Streetcar - Deceit Flashcards
‘I want to deceive …
him enough to make him want me’
Scene 5 about Mitch
Blanche on how much alcohol she drinks
‘No, one’s my limit’
‘I rarely touch it’
‘Frantically hiding the bottle’
Blanche’s trunk is full of
‘Costume jewellery’
Stanley deceiving women
‘Determining the way he smiles at them’ - choosing how to act
‘Sises them up with a glance’
How does Stella deceive Blanche?
And what context does this link to
Stella deceives Blanche into thinking she is going to ‘rest in the country’ when her true destination is a mental institution.
The theme of betrayal running through these lines is perhaps heightened by Williams’ first hand experience as he felt betrayed by his mother who allowed his sister, Rose, to have a lobotomy in 1943.
Blanche and light quotes
‘She moves out of the yellow streak of light’
‘Put it over the lightbulb’
‘I can’t stand a naked light bulb’
Blanche letter to Shep
‘Bursts into peals of laughter’
At ‘myself, for being such a liar’
Blanche deceiving Mitch about her age
‘I haven’t informed him of my real age’
Mitch deceived by Blanche during their date
Audience feel sympathy for a Mitch - he’s so oblivious
‘I like you to be exactly the way you are’
Because ‘I have never known anyone like you’
Blanche then: ‘bursts into laughter’ and says ‘let’s leave the lights on’
Contrast of ‘solemn’ Mitch and Blanche ‘laughing’ and ‘clapping her hand over her mouth’
Blanche finds deceit funny (link to Shep letter - similar reaction)
Blanche about lights when wnet wring apartment with Mitch after their date
‘Let’s leave the lights of shall we’
Blanche reaction to Mitch asking how old she is
‘Makes a nervous gesture’
Locomotive light symbol as Blanche reveals some truth about her past
“The headlight of the locomotive glass into the room as it thunders past”
Blanche description at her birthday supper
‘Tight artificial smile’ on her ‘drawn face’
Blanche about darkness
“I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me”
Mitch about never seeing Blanche in the light
“I don’t think I have ever seen you in the light”
Blanche reaction to Mitch wanting to see her in her light
After Mitch says ‘let’s turn the light on’
‘Light? Which light? What for?’ - short stuttered phrases, monosyllabic
‘Fearfully’
‘Utters a frightened gasp’
‘Don’t turn the light on’ - imperative
‘Cries out and covers her face’
Blanche about telling the truth
“I don’t tell the truth. I tell what ought to be the truth”
Mitch confronting Blanche about lying
‘You lied…
‘You lied to me Blanche’
‘Lies, lies inside and out, all lies’
Blanche réaction to Mitch sayings she lies
‘Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart…’
What does this mean ???
Where did Stella tell Blanche she was going?
‘To rest in the country’
whole scene of Blanche being taken away
all about deceit because Stella deceived Blanche and now she is actually sending her to a mental institution
Stage direction of Stella (fist) when matron enter
‘Presses her fist to her lips’
Same action as Blanche who ‘presses her knuckles to her lips’
Reminds us of their similarities and sibling relationship
Stella broken syntax to Blanche in last scene
‘Sit down and…’
Ellipsis
Broken syntax reflecting broken sisterly relationship
Stella reacting to Blanche being taken away at end of play (her regret)
‘What have I done?’
‘Oh god’
‘What have I done?’
‘Cries out’
‘Blanche! Blanche, Blanche’ - product of the patriarchy; if she had sided with Blanche her world would have come crumbling as well
Prayer desperation
Repetition of what have I done
Moment of anagnorisis
Stella once Blanche has gone quite
Sob
Luxurious
‘Sobs with inhumane abandon’
And yet there is ‘something luxurious’ in the ‘complete surrender to crying’ - relief
