Blanche facade Flashcards
‘delicate beauty must avoid the light’
any obstruction to this façade will be fatal to Blanche
‘white suit’ ‘white gloves’
all exterior chooses to be this way
‘white frame’ ‘rickety frame’
instability and caution
‘replacing the bottle’
incessant habit of erasing evidence, anti- febrile femininity
‘polka rises up’
- only audible to her,
- become internal and privatized - convinced herself façade is real
i cant be alone’
monosyllabic, lack of complex thought (like Stanley)
scene 2
1) ‘Blanche is bathing’
2) ‘Now you’ve touched them, I’ll burn them’
‘blanche is bathing’
- throughout the whole play,
- redundancy of constant bathing,
- can’t forget her past
scene 3
1) ‘paper lantern’
2) ‘screams and runs into the kitchen’
‘paper lantern’
hides the naked light bulb-
- prevents the truth ‘paper’ = fragile
‘screams and runs into the kitchen’
typical female reaction, goes to place of comfort, attempt to restore order she knows how
scene 5
1) ‘A disturbance is heard upstairs’
2) ‘did he kill her?’
3) flamingo’
4) ‘there is a murmur of thunder’
‘A disturbance is heard upstairs’
- structural choice
- abrupt interruption of the lie
- walls are permeable limitations to privacy
‘did he kill her?’
- syntax
- immediate assumption Steve was hit
- links to Eunice ‘I heard’ - immediate assumption abuse
- comment on all men in play and normalization
flamingo
Blanche looks at the world through rose tinted glasses, illusion
‘there is a murmur of thunder’
-pathetic fallacy
=gentility of Blanche challenged- ‘murmur’ = beginning of deterioration
scene 6
1) ‘while I take a last look at the sky’
2) ‘huddles in his embrace’
‘while I take a last look at the sky’
sky is expansive - distant desire to escape
‘huddles in his embrace’
- makes rape more abhorred
- clearly not society fault
- compare to Stella and Stan relationship she ‘embrace with both arms’ after abuse
scene 7
1) ‘Canary Bird’
2) ‘saccharine’
‘saccharine’
artificial sweetener, illusions to artificially romantisize
‘Canary Bird’
- known for melodious song
- in a cage domestic bird
- Blanche trapped in hotel for pleasures for others
scene 8
1) ‘diagonal green’
2) ‘Southern comfort’
3) ‘it must belong to Stan’
4) ‘ I don’t want realism.. I want magic’
5) ‘tarantula’
6) ‘the distant piano is slow and blue’
‘diagonal green’
- ‘diagonal’ =- imbalanced, fractured state of mind
- ‘green’ - Stanley’s bowler shirt = foreshadowing his dominance
‘it must belong to Stan’
foreshadows rape, everything in house belongs to Stanley
’ I don’t want realism.. I want magic’
-traumatised, realism and truth brought her tragedy, -‘magic’ = idyliic for your desires- hamartia unwillingness to embrace past
‘tarantula’
- periodically shed external skeletons whilst organs regrow
- Blanche façade fades when memory of past regrow
‘the distant piano is slow and blue’
- before ‘blue piano’ = seperation of sanity
scene 10
1) ‘ dragged her wardrobe trunk to the center of the room’
2) ‘somewhat soiled and crumpled satin evening gown
3) ‘moonlight swim’
4) ‘prostitute’
5) ‘she smashes a bottle on the table’
’ dragged her wardrobe trunk to the center of the room’
contains wealthy things, this facde is central
‘somewhat soiled and crumpled satin evening gown’
- foreshadows loss of purity and innocecence will be tampered with
‘moonlight swim
oft and romantic light- not critical like the sun
‘prostitute
drunkard and thief- Blanche’s outside world merging with inside
‘she smashes a bottle on the table’
- ironic hamartia is using alcohol to escape reality
- mental to physical now protection
’ it is some weeks later’
- life continues on after violence occurrence
- people have to live with trauma
- other openings very specific, lack of structure
scene 11
1) ‘ it is some weeks later’
2) ‘kitchen raw’
3) ‘and when I die, I’m going to die on the sea’
‘kitchen raw
even domestic life has been masculinised
‘and when I die, I’m going to die on the sea’
- romanticizing death,
- giving up fantasy in life but in death
- sea’ = vast, not specific she’s caught between two world old and new America
‘moves towards the light’
changed attitude towards light, internal conflict with idealism and true desires
- link to Williams unappreciated homosexulatity and Blanche’s promiscuity
