What does the music symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?
The polka music plays at various points in A Streetcar Named Desire, when Blanche is feeling remorse for Allen’s death. The polka and the moment it evokes represent Blanche’s loss of innocence. The suicide of the young husband Blanche loved dearly was the event that triggered her mental decline.
What does the blue piano symbolize in Streetcar?
The blue piano is usually invoked in scenes of great passion; Williams states in the opening stage directions that it “expresses the spirit of the life” of Elysian Fields.
Does A Streetcar Named Desire have sound effects?
The only sound effect with a specific function is the Varsouviana polka and the revolver that silences it. What distinguishes them from the other sound effects is that Blanche alone can hear them, an aspect that is very difficult to convey either on that stage or on the printed page.
What does meat symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?
The meat is symbolic of Stanley and Stella’s physical relationship. At first she is reluctant at first to catch the raw meat but gives in and laughs about it. Stella catching the meat represents how she yearns to be with Stanley in a physical way.
What is wrong with Blanche Streetcar Named Desire?
She also has a bad drinking problem, which she covers up poorly. Behind her veneer of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure, dislocated individual. Stanley quickly sees through Blanche’s act and seeks out information about her past.
What is Blanche DuBois tragic flaw?
Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley.
What does Stanley symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?
Stanley is the epitome of vital force. He is loyal to his friends, passionate to his wife, and heartlessly cruel to Blanche. With his Polish ancestry, he represents the new, heterogeneous America. He sees himself as a social leveler, and wishes to destroy Blanche’s social pretensions.
What music starts to play for Blanche in the distance?
As Blanche retreats into herself, the polka music again begins in her head, and she speaks of it agitatedly, identifying it as the same tune that was playing when her husband, Allan, killed himself.
What is Blanche’s reaction to seeing the doctor?
When Blanche steps out onto the porch and sees the doctor, not Shep Huntleigh, she retreats in fright to where Stella is standing, then slips back into the apartment.
