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

2
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.
3
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
4
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.’

5
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

6
 [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
7
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?

8
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
9
 - 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.

10
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

11
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]

12
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]

13
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?
14
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.

15
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,

16
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?
17
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.
18
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.

19
 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?

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 - 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

21
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?

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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

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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
24
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

25
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
26
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?

27
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
28
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

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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,
30
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

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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
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 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
33
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
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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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