Scene 10, Imagery and Setting

Question 1

Animal Imagery

Answer 1

Blanche also hears “inhuman jungle voices” which reflects her impending insanity. Stanley is described almost as being snake like as his bites ‘his tongue which protrudes between his lips.’ This image displays Stanley as venomous and creates a repulsive image of him as he ‘takes a step towards’ Blanche. Moreover, the fact that Stanley “springs towards” Blanche indicates his predatory and violent nature.

Question 2

Sounds

Answer 2

The fact that the “barely audible ‘blue piano’ begins to drum up louder” helps to add to the tension in the scene and the “roar of an approaching locomotive” reveals Blanche’s insecurity as the outside world, which represents reality, is intruding and destroying her fabricated reality. The scene ends with the “hot trumpet and drums of the Four Deuces” which is intended to show how Blanche is being raped as the Four Deuces is a brothel and the trumpet and drums signify Stanley’s victory over Blanche.

Question 3

The walls becoming transparent (“through the back wall of the rooms, where the walls have become transparent, can be seen the sidewalk”).

Answer 3

The audience sees a prostitute, a drunkard, and a thief in the real world as the walls become transparent. This not only reveals how Blanche’s fabricated reality is falling apart but also how her final place of sanctuary, the house in Elysian Fields, can no longer protect her from the real world.

Question 4

The bathroom

Answer 4

In previous scenes, the bathroom was a place of refuge for Blanche as she could protect herself from reality by locking herself away and washing her memories of the past. However, in this scene, it is Stanley who “goes into the bathroom and closes the door” which shows how Stanley has infiltrated Blanche’s last place of refuge. Moreover, it is during Stanley’s time in the bathroom that Blanche’s state of mind deteriorates even more rapidly as she is unable to even recall Shep’s number and as she feels that she is “caught in a trap”.

Question 5

Relation of part to the play as a whole

Answer 5

This scene is the climax of the play. Everything in the play has been building up to this point as Stanley and Blanche have “had this date with each other from the beginning”. The seemingly inevitable rape of Blanche allows Williams to not only reveal how following desire can lead “to cemeteries”, but also how the vibrant yet violent society of Stanley is founded on animalistic instincts. Thus, Williams presents the audience with no character to truly sympathise with and follow; Williams is advocating neither the working class nor the aristocratic society as he believes both societies have their own intrinsic flaws. However, the fact that Blanche loses the struggle with Stanley is a clear sign by Williams that he believes the sophisticated and “dainty” morals and values that Blanche represents will inevitably face extinction