scene 10 Flashcards
stage directions:
‘crumpled white satin evening gown’
pure - parallels scene 1
façade ruined like clothes
mentally unstable
blanche:
‘how about taking a swim, a moonlight swim at the old rock quarry? if anyone’s sober enough to drive a car! ha-ha! best way in the world to stop your head buzzing! only you’ve got to be careful to dive where the deep pool is - if you hit a rock you don’t come up till tomorrow…’
spectre of death is there
foreshadows danger
stage directions:
‘slams the mirror down with such violence that the glass cracks’
can’t even look at reality
can’t bear the sight of her true self
trying to distort her view of reality?
blanche:
‘this old man is from dallas where gold spouts out of the ground’
old south - valuable
stanley:
‘well, it’s a red letter night for us both’
danger, love , anger
night of celebration - foreshadows stanley celebrating blanche being sent away in scene 11?
stanley:
‘the silk pyjamas i wore on my wedding night!’
smashed things - dressing for violence
silk is a symbol of power
blanche:
‘i have been foolish - casting my pearls before swine’
biblical reference
sad - people don’t care about personality, only beauty
uses this allusion to describe what she sees as her own actions - sees herself as generous, and though she is monetarily poor, she is rich in spirit, her mind beautiful
wasting their time by offering something that is helpful or valuable to someone who does not appreciate or understand it
swine = lower class - has to show people she’s better than them
stanley:
‘i’ve been onto you from the start! not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes! you come in here and sprinkle the place with powder and spray perfume and cover the light bulb with a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into egypt and you are the queen of the nile! sitting on your throne and swilling down my liquor!’
he has never allowed himself to be manipulated by the lies that were in the darkness (since he is constantly connected with the light-and there seem to be light wherever he is)
exposes blanche
williams’ symbolism here is transparently shakespearean. like shakespeare’s cleopatra, blanche, dressed in her queenly robes and crown, is preparing herself for the tragic encounter with a ritualistic death delivered at stanley’s hands. of course, blanche’s cleopatra is in a french quarter style.
stage directions:
‘lurid reflections appear on the walls around blanche. the shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form. she catches her breath, crosses to the phone and jiggles the hook’
retreats into her fantasy
plastic theatre reflects her mind
shadows symbolise blanche’s fear and helpless inferiority at this moment and exaggerate the effect of it for the audience
foreshadows the rape
how the new south will prosper
stage directions:
‘the night is filled with the inhuman voices like cries in a jungle’
‘a prostitute has rolled a drunkard. he pursues her along the walk, overtakes her, and there is a struggle. a policeman’s whistle breaks it up. the figures disappear’
foreshadows inhuman, animalistic events
police could’ve helped
mirror the outside world
stage directions:
‘the barely audible blue piano begins to drum up louder. the sound of it turns into the roar of an approaching locomotive. blanche crouches, pressing her fists into her ears until it has gone by’
dynamic between the old south and the new south
hard to stop the new south
drums symbolise it getting more intrusive
blanche:
‘some awful thing will happen! it will!’
ironic - it will happen to her
stanley already knows this process
fate - hero downfall - aristotelian tragedy
blanche:
‘she smashes the bottle on the table and faces him, clutching the broken top’
falling into violence - won’t stop her fate now
can’t get as morally low as stanley
stanley:
‘tiger - tiger! drop the bottle-top! drop it! we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning’
new south and old south can’t co exist
flip of the animalistic language onto blanche – so far exempt as stanley prowls around licking his lips – which gives her some blame for what is to happen. She (allegedly and implicitly by this line) tempted stanley into his actions
metaphor for fate: the necessary end to the primal struggle of their opposing forces
battle for dominance
stage directions:
‘he picks up her inert figure and carries her to the bed. the hot trumpet and drums from the four deuces sound loudly’
lifeless
must capitulate
desire now anarchic
