Completed during the first year as one of many drafts done. It was scored 8/15 which is equivalent to a grade C according to my teacher at the time. Quite concise so definitely a good piece to edit. Suitable for those who are doing A Streetcar Named Desire for the coursework aspect of their A level.
• From ‘Mitch: Let’s turn the light on in here.’ to ‘The distant piano is slow and
blue’.
• How are powerful emotions explored in this extract and the play as a whole?
William uses light, specifically a lantern, as a recurring motif throughout the play in order to
show the audience the development of Blanche’s character; this illumination is something
that Blanche is adamant to stay away from due to her insecurities and essentially the truth
surrounding her. In scene 9, Mitch appears to “tear” the paper lantern away from the light
bulb. The “tear” highlights Blanche’s brokenness in terms of her sanity, moreover, it supports
the idea that Blanche herself is unrepairable because her truth cannot be concealed
anymore- many people can see right through her. Once a light had shone on her Blanche
“cries out and covers her face”, evoking something of a fictitious monster- like Dracula/ a
vampire or even a wolf. “Cries” and “covers” reinforce her vulnerability both physically and
emotionally and act and these verbs signify her being overwhelmed by the thought of others
seeing her ruination. A link can be made between Stanley tearing the paper lantern in scene
11 and Mitch then doing it too in scene 9. Interestingly, both acts are carried out by male
figures, suggesting that on a higher ground many men of this time would strive to degrade
women who didn’t meet up to stereotypical standards. Therefore, some audiences may be
inclined to empathise with Blanche as we are aware of what she has gone through and
potentially has valid reasons to be putting up a façade to be socially accepted in the world.
Music is constantly heard of throughout the play, however, it is hard to decipher whether this
is imagined in Blanche’s head or actually real. Nevertheless, it tends to either create an
atmosphere of suspense or guilt. Williams has used the polka, Varsouviana and other forms
of music as a substitution to Blanche’s lack of expression. Scene 9 emphasises this when
the polka tune “fades in” and “fades away” where Blanche arguably hallucinates and then
steps back into reality. At the beginning of the play, the blue piano can be heard which
“expresses the spirit of life” which contrasts with the solemnity of the polka in scene 6, when
discussing Allan’s death where it’s played in a “minor” than “major”, stops “abruptly”,
“increases” and then “fades out”. This difference has been purposefully done to highlight
Blanche’s insignificance in comparison to others around her; the mixed tones of the polka
embody Blanche’s erratic feelings.
Throughout the play, we can see that Blanche tends to do anything in her willpower to hold
onto her innocence even though we already know that she has had “many intimacies with
strangers” which insinuate her loss of purity. Euphemistic techniques such as “intimacies”
display Blanche as someone who has never cherished these encounters or perhaps she has
intended to forget many of them due to embarrassment. The fact that she calls them
“strangers” reinforces how out of touch she is with reality because she seems to be in her
own bubble rather than for her to actually form a bond with these people; linking to scene 5
where she claims that men don’t admit her existence unless they are “making love to you”.
Despite this making the audience feel more understanding of Blanche, she feels obliged to
condescend others to deflect the attention away from her imperfection; for instance, she
asks Mitch “how’s your mother” this pretence is only used to avoid topics she may, again, be
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