Scene Ten Flashcards
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Adler- ‘stage symbols and the scenic images speak to the audience as powerfully as what issues from the mouths of characters’
Norman- ‘excess of emotion’ in Scene Ten
Blanche’s instability as ‘sensible’ to the audience’
SD- ‘She [Blanche] has dragged her wardrobe trunk into the centre of the bedroom’
Reflective of Mitch ‘unclean’
Destructive image, tries to ground herself through costume ‘soiled and crumpled white satin gown’ bridal imagery, semantic of impurity
Blanche- ‘a woman of intelligence and breeding can, enrich a man’s life’
‘Physical beauty is passing’
Language of value for the middle aged, invisible women.
Ao4: Both protagonists use logic to point out the flaws in societal attitudes, they both speak for the underrepresented female.
Blanche- ‘Our attitudes and our backgrounds are incomparable’
SD- ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form’
‘The night is filled with inhuman voices like cries in a jungle’
‘Through the back wall of the rooms, which have become transparent, can be seen a sidewalk’
Claustrophobia represents her mental instability, the light/dark imagery.
Blanche’s inability to be honest with herself because she is afraid of society’s opinions of her.
Zoophoric- metaphor for society.
Inescapable past, no safety for the woman.
Reflection of the internal space contrasted to realism of the real world
Stanley’ We’ve had this date for a while’
Throughout the play Williams touches on the idea of fate rather than freewill, suggesting everything is predetermined. This is emphasised by symbolic characters in the play such as the old women giving out flowers for the dead and the streetcar. This line suggests that Stanley has known this would happen since ‘the beginning’ and everything that has happened - the power struggle between the two - has led up to this point.
SD- ‘The hot trumpet and drums from the Four Deuces sound loudly’
The music from the four deuces is played just when Stanley has picked up Blanche and put her on the bed. We know the upstairs of the four deuces is a brothel and therefore the fact that the music from there can be heard from there implies the rape that will follow. This is a crucial moment when the complete destruction of Blanche, her beautiful values and the class, which she represents, becomes evident
