a table with 3 layouts one covers the theme and thesis statement middle section contains quotations/explanations and last section contains context
many different themes some overlays
A streetcar named desire Quotations/ explanations context
Illusion and reality also links to Blanche’s fragile mental state is highlighted throughout the play, that women in the Old South were expected
appearance and reality- Williams beginning with her fabrication of Shep Huntleigh, a man who Blanche
explores illusion and reality in a ‘went out with at college’. Shep acts as a metaphor for Blanche’s hope to be chaste and virginal
Streetcar Named Desire, and material desire; by the end of the play, she truly believes that ‘the
particularly through Blanche, a gentleman I was expecting from Dallas’ will come and rescue her. Yet
woman sculpted by her turbulent this old-fashioned dependency on men does not fit into the New
experiences with love and life. She Orleans way of life. Blanche’s manifestation of a wealthy man who will
perceives love as a distant safe her from not only her current troubles, but indeed her past as well
impossibility, emphasised by her emphasises the unstable state she falls more and more heavily into.
experiences (or lack thereof) with Blanche’s utter dependency on the idea of Shep becomes deepened
her husband and their relationship. the further her mental state deteriorates, and she uses the thought of
Blanche’s endlessly flirtatious him ‘inviting me on a cruise of the Caribbean’ to rectify her lost sense
nature is challenged by Stanley’s of self. There is a certain irony in the way she laughs at ‘being such a
authoritarian personality, and as liar’ when ‘writing a letter to Shep’ as she makes up elaborate lies
the play moves forward, the about her current lifestyle since she fails to look at the entire picture.
audience sees their facades begin Blanche lacks understanding of her fundamental fault in materialising
to falter Shep in the first place and attempting to make him an actuality in her
elaborate, apocryphal world. So, Blanche’s fragile mental state
emphasises the idea of illusion and reality throughout the play.
The use of music stresses her mental deterioration, particularly as the
line between what the audience hears and what Blanche hears blurs. At
the beginning of the play, the Polka tune is music that only the
audience can hear, yet soon enough one gets an idea of just how
chaotic Blanche’s mind is. She mutters about ‘that – music again’ to
which Mitch replies ‘what music?’. This develops into a cataclysmic
exposé of just how faded Blanche’s reality has become; she herself can
no longer tell the difference between what is real and what is not. ‘The
varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries
and noises of the jungle’ as Blanche is about to be taken to the mental
institution, creating catharsis in the audience and adding to the play as
a tragedy. The scene displays once again just how tumultuous
Blanche’s mental state is, stressed by the ‘weird distortion’ of the tune,
which mimics the distortion of her mind. The verb ‘cries’ echoes the
way ‘she cries out’ in the scenewhere Stanley ‘carries her to the bed’,
as she faces the reality that she is being taken away. Since her mind is
described as a ‘jungle’, one conjures an image of beautiful danger; a
jungle tends to be secretive and intense once night falls. The way
Blanche hears the ‘noises of the jungle’ emphasises the way Williams
utilises ‘an almost desperately morbid turn of mind and emotion’
(Richard Watts) to create an animalistic yet emotion-filled scene as the
play’s dramaheightens. As Blanche lies in the bath, she begins to sing
‘it’s only a paper moon, just as phony as it can be – But it wouldn’t be
make believe, if you believed in me’, contrasting the idea of a real
moon with this ‘paper moon’. Here, Williams is using expressionist
features to allow the audience to access the psychic condition of
Blanche. The noun ‘paper’ creates an image of breakability, which
accentuates the idea of Blanche’s fragility. Due to the way the moon
used to be seen as the same entity to the sun, the song stresses the
way Blanche needs men to believe in her for her to feel real, different
and emulate her feelings, emphasising reality in the play.
Blanche’s consciousness of her image is emphasised by her dislike for
light and tendency towards alcohol. Williams uses Blanche’s shying
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