Big Ideas Flashcards
(9 cards)
Ambiguous moral puzzel
Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire presents an ambiguous moral puzzle to readers. Critics and audiences alike harbor vastly torn opinions concerning Blanche’s role in the play, which range from praising her as a fallen angel victimized by her surroundings to damning her as a deranged harlot. Critic Kathleen Margaret Lant claims that Williams prohibits Blanche from the realm of tragic protagonist as a result of his own culturally ingrained misogyny, using her victimization as an intentional stab at womanhood. At another end of the spectrum, critic Anca Vlasopolos interprets Blanche’s downfall as a demonstration of Williams’s sympathy for her circumstances and a condemnation of the society that destroys her. Despite such strong convictions, debate still exists over Williams’s intentions in the weaving of Blanche Dubois’ tale and the purpose of the play’s moral ambiguity. Throughout the play, Williams’s sympathies lie with Blanche; this sympathy proves Williams is not misogynistic but rather condemns the environment that has brought about Blanche’s tragic circumstances.
Musical motif as a form of plastic theatre the blue piano
In times of passion, racial diversity.
Trauma and mental disintegration
Blanche’s alcoholism
She says to Stella that she’s going to look for some liquor.
Important use of dramatic irony bc the audience knows that Blanche knows where the liquor is bc he has already helped herself to some already. Audience introduced to the theme of deception. The fantasy that Blanche lives in requires a glossy appearance and her alcoholism undermines the pouty she so painstakingly puts forward.
The fact that her first lie is about drinking is crucial bc it helps the audience to understand that it is a facade to hide her embarrassment about her mental distress .
This internal demonisation of her own coping mechanism, reflect her adherence to the strict ideals of what a women should be, which has been ingrained in her bourgeois upbringing
‘They told me to take a streetcar named Desire and told me transfer one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at— Elysian fields’
Allegorically explores blanche’s journey through life so far
‘Desire’ - sexuality and points to its relevance in Blanche’s past
‘Cemeteries’ references the losses she has endured
‘Elysian field’ - Greek mythology of land of the dead. Perhaps the whole set of Elysian field could be a metaphorical set for the afterlife where lost souls, like Blanche, are trapped, replaying traumas and delusions. Blanche as a ghost ? Has she already died (suicide) and is stuck in purgatory (water and motif of bathing), forced to relive her downfall.
Lust to death. Arriving at the field, the afterlife is her final destination.
Stanley as a demon or judge, playing god in the day of judgement (king of the jungle, pampered all feeds into his superiority): stanley could be a punishing force, exposing her lies.
Diagetic noises of the jungle and shadows moving could suggest how she is in hell, could mimick demons. Not human noises.
Belle reve
‘There are thousands of paper stretching back over hundreds of years, affecting belle reve…father uncles and brothers changed the land for their epic fortifications’
Blanche and Stella’s ancestral home of belle reve functions almost as the green light does in fitzgerald’s ‘the great gatsby’. It is a symbol of all that Blanche has lost, a dream that she yearns to recapture and yet never will.
The facade of wealth and ‘high breeding’ that she promulgates is based on her lineage, however, the same way that belle reve is no longer theirs, neither is the lifestyle associate with it. Therefore, blanche’s ostentatious displays of superiority is exaggerated, falsified and pure fiction
A failed marriage
‘He was just a boy , a boy when i was a vey young girl.’
Blanche’s idolised and unrealistic view of the world ultimately led to the first of many traumas that would shape all of her future relationships with men. ‘Degenerate’ - was a closet homosexual.
The abrupt and tragic ending to this marriage emotionally stunts Blanche by only allowing her to seek solace in men that remind her of Allan. Despite her ageing, the men and boys around her do not and this leads to her getting ‘mixed up’ and her dismissal as a school teacher for an inappropriate relationship. It is further exemplified in the bizarre scene involving the ‘young man.’
Mitch’s rejection
Confessed ‘yes i had many intimacies with stranger..’
Blanche’s depression at her own existence leads to a stream of brief and meaningless affairs. This is bc as her looks start to fade, she sees value in sexual gratification to gratify her existence, so she flirts with Stanley and Mitch. Ironically, Stanley recognises this sexuality in her and ultimately it feeds into his desire to dominate her physically.
However, clearly for Blanche, its ore about finding protection than sexual fulfilment (jealous of Stella). This causes her to latch onto Mitch seeing him as superior to the other male suitors in the party, possibly because of his devotion to his mother. It is precisely this reason for stability that Mitch rejects immediately after her confessions such as turning point and highlights her mental decay following Stanley’s sad rape of Blanche.
Stanley’s abuse
‘Animal joy…’
One of his many vices is pride and alike to other abusers, the root cause of his violence is fear of being emasculated or humiliated. As such, his life is a massive parade aimed at intimidating those around him, especially women who he view inferior to him.
Blanche ‘I warn you don’t, I’m in danger’ - rape
Blanche substitutes for the absent Stella as the outlet for Stanley’s aggression and desire. She becomes the surrogate victim for his wife, whose historical wealth and materialism has caused him fear and jealousy, the 2 most common traits of a domestic abuser.
Blanche’s’ constant remarks about Stanley coarseness and lack of intelligence have created the desire within him to humane and demean her
Blanche’s mental breakdown
Stella -‘just told her that -we’d made arrangements for her..’
By siding with her husband, she negates Blanche’s version of the events.
‘I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.’ Blanche’s exit from the play accompanied by the asylum doctor epitomises he total dislocation from reality and shows that the American she inhabits will no longer accept her voidof life. Her final plea for kindness is a stark juxtaposition with the cruelty that she has been subjected to, from all corners of her life.
The metaphorical blindness illustrates her inability to accept the hostility of the world and therefore explains her failure to exist in it.
