Scene 9

Question 1

“You’ve stopped that polka tune I had caught in my head”

Answer 1

This quotation signifies that blanche never truly loved Mitch, only the sense of comfort and stability he offered her

Question 2

“Yes, a big spider! That’s where I brought my victims…”

Answer 2

Blanche tells Mitch the truth of her past in a stark, almost deliberately provocative manner. This may even be thought to signify that Blanche isn’t apologetic about her promiscious past - in fact, she indulged in such experiences with men, often leaving her house at night to sneak off with soldiers.

(This may be an angry comment on men misunderstanding and judging her actions)

Question 3

‘He tears the paper lantern off the light-bulb’

Answer 3

symbolic of the stripping away of Blanche’s pretensions.
Light and dark symbolically relate to truth and illusion. The emphasis on light and dark here is striking, particularly as the conventional symbolism is reversed. For Blanche, light is a crule enemy while darkness is kind. While Mitch believes that this is simply because it conceals her ageing appearance, it is more than this to Blanche: darkness hides the ugliness of the real world, enabling her to maintain her illusions. When her illusions are lost, so is her sanity.

Question 4

“I tell what ought to be the truth”, “I didn’t lie in my heart”

Answer 4

to Blanche, reality and illusion have become the same, or just as important as eachother.

Question 5

“Flores para los muertos”

Answer 5

The Mexican woman almost seems to be a physical manifestation of death - though if she is a real character or imagined by Blanche remains ambiguous. In combination with the sound effects of the Varsouviana Polka, these dramatic techniques heighten tensions, discomfort, fear (phosbos), and eleos (pity/pathos)

Question 6

“I don’t want realism.”

Answer 6

when Blanche’s fantasies are met with incomprehension and brutality, she turns to her world of make-believe for good.

Question 7

“pitch”

Answer 7

Mitch’s use of this word to describe Blanche’s explanation compares it to that of a salesman’s patter. Her motives have been lost on him. To him, she is simply deceitful; a liar pretending to be virtuous.