BLANCHE Flashcards
(15 cards)
First time that Stella is indicated to pick Stanley over Blanche. Stage directions/symbolism of concealment - indicates peripeteia between the conflict between aristocracy and working class/masculinity. Foebodes/highlights Stella’s conformity
“Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.”
Blanche’s downfall is also enforced by reputation and the past - sexual immorality in a town setting/environment emphasises the social elements of New Orleans - Setting/Metaphor/Triplet
“Because this other party is someone he met at a hotel called the flamingo”
“Kiefaber, Stanley and Shaw have tied an old tin can to the tail of the kite.”
Blanche initially challenges Stanley through her higher dialect/register. At this point within the play, she has the upper-hand and authority over Stanley
Exclamative/Taboo language/Interrogative
“What in the name of heaven are you thinking of!”
“What’s in the back of that little boy’s mind of yours?”
Blanche’s reaction/outrage to the events of the Polker Night. She subverts the convention societal norm of female conformity and protests against the normalisation of Stanley’s abuse.
Exclamative/Archaic word order/Animal imagery/Epithet
(shrilly) “My sister is going to have a baby!”
“You’re married to a madman!”
“What such a man has to offer is animal force and he gave a wonderful exhibition of that!”
Blanche’s fixation on vanity shows her way of living after her husband’s suicide. Highlight Blanche’s conformity to the patriarchy even if it goes against the societal expectations of a ‘respectable’ women
Fragmented speech/Anadiplosis/Light motif/Metaphor/Hendiaya/Non Standard English
“When people are soft - soft people have got to court the favour of hard ones”
“Have got to be seductive - put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings and glow”
“Have got to - shimmer and glow - put a paper lantern over the light […] aw’fully scared.”
Blanche’s sex work during the worst of her grieving period. Highlights her delineation from Belle Reve and her previous aristocratic status
Fragmented dialogue/anadiplosis/temporal discourse/euphemism
“Make a little - temporary magic just in order to pay for - one night’s shelter.”
“Men don’t - don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you,”
“I don’t know how much longer I can turn the trick.”
Eventually, Mitch sees through Blanche’s deceptiveness and urges her to turn the light on - symbolic of all her lies and her past being discovered by Stanley
Exclamative/telegraphic/motif/metaphor
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in the light. That’s a fact!”
“Don’t turn the light on!”
Blanche’s deceptiveness and honesty have been questioned throughout the play. Stanley regards to Bla nche’s past as though it is typical gossip - catalyst of her downfall.
Non-standard English/Idiom
“I’ve got th’dope on your big sister, Blanche.”
“But now the cat’s out the bag.”
Throughout the rape, Blanche still subverts gender conformity as she tries to attack and stop Stanley - the dominating force.
“So I could twist the broken end in your face!”
“You - you stand over there!”
(He picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed.)
Blanche has considered to have committed blasphemy all throughout the play - her exclamatives and her past indicate that she strays away from the conventional standards for a Christian/Catholic
Allusion to imago dei/Generalisation of the working class as a lesser status/temporal discourse/exclamatives/astrological allusion/idiom
“God! Maybe we are a long way from being made in God’s image, but Stella - my sister - there has been some progress of new light have come into the world since then!”
“And if that’s sinful, then let me be damned for it.”
“Sometimes - there’s God - so quickly!”
“Virgo is the virgin.”
“A seventeen year old she had gotten mixed up with.”
“Ha ha! Sister Blanche is no lily!”
“But I’ve got to be good and keep my hands of children. Adios!”
Blanche’s mental health is shown to deteriorate throughout the play. One of the catalysts for this is the setting of Elysian Fields - she feels incongruent to a working class environment where she no longer holds any authority or wealth
Nihilism/Exclamative/Metaphor/Motif of cleanliness/Simile/Exlamative/Fragmented dialogue/Stage direction/Audio imagery/Simile/Idiom/Animalistic imagery
“I want to rest[…] I can leave here and not be anyone’s problem.”
“I was slipping in with him!”
“He was the quicksands and clutching at me.”
“Washing out some things.”
“She has been washed up like poison”
“She was always - flighty!”
(She is drinking to escape it.)
(A distant revolver shot is heard.)
“You ought to lay off the liquor. He says you been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat!”
Blanche’s downfall following the discovery of her past. Death motif throughout the play grows more potent - red herring to death, but might be symbolic of her mental death - she has to ‘rely on the kindness of others.’ Perhaps Williams uses this as an allegory on how the role of women are undermined throughout society.
Metaphor/Triplet/Polysyndeton/Stage direction/Plastic theatre/Props
“Death - I used to sit here and she used to sit over there and death was as close as you are…”
“Crumble and fade and - regrets - recriminations.”
(Slams the mirror face down with such violence that the glass cracks)
Blanche’s initial status as a landed gentry agrarian landowner is often emphasised upon throughout the play. Her higher education is shown through her dialogue and speech mannerisms, and she weaponises this against Stanley and Mitch.
Higher register/Figuratives(Metaphor)/Triplet/Derogatory term/Shorter syntax/Anadiplosis/Hendiaya/Past tense
“Voulez-vouz couchec avec moi ce soir?”
(Would you like to sleep with me?)
“In this dark march.”
“Ha-ha! Yes - clothes are my passion. Silk robes, fur coats[…]”
“I like an artist who paints in strong, bold, primary colours.”
“In bed with your - Polack!”
“I guess it is just that I have - old fashioned ideals!”
“Oh.” (When Mitch is talking about his clothes - ‘light weight alpaca.)
“Nobody, nobody was tender and trusting as she was.”
Blanche is also presented to have romanticist qualities regarding her relationships - it becomes distorted and can be put into question following her mental deterioration.
Literary allusion/Exclamative/Imperative/Archaic word order/Syntactic parallelism/Archaic words
“You look like a young prince out of the Arabian Nights.”
“My Rosenkavalier! Bow to me first!”
“A lady must entertain the gentlemen.”
“Poems a dead boy wrote. I hurt him the way you would like to hurt me.”
“The unforgivable insult to a lady!” (Not shaving)
“So utterly uncavalier.”
Blanche is interconnected with Death and Desire - her husbands death, her social death - she is on her last leg as her mental health deteriorates
“They told me to take a Streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called cemeteries
