Blanche - scene 1

Question 1

‘Her appearance is incongruous to the setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district.’

Answer 1

• colour imagery - white connotes innocence and purity - portrays appearance and reality from Blanche’s introduction
• lexical field of wealth surrounding Blanche portrays her as supercilious with a sense of superiority
• her appearance juxtaposes that of the working class and modest environment of New Orleans

Question 2

‘Her delicate beauty must avoid strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggest a moth’

Answer 2

• motif of the moth - fragility and vulnerability
• mental and physical fragility
• façade of hiding her age which introduces her deceit
• light symbolism / motif established

Question 3

‘Well now you talk. Open your pretty mouth and talk while I look around for some liquor! I know you must have some liquor on the place! Where could it be, I wonder? Oh, I spy, I spy!’

Answer 3

• dramatic irony - the audience is already aware that Blanche has helped herself to liquor
• deceit of Blanche even towards her sister
• deliberate childish register - protected lives of the aristocracy, not evident in N.O
• allusion to alcoholism

Question 4

‘Now don’t get worried, your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard, she’s just all shaken up and hot and tired and dirty!’

Answer 4

• allusion to addiction and alcoholism
• motif of cleanliness - Blanche’s hysteria and mental fragility
• triad / syndetic list of lexis associated with travelling and long journeys - emphasises duration of travel in 1940s before newest transport links

Question 5

‘You haven’t said a word about my appearance.’

Answer 5

• declarative
• demonstrates Blanche’s vanity and insecurities
• Blanche constantly seeks validation and reassurance about her looks
• appearance acts as part of her identity and coping mechanism

Question 6

‘I stayed and I struggled!’
‘I stayed at Belle Reve and tried to hold it together!’

Answer 6

• series of exclamatory sentences suggests Blanche’s heightened emotional state and mental fragility
• hints towards the decline of Belle Reve creating dramatic tensions
• allusion to theme of old vs new south
• whilst being portrayed as hysterical, the pronouns present her female independence of attempting to salvage Belle Reve alone

Question 7

‘Where were you. In bed with your - Polak!’

Answer 7

• symbolises Old South attitudes towards racial harmony etc
• exclamatory - Blanche’s frustration towards Stella emphasising her Old south morals
• themes of class conflict and prejudice