Streetcar - Motifs and Symbols Flashcards
What do Night, Day and Dusk symbolise? (Aka light and dark).
Death and Life, as well as the liminal space between these (a purgatory?)
- Could also be truth and fantasy.
What does Stanley symbolise?
He is the epitome of toxic masculinity, also symbolising the American Dream.
- New America.
What does Bathing symbolise?
A biblical allusion to baptism, but also symbolic of rebirth and cleaning away sins.
What does Poker symbolise?
Poker symbolises the game of life: using bluffing, deception and strategic thinking to win - Blanche is driven by emotion so she fails.
What does the Varsouvonia Polka Music symbolise?
Blanche’s deteriorating mental state, as well as a loss of innocence.
What do Steve and Eunice represent?
The foils of Stanley and Stella.
What does the young man represent?
Blanche’s desire to return to her youth; to feel youthful.
What does Mitch represent?
Mitch represents sanctuary for Blanche as he opens the gate to marriage and a nuclear family: can finally become the ‘Madonna’ she’s always dreamed of.
What does the Paper Moon song symbolise?
Imminent disaster and a tragic turn of events.
What does the Blue Piano symbolise?
Stanley’s music: the threat of him but also of New America.
- The invasion of Stanley.
Stella’s Labour:
Symbolic of the couple’s unbreakable connection; just as Stella is more angry with Stanley than ever, the baby literally stops her anger. A
Use of Expressionism and Plastic Theatre:
The outside and the inside world blending together for Blanche, demonstrating how she feels as if she has no safe space; the danger is now inside.
She cannot differentiate between illusion and reality.
‘poetic realism’ of New Orleans.
What does Elysian Fields symbolise?
The Greek Afterlife = the whole of the play is Blanche’s purgatory (has to face the consequences of her actions).
What does Blanche symbolise?
The Old South / Southern Belle.
What does the Streetcar symbolise?
The power of desire as the driving force behind the characters’ actions.
