scene 7 Flashcards
stage directions:
‘it is late afternoon in mid - september’
temporal shift
arrived in may
not traditional aristotelian tragedy
almost fall - fall of blanche is pending - high birth emphasises this fall even more
stanley:
‘temperature 100 on the nose, and she soaks herself in a hot tub’
very aware that something is wrong with blanche
lacks emotion - typical machismo
the practice dates back even to pontius pilate who ‘took water and washed his hands’ after the jews had demanded the death of jesus –
this links alan grey closer to martyrdom than stanley or mcmurphy and shows the vulnerable, such as blanche or grey being the victims of the changing patriarchal society
stage directions:
‘blanche is singing in the bathroom a saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapunctally with stanley’s speech’
mashup of sound
stanley reveals blanche’s fictional world
emphasises unity of space, time and action
sings to romanticise herself - southern belle archetype
stanley and blanche can not co exist harmoniously - old and new south and upper and working class
stanley:
‘some canary bird, huh!’
used to send them down mines in the war
stop singing if there was gas
symbolise blanche’s delicate and weak self
kept in cages, symbolising blanche’s entrapment by stanley in his home
stanley:
‘blanche is no lily! ha ha! some lily she is!’
innocent and pure
flowers associated with beauty
weak and silly
sees through blanche’s façade
also symbolise death and are typically associated with funerals, symbolising that the soul of the departed has received restored innocence after death ironic use of the title ‘sister’
blanche:
‘say it’s only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea - but it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me!”
flying away
truth coming out simultaneously
easily destroyed and unstable nature of her fantasy
moon is a symbol of the rhythm of time
speaker in the song says that if both lovers believe in their imagined reality, then it’s no longer make-believe
stanley:
‘they were so impressed by dame blanche that they requested her to turn in her room key - for permanently’
kicked out
how bad her behaviour was
microcosm of wider discrimination of mental issues at the time
erratic - can’t ignore now
stanely:
‘downright loco - nuts’
euphemism for mental issues
lacked understanding at the time
sister lobotomised
williams suffered too
notoriously for all the wrong reasons
stanley:
‘they kicked her out of that high school before the spring term ended-and I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken! a seventeen-year-old boy - she’d gotten mixed up with!’
revenge
enjoyed telling people this
husband died young - why she’s a pedo
stage directions:
‘blanche thrusts her head out holding a towel about her hair’
fantasy
popping into reality
blanche:
‘possess your soul in patience!’
hamlet - shows education
trying to look smart
soul has connotations with beauty, truth and spirituality which is set against the physical; the body and its raw, obscene processes.
stanley:
‘blanche didn’t just love him but worshipped the ground he walked on’
intense feeling - destructive nature of excessive passion
pedestal - women expected to treat men this way since they were the breadwinners
religious connotations
needs a man to fulfil her southern belle duties
stanley:
’ you’re goddamn right i told him!’
williams believed deliberate cruelty was a sin
abusive and toxic man
stella:
‘blanche wouldn’t go on a bus’
stanley:
‘she’ll go on a bus and like it’
common thing - poor people
domineering machismo
either adjust to reality or leave
no place for blanche in elysian fields
stage directions:
‘a frightened look appears in her face, almost a look of panic’
stared back in scene 3 - symbol of the demise of the old south
new south will triumph
williams thought it was crucial to keep up with the times
