Mitch/ minor characters Flashcards
lack of physical description of Mitch - only mention is that he has a ‘heavy build’ and resembles a ‘dancing bear’
signifies that Mitch is one of the less significant characters within the play, and potentially means that director interpretations of Mitch will not interfere in the same way that they would for Blanche, Stanley and Stella (to a certain extent).
It may be for this reason that Blanche and Stanley are given such specific and detailed stage directions: so that directors do not get their characters ‘wrong’ and interfere with what Williams was attempting to convey.
similarities between Blanche and Mitch
- sensitivity and vulnerability
- sentimental attachments
- ‘needing’ somebody
these similarities are trivial and meaningless, though, when it comes to their outlooks and approaches to life. Mitch is ultimately too dull for Blanche. would she have sabotaged this relationship if her sordid past was kept secret?
Sc3: “Poker shouldn’t be…”
“… played in a house with women.”
the semi-comic characters of Eunice and Steve
potentially serve to foreshadow the Kowalskis in the years to come, their youth lost to gritty city life.
‘Steve’s arm is around Eunice’s shoulder and she is sobbing luxuriously and he is cooing love-words.’ - almost an exact mirror of the image of Stanley and Stella at the play’s denouement, minus the sexual aspect of his ‘fingers find[ing] the opening of her blouse’.
the doctor and the nurse
- ghostly figures as they are unnamed and lack distinct personality
- nurse hints at Blanche’s grim fate as she states that Blanche’s ‘fingernails have to be trimmed’ (symbolic stripping of femininity, loss of the Southern Belle?)
- courtesy of the doctor allows Blanche to depart with [tragic] dignity.
“Just give me a slap…”
“… whenever I step out of bounds.”
impolite, out of control, disrespectful
