to explore other concerns? Old South? New society? Class? Gender? Idealism? Pragmatism?

- For example: How does W use the characterization of B to explore attitudes to female and male sexuality in the Old South? Consider the expectations of the Southern Belle. Consider her reference to ‘male fornications’, Blanche’s sordid past, Alan’s suicide, B’s reaction to her husband’s homosexuality?

- What attitudes to sexuality characterize the Old South and how does W judge them? What are the negative ramifications of sexual repression, as explored through her character of Blanche?

- How does W explain the suicide of B’s young husband, Alan?

- How does W connect sexuality to B’s hysteria, neurosis and decent into madness?

- How does W connect sexuality, civilization and culture?

- How does W represent the New Society’s attitudes to sexuality?

- How does W judge sexuality in the ‘New society’?

- Is sexuality constructed as a redemptive value? How?

- Can sexual expressiveness and the raw physicality, primitivism, primal and instinctual energy it implies be seen as dangerous?

- How is Stan a kind of Dionysian figure?

- Which class and which society does W as being closer to their essential sensual self?

- Tease out the contradictions you may see in W’s construction of and attitudes to sexuality. Consider: marriage and sexuality; sexuality and fertility; Southern Belle; homosexuality;

Madness and mental health

Note: mental states work metaphorically and as part of psychological realism

Who is healthy? Who is disturbed?

How is mental health manifested? How is mental illness manifested?

What other character qualities are connected with mental health and mental illness?

Are the healthy characters as interesting as the disturbed characters?

What do they lack?

What are the symptoms of B’s madness?

What are the reasons for B’s madness?

How can madness be explained in reference to sexuality? Love? Guilt?

Explain how these terms work as metaphors?

How is it a signifier of a moral and spiritual malaise?

How does B’s madness fit into the context of W’s critique of the Old South?

How is madness connected with an artistic nature? Idealism? Self - delusion?

How is it a condition B’s displacement?

Why could Stan not go mad? Stella? Mitch?

How can the absence of neurosis, hysteria and madness be connected to the New Society, primitivism, and free expression of sexuality?

Always show how W’s dramatic methods expose this theme?

Notes towards the answering of above questions

While W’s psychological character constructions explore the states and ideas of madness and sanity, such mental states and ideas can work metaphorically, signifying, broadly, a cultural climate. W sees the Old South, in some senses, as deeply disturbed, deluded, displaying vestiges of early idealism, symbolically embodied in the psychological construction of the central character, Blanche. Contrasting the deeply disturbed culture and humanity of the Old South is a humanity that is mentally healthy and wholesome, the New South, explored through the prosaic, practical Stella and the vigorous, physical, pragmatic, working class male, representing the New South, Stan, and the working class characters, Steve, Eunice and Pablo.

How is mental health manifested? How is mental illness manifested?

Manifestations of and associated conditions of mental illness as represented by the character of Blanche are: self destructiveness, an artistic nature, imagination, a complex understanding of life, complexity of language use, varied language register, character complexity, inner conflict, sensitivity, displacement, confusion between illusion and reality, delicacy, anxiety, nervousness, an elaborate network of lies fabricating a version of a desired reality, guilt, shame, remorse, anguish, uneasy relationships with one’s sexuality, being torn between opposing demands, harboring inner conflicts and conflicted values, taking recourse to self - delusion, indulging in imaginative flights of fancy, possessing a lively imaginative, displaying elements of hysteria, being sophisticated and possessing some intellectual depth, narcissism, harboring and giving in to secret passions and repressed desire, complete loss of contact with reality, a resigned embrace of saving illusion and seeking the safety of mental asylum, etc.

What are the manifestations of mental health and associated conditions?

The absence of neurosis, hysteria, primitivism, relaxed expression of sexual desire, simple humanity, absence of inner conflict, practicality, pragmatism, logical thought processes, consistency in mood, simple language, direct address

Significantly, W deploys fewer expressionistic devices in his construction of the mentally sound characters, suggesting a less developed and complex inner life.

Mentally sound characters are defined by simple definitive action, physicality, working class status, thus representing the health of the new society, etc

Characters denoting mental health are Stan, Steve, Eunice, Pablo, Mitch and Stella: they are prosaic, physical, practical, pragmatic, logical, relaxed, simple, direct, etc

Are the healthy characters less interesting than the disturbed characters?

The disturbed character, Blanche, the center of the text’s focus and POV is the more interesting and engaging, as she is more complex, more conflicted, given greater language variety and finer tonal nuances, etc

What are the symptoms of B’s madness?

B’s madness can be seen in the manifestations of self - division, inner conflicts, guilt, repressed sexuality, relinquishing her hold on reality and embracing a state of a complete delusion [see above].

What are the reasons for B’s madness?

Guilt at contributing to her beloved husband’s death, shame at recourse to sordid actions, remorse, loss of youth and beauty, need to repress one’s sexual self – expression, lost love, loneliness, experience of death, loss of fortune, memory of deaths and losses, forbidden desire, etc

Explain how these terms work as metaphors?

Madness works a comment on the Old South; mental health, metaphorically, signifies the New South.

How is it a signifier of a moral and spiritual malaise?

Madness signifies a spiritual and moral malaise of the Old South and the character representing it, Blanche [as above]. The construction of madness conveys W’s ambiguous attitude to the Old South with what he sees as its loss of contact with reality, its delusion, inner conflicts, its self – defeating confusion between reality and illusion, its repressions of primal energies, etc

What are the redemptive faces of the state of madness? How is madness connected with an artistic nature? Idealism? Self - delusion?

Madness is connected to an artistic nature, idealism and necessary self – delusion, part of a sensitive and deeper response to life, etc. While the ‘mad’ Blanche may be self – destructive and self deluded, W is drawn to the qualities represented by such states, and indeed sees them as impossibly enmeshed with the finer qualities [as above] and renders them as more interesting and complex than the ‘sane’ characters. W’s dramatic methods expose this theme and mental state:

Expressionistic devices are more prevalent in the exploration of ‘madness’, precisely because it requires a less direct probing of the complex inner state, a state not able to be rendered in simple actions or dialogue. Thus W effectively and profitably, resorts to ‘naked light bulbs’, lamp shades, costumes’, colors, sounds, music, shapes, etc which all convey the inner states of a disturbed psyche and associated conditions, a state not readily exposed through the conventional realism

How is the absence of neurosis, anxiety, and elaborate network of illusion connected to the New Society, primitivism and free expression of sexuality?

The vigorous and healthy New South is granted a regenerative vibrancy, without the debilitating self - destructive complexity of the Old South, etc

Dionysian and Apollonian values

Explain the meaning of each of the above. Look up a dictionary or a dictionary of philosophy. How are they explored in the play’s characterization, dialogue, stage directions, action and the play’s key expressionistic methods?

Broadly speaking, the terms were coined by Nietzsche, in Death of Tragedy, to denote the tension in western culture between opposing principles, broadly, the instinctive primal urges, what Freudians saw as the Id, which includes chaos, and opposing urges to order and civilization, broadly speaking corresponding to the Freudian notions of Ego and Super Ego. Williams sees the tension between Apollo and Dionysus, invading the individual’s inner life, as well as culture and society. The culture’s Dionysian, inner life is made up of primal and instinctual impulses, repressed by the Apollonian tendencies also in the inner psyche, insisting on order and civilization.

- Who represents which? How?

- Who harbors a harmonious combination of both of these opposing principles? How?

- Who represents an inner conflict between the two principles? How?

- How does the play position the reader in reference to each of these?

- What does the play find attractive in each? Endorse, celebrate and affirm?

- Who does the play find repulsive or dangerous? Critique?

- Explore the ambiguity in each of the main principles, as they are displayed in characterization, stage direction and main action.

- How does W explore these in reference to other themes? Consider: madness, sexuality, class, gender, Puritanism, Old South and New Society, illusion and self – delusion, gender

Gender constructions: men and women

How are women represented?

How does W collude with dominant gender cultural stereotypes?

How conscious is W of gender being a social and cultural construction?

To what extent does W subvert aspects of such stereotypes?

Are the women powerful or powerless?

Are they constructed by reference to a male desire, gaze and the fears men may have about women?

Are they constructed by reference to the traditional female discourses such as domestic space, children, fertility, physical appearance, clothes, sexuality, inner space, feelings, madness, neurosis, moral corruptibility, mystery, nature, culture, etc.

Answers to question above: gender construction: men and women

Women are represented in ambiguous and conflicting ways: W partly colludes with conventional constructions, where women are imaged in reference to domestic space, children, fertility, physical appearance, clothes, placid and complaint sexuality, inner states, feelings, disturbed states, madness, neurosis, moral corruptibility, moral purity mystery, nature, refinement, sensitivity, artistic temperament, etc.

Domestic space: Stella is shown in a domestic space while blanche, less traditionally is shown more frequently to be outdoors

Children: The birth of he child symbolically places Stella with a conventional woman hood

Fertility: Stella is a maternal figure, the pregnancy and the baby cementing her traditional role

Physical appearance: While Blanche and W places high value on appearance and clothes Stella eschews such refinements

Inner space and feelings: Exploration of inner feelings are often associated with women, here Blanche fulfills conventional construction

Madness and neurosis: Blanche certainly has an unstable psyche we often associate with female images

Marital status: Stella is a wife while Blanche is a widow

Mystery: rich inner life feeds the female mystery of her female being in blanche

Inner life often associated with female discourse is given to blanche

Refinement: Blanche is typically custodian of culture

Sexuality: Stella, Blanche and Eunice are allowed to be ‘desiring women’, allowed to acknowledge sexual passions and desires. They are: sexually desiring but unfulfilled, and sexually passionate and fulfilled [Blanche and Stella, Eunice respectively], even if the traditional gender role persist to some extent

Power: powerless [Blanche] and relatively powerful [Stella and Eunice] even if the New South is still seen to enshrine traditional gender roles

Gender and cultural stereotypes: Blanche’s intellectual complexity, sophistication, childlessness, widowed status, etc partly subverts stereotypical construction of women while Stella reflects the dominant view of women as child bearers, lovers, wives and home makers, even if W finds some authority in these roles

W consciousness of gender being a social and cultural construction: Williams is conscious that female gender typologies are culturally determined as he places the more liberated female sexuality in the New South and / or invigorated by proximity to the new class. He acknowledges the urgency and presence of female passion as he departs from stereotypical view of women as lacking sexual desire

Are they constructed by reference to a male desire, gaze and the fears men may have about women? Women are seen to objects of male desire, see themselves as objects of such desire, wanting to be youthful and beautiful enticements of such desire; significantly women are expected to be chaste and virginal, thus they are caught in a double bind

Are they constructed by reference to the traditional female discourses [As above]?

In B W departs from dominant typology more than S. Significantly, both are allowed the subversive element of sexual desire. B is the victim of it, its unconventional expression points to the danger of female sexuality, when unchecked by marriage or domesticity, while S’s sexuality is safely contained within a traditional discourse of marriage and child bearing. B’s sexuality is perversely rampant since it is uncontrolled by the traditional framework of marriage and love

Class representation and construction

How are the classes represented?

How does W collude with dominant class stereotypes?

To what extent does W subvert or complicate aspects of such stereotypes?

Are the lower classes or upper class powerful or powerless? Agents? Victims?

What makes for their power? Powerlessness?

Are they admired and / or critiqued? Viewed ambiguously?

What traits does W admire and / or critique

Are they subject of upper class / lower class idealization and/ or repugnance?

Are the classes constructed by reference to the traditional class discourses? Consider: lower class: exterior space, outdoors, simple psychology, practicality, materialism, fertility, physicality, sexuality, moral laxness, instincts, primal energy, nature, etc.

To what extent does W set aside stereotypical constructions of class?

Upper class: often defined by reference to inner space, elegant settings, complex psychology, impracticality, repressed sexuality or twisted, moral sexuality purity or decadence and looseness, repression, civilization, art, idealism, aesthetic refinement, etc.

Notes towards answers of above questions

Classes are represented stereotypically, mainly in the figure of the deluded and tragically self - destructive Blanche. Not quite subverting the dominant construction, in the depiction of upper class, Stella, W sees the possibility of an ‘invigorating’ influence of the working/lower class upon the upper classes, its physicality, primal energy and sexual passion breathes new life into the spent upper classes. She abandons her doomed upper class graces and refinements and settles for a simpler life, amongst the working classes, in the new vibrant, hybrid cultural and racial mix of New Orleans.

Reversing the dominant class power relationships, W makes the lower classes are the more powerful than the upper classes. They are agents of their destiny, able to live the American Dream, its competitive spirit pervasive and triumphant, etc. The upper classes are the more powerless, the victims of their self - destructive energies Working class power comes from their self - awareness, realism, practical pragmatism, self - confidence, self assertiveness and competitive spirit.

Both classes have their redeeming features, both viewed ambiguously

Traits admired, critiqued and / or viewed ambiguously are the traits corresponding to the Old and New South division. In SND, both classes are partly constructed by reference to the traditional class discourses. Lower class in SND reflect some of the dominant construction of the lower class who are traditionally seen in reference to the outdoors, close to nature, possessing a simple psychology, practicality, materialism, fertility, physicality, sexuality, instincts, primal energy, Dionysian side of life, etc.

Upper classes are stereotypically constructed by reference to inner space, elegant settings, complex psychology, impracticality, repressed or twisted sexuality, moral purity or decadence and looseness, repression, civilization, art, idealism, aesthetic refinement, etc.

Love and death

Love and death broadly speaking corresponds to the human needs and drives to sexuality, tender intimacy and opposing drives towards cessation of life, destruction, self – destruction. To some extent the opposing drives correspond to the drives identified by Freud as Eros and Thanatos. Freud sees these as opposing but also interdependent drives

How does the play construct the two drives?

Who represents which? How?

Who harbors a harmonious combination of both of these opposing principles? How?

Who represents an inner conflict between the two principles? How? How does the play position the reader in reference to each of these?

What does the play find attractive in each? Endorse, celebrate and affirm?

Who does the play find repulsive or dangerous? Critique?

Explore the ambiguity in each of the main principles, as they are displayed in characterization, stage direction and main action. How does W explore these in reference to other themes? Consider: Dionysian and Apollonian principles, sexuality, sexual repression, class, gender, Puritanism, Old South and New Society, illusion and self – delusion, etc

Play’s values, attitudes [admiration, affirmation, endorsement, critique, ambiguity]

What does the play affirm, celebrate, accept, find redemptive, endorse?

What does it see critically, reject, disparage, dismiss?

What does it view ambiguously?

When exploring ambiguity do note the tone as well as balance between affirmation and rejection.

Consider attitudes to: Human traits; Cultural / social traits / Moral values

Williams views of human condition

Tragic – revise aspects of tragic vision

Pessimistic – what, who, why

Optimistic – what, who, why

Skeptical – ambiguity about human potential and possibility

Cynical – rejection of possibility of human worth;

humanity is free – in what sense

Humanity is entrapped - in what sense

Characterizations and dramatic strategies

Note: Characters as psychological entities and as allegorical sites –

Note: how dramatic strategies reveal the psychological constructions - note how they embody themes, human traits and cultural values - note how W positions audience in relation to various human traits and themes and values represented – find key quotes demonstrating the above – find key dramatic strategies demonstrating the above – note main contrasting characters

Main characters

Blanche –

B’s main character traits, psychological state, moral character traits, character conflicts, stages of unveiling of character, stages of degeneration, stages of descent into ‘madness’, causes of degeneration, allegorical symbolic social and cultural significance, audience positioning on each point above - key scenes and passages - key quotes representing key character features - dramatic strategies defining character –

Stan –

S’s main traits, moral stature, representational role, themes explored through character, how the audience is positioned, Stan’s contribution to B’s degeneration, descent into ‘madness’, degeneration stages, key moments, key scenes, key passages, key quotes, key dramatic strategies, main contrasting characters

Mitch –

M’s main traits, conflicts, allegorical representational role, themes explored, audience positioning, contribution to B’s degeneration, descent into ‘madness’, stages, key moments, key scenes and passages, key quotes, key dramatic strategies

Stella –

S’s main character traits, conflicts, allegorical representational role, how audience is positioned in reference to each main trait, contribution to B’s descent into ‘madness’, key scenes and passages defining character, key quotes, key dramatic strategies -

Steve/ Pablo/Eunice

Working class character, parallels, contrasts, site for W’s ambiguous but finally affirmative view of raw physical life and working class masculinity, female working class character, representative of affirmatively presented New Society, voice of common sense, social tolerance, openness, authentic physicality,

Symbolic figures

Doctor – old – word charm - benign face of mental institutions

Matron - stern face of mental institutions

Street prostitute – expressionistic device – represents seamy side of New Orleans – echoes B’s moral degeneration - street peanut vendor – expressionistic device –

Mexican/gypsy woman – expressionistic device – foreshadows a kind of death

Young boy – object of B’s displaced desire, yearning for lost youth, attempt to deny the stench of death

Alan - W’s sympathy towards homosexuality - object of B’s loss and later guilt –

Shep – B’s former real or imagined beaux – object of Southern Belle desires

SND - Dramatic strategies –

Stage directions

Expressionistic and Realistic dramatic elements, W’s stage direction, in introduction of characters, notes on settings and costumes, motifs, gestures, dialogue, sounds, music, colors,

Dramatic devices

Expressionistic and Realistic dramatic elements: settings and costumes, motifs, gestures, dialogue, sounds, music, colors, symbolic objects, plot, action, characterizations, development of character, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, conveying meanings such as ideas, themes, values and views, sympathies, critiques, etc

Style of characterisation

Realism/naturalism/expressionism/psychological realism/stylisation/typology/symbolism

Most critical commentary read the play as a combination of Realism, particularly psychological realism and Expressionism as the dominant styles with some symbolic and stylized elements

How are the different characterisations styles manifested?

DRAMATIC METHODS: thematic and character exploration

How does Williams use Expressionistic and realistic devices to construct the characters and their inner state of character, as well as develop themes? List of some of the Expressionistic and realistic devices and explain how they work to define characters inner state and thematic exploration.

Trunk: signifies Blanche’s inner state is symbolically ‘raped’ and exposed to scrutiny by Stan who acts the role of agent of reality and destruction for blanche, foreshadows the subsequent rape, the final destructive act

Locomotive: allusions to Freud’s symbolism, symbols of repressed sexual desire, desires, as well as agent of fear escape and terror

Naked light bulbs: symbolic of harsh reality Blanche wants to escape, the reality of lost youth, beauty, dreams, status, way of life, grace, sophistication, culture, etc

Moth: represents blanche and her delicacy, her self destructive death wish, her attraction to the dangerous light, generated, symbolized by the sexually vibrant, Stan

Chinese light shade: desire for illusion, grace, elegance, etc

Bathing: desire to cleanse oneself of guilt, return to a state of child – like carefree innocence, escape from a sordid past, etc

Colors: white signifies a yearning for innocence, but here ironically compromised moral state; red: passion and desire; yellow: hope, sunny outlook on life, also part of the spectrum of primary colors associated with the physicality of the working class; pastel colors: delicacy, vulnerability, contrasts to the vibrant ‘primaries’ of working class characters; Della Robia Blue: B’s yearning for redemption and hope associated with the Madonna, etc

Drink: B’s escapism motif, signifies deliberate lies, possibly self – delusion, as denies her recourse to drink to Mitch, hides the truth from herself, defines and introduces Stan’s role as truth bearer when he correctly diagnoses B’s propensity for escapist self - delusions

Bowling: masculine, working class pastime, competitive spirit and the new class assertiveness

Meat package: red and bloody, Stan throws he package across the room to Stella, a alludes to a primitive, raw, relaxed and easy masculinity, etc but also signifies his dangerous Dionysian elements, his bloodletting as far as Blanche is concerned

Baby: born from the union of Stan and Stella, it represents an accommodation between the classes, regenerative energies, hope for a future, convergence and fusion of the best of old and new values

Telephone: unable to contact anyone: reference to several scenes: symbolic of B’s impossible entrapment, call for help, yearning to escape her entrapment, desire to make contact with her former self, need to sustain her illusion of a upper class lover, desperate desire, to escape what she sees as her readiness to give in to her sordid desire for Stan

Music: each signifies different states of mind and ideas: Versouviana, memory of past husband both joyful and sad, filled with fond reminiscences of a former love, youth, hope and subsequent despair, grief, guilt, remorse; Jazz, spirit of the new class, energy and erotic desire; blue piano: sadness, melancholy, yearning for lost love

Sounds: all signify inner states; jungle sounds: primitive sexual energies, erotic desires, chaos of conflicting emotions: cat screeching: mating calls, signify erotic desires and fear of such desire

Symbolic figures: represent partly the inner life of Blanche as well as the spirit of the place: Blind Mexican woman: B’s moral blindness, impeding doom, fate; Negro prostitute: Blanche’s sordid past, the seamy side of life in new Orleans, sexuality, mingling of classes, values and cultures

Dialogue: conversation, verbal exchange between two or more characters, can signify conflict of values and opinions [Blanche and Stan]; can signify convivial communication [blanche and Mitch]; reveals characterisation and inner state; style of language is crucial to defining character [see below and MTC production notes]

Monologue: self – address can signify alienation, loneliness, separateness, troubled inner state, private musings, anxiety; one - person address to audience: departure from realism, not used in this play

Songs: Blanche’s songs, express her longing for innocence, deluded sense of self, deluded sense of hope; they work as dramatic irony foreshadowing B’s gradual loss of hope, as irony in view of the gradual disclosure of her hitherto hidden sordid past life

Language: style and register: sophisticated, literary, refined, allusive, indirect, witty, complex, tonally varied, helps to construct character of Blanche; physical, crude colloquial, blunt, direct, etc language help to construct the character of Stan; stella’s language is simple, direct, unpretentious, etc also part of character construction, etc

Language rhythms: nervous, even, uneven, halting, rapid, slow, laborious, jagged, etc. reveals characterisation and state of mind, etc [see my MTC notes]

Tone of voice: desperate, tense, anxious, angry, enraged, soothing, yearning, loving, tender, melancholy, hopeful, scornful, scathing, dismissive, etc clearly revealing the character’s feelings, attitudes, inner psyche

Names: signify symbolise deeper meanings, carry some themes, contribute to characterisation, etc

Elysian Fields: ironic reference to B’s hope and utopian desires

Belle Reve: literally ‘beautiful dream’, hope, dreams, upper class wealth and pretensions, loss of hope once it is lost; male ‘epic fornications’, signifying upper class excesses

Cemetery: death motif; B meets a kind of death; play links desire and death

Streetcar named Desire: B’s journey, disclosing her inner erotic yearnings

Stella: star, signifies W’s hope for a new society, marked by a freer sexual expression, a fusion of cultures, etc

Blanche: white: symbol of B’s desire

Kowalsky: Smith, common Polish name, signifies working class status, immigrant contribution to American culture

Settings: exteriors and interiors: open and entrapped lives; emotional climate and metaphor; bathroom: yearning for moral cleansing and redemption; divided bedroom signify a divided self; time of day and night: morning heralds hope; evening loss of hope night and darkness: fear, danger and terror; seasons conventionally register steps in life journey, emotional states and aspects of life and death

Movements on stage: aggressive, firm, direct, etc signify a directness of purpose, confidence and assertiveness; timid, meandering, etc signify shyness, self - consciousness and uncertainty [Stan and Stella respectively]

Costumes: includes change of costumes, bowling shirt, flimsy dress, silk wrap, suit, etc

Allusions – literary and cultural – Van Gogh in stage directions carry W’s clear indication

of his use of expressionistic color and shape symbolism, signify primal, raw human passions; Browning [B’s yearnings for romance, love, sentiment, etc; Poe reflects on melodramatic mood, distortion of human emotions, B’s fear; Napoleonic code: reflects Stan’s self conscious show of learning, his vying for authority, practical and materialistic interests in his wife’s inheritance, etc

Motifs: these can be references, sounds, objects, allusions, etc. see above

Characterisation: development of character; conflict between characters; inner conflict; contrasts; parallels; see notes above

Juxtapositions:

Blanche

Expressionism/symbolism and the characterization of Blanche

Williams’ Expressionistic methods allow us to see what transpires in the mind of Blanche, a state of which she is not always conscious, an intimate view of the psyche relatively denied to other characters. Our intimate engagement with B’s psyche partly relies on Williams’ departures from conventions of realism, as Williams constructs a kind of aural and visual journey through her deeply conflicted psychological landscape. He constructs a privileged POV for Blanche, that is, we see life from her perspective, making us privy to her interiority, her inner state. Such focus and deep exposure encourages audience sympathy with her plight, as we witness and experience her inner turmoil. Beyond the specific focus on the one character, the individual Blanche some argue that Williams’ methods insist on her symbolic role as universal humanity beset by elemental inner conflict and passions. The symbolic uses of color, light, shape and sound suggest a universal humanity, a humanity transcending a specific social context, beset by elemental impulses, frustrated desires, anguished conflicts, yearning for escape and redemption. Such departures from naturalism /realism facilitate such transcendence.

What do the following expressionistic devices covey in the context of Blanche’s characterization and the dramatization of her inner state?

Props: naked bulbs, paper shades, suit case, etc.

Costumes and colors: fake furs, fake jewelry, white, pale pink, red, Madonna Blue*, etc.

Aural effects / sounds: jungle noises, varsouviana, cat screeches, locomotive sounds, pistol shots, etc

Visual effects: lurid light, distorted shapes on walls, etc

Stage settings and sets: transparent walls, room dividers, etc

Consider: a response

Character’s inner state: Blanche: represents society and universal humanity

Aural and visual effects enable the audience to get close to the various shades of Blanche’s complex, hidden emotions, dramatizing her troubled psyche, allowing us to view the world from her perspective, gaining our sympathy …..

Aural effects [locomotive – cat shriek – jungle sounds – polka – varsouviana] and visual effects [distorted shapes – lurid lights] evoke B’s crumbling mind, an intensely subjective state, an inner landscape of anxiety, guilt, shame, as we see the mounting assault of illicit primal desires, her mind haunted by memory of lost love, etc. Such effects become more frequent as Blanche becomes more split, more troubled, more alienated from reality, finally plunging into complete self - illusion. Transparent walls showing the decadent life of New Orleans connect Blanche to degraded universal humanity and foreshadow later violence; they metaphorically represent B’s corrupt state of mind, particularly pointed in the rape scene where her degradation is complete. Thus W distorts the surfaces of verisimilitude to evoke the deep interior state

Other dramatic devices to establish characterisation:

Structure of scenes; conflict within characters; conflict between characters; contrasts; parallels; juxtapositions; plot details; plot development; perspectives from other characters; past and present; stage actions; stage directions; time frame; settings; definitive action; climaxes and anti climaxes; tension; dramatic irony; foreshadowing; endings; resolutions; language used in stage directions; etc? Some key images, symbols, metaphors and motifs: Lights, coloured lights, moth, Chinese light shade, naked bulbs, bathing, colours, drink, bowling, meat, baby, telephone, music, Versouviana, hot jazz, blue piano, sounds, background shapes, jungle sounds, sea horse, sea, clothes, poker game, cigarette case, Mexican woman, Negro woman, prostitute, young man, etc.

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