Use Of Light In A Streetcar Named Desire

Williams’ characterization of Blanche as a character of many layers and different emotions is particularly evident in this scene as he presents her in different lights through different mediums. In this scene, Blanche is presented as afraid. This effect is achieved through Blanche’s actions, which are revealed to us by stage directions. “She looks fearfully after him” this explicitly unveils to the audience Blanche’s reaction to Mitch’s arrival as well as his attitude. The adverb “fearfully” adequately captures Blanche’s true feelings; passing across the idea of fear to the audience. In addition to this effect, the phrase “after him”, directs Blanche’s emotion to a particular person and the audience understands that Blanche’s reaction is due to Mitch’s presence.

Blanche lives in a delusional world by neglecting the consequences of her actions. Blanche, in her younger years, comes from the south -southern belle, a symbol of beauty and innocence.

The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” is about an emotionally unstable lady named Blanche. She moves in with her youngest sister and her husband because the landlord took the land away from Blanche because they could not pay for it anymore. After being their for a while Blanche starts remembering her horrible past which is something she was trying to do in the first place. The husband of Stella, Stanley Kowalski was also someone that made Blanche’s life miserable for complicating everything and harassing her in every possible way.

Tennessee Williams is a world famous playwright. He has won many prestigious awards. In 1947, Williams penned one of his most famous plays, A Streetcar Named Desire, winning him the Pulitzer Prize. William’s background greatly influenced his writing, and because of this, alcoholism and mental illness are issues strongly reflected in his works (Williams 1817). A Streetcar Named Desire is a story about a women with mental health issues, named Blanche Dubois. In the play, Blanche loses her family 's estate, and goes to stay with her sister Stella.  Stella lives with her husband Stanley.  From the start of the play, the audience begins to notice Blanche and Stanley’s contrasted personalities. Williams uses symbolism to allow his characters to represent something stronger than themselves. Past and present are intertwined in A Streetcar Named Desire through Blanche and Stanley; Blanche represents the past: the Old South, aristocracy, and former sensitivity, while Stanley represents the present: the New South, the industrial class, and modern straightforwardness.

William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire presents a variety of perspectives on relationships, especially addressing the idea that bonds which aren’t bound by trust, loyalty and lust in an even balance will inevitably fail. Tennessee Williams uses the interaction between his characters, predominantly Blanche, Mitch, Stella and Stanley; to express a variety of ideas regarding relationships. These connections can be witnessed in scenes 2, 3, 6 and 11, through the use of stage directions, dialogue and expressionism to display different perspectives of character interaction.

Thesis: Light is symbolic of realism or to put it cruder the ugly reality. Darkness is symbolic of fantasy or the fabrication created by characters.

Darkness can be a comfortable place for anyone. Without having to look at yourself or have people see you, one may not feel as judged or insecure. Light is revealing. In a bright room, you can’t hide tears, blemishes, or emotions. Blanche, from A Streetcar Named Desire, knows the pain of light all to well. Blanche flees a failed company and a failed marriage in attempt to find refuge in her sister’s home. Through her whirlwind of emotions, the reader can see Blanche desires youth and beauty above all else, or so the readers think. In reality, she uses darkness to hide the true story of her past. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses the motif of light to reveal Blanche’s habit of living in a fantasy world until the light illuminates her reality.

Not only has Tennesse Williams portrayed Stella and Blanche to be seen as delicate and dependent, our own society has created this image but this not only affects how individuals see themselves but affects relationships immensely. Tennessee Williams reinforces the stereotype in which women are often the victims of unfortunate fate within the usage of the character Blanche. Throughout the whole play, we have witnessed Blanche being on the bitter end of life's miseries as she has encountered the tough loss of Belle Reve, dealing with her ex-husband's suicide and the loss of her relationship with Mitch. Arguably, the expectations and beliefs of women were either to be a housewife or a mother, whereas Blanche shows neither, as a result of automatically feeling out of place possibly leading to her downfall. Blanche was constantly fantasizing about the traditional values of a southern gentlemen, proving her dependence on this sex. Quote and Explain, In contrast, Stella has both a husband and a child, she has something to work for, leading her to be accepted into society. Although Stella exemplifies these common traits, she falls under the same category as her sister, Blanche. While being depicted as less in comparison to the opposite sex. The intense description of the stage directions in scene three, depicts Stella as the prey and Stanley as the predator as he vigorously abused

Within “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the use of light reveals Blanche’s role and appearance as a character. One of Blanche’s biggest flaws is that she prefers to be only seen in the dark. She does not like to reveal herself in the light as she is afraid of people seeing that she is in fact aging. This also correlates with her major struggle in leaving her horrid past behind, as she wants to stay young and beautiful.

From here on, it shows that Blanche’s appearance and how she perceives herself as a person ties closely to the lighting in the room. For instance, when Mitch and Blanche introduce themselves for the first time, she makes the statement, “I bought this adorable little colored paper lantern at a Chinese shop on Bourbon. Put it on the light bulb! Will you, please?” (54). Of course, this seems innocent, except when she continues to make the claim that, “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (54). Blanche links together the light bulb with rudeness and vulgarity. She compares the two different things such as light, which is an indicator for innocence, and vulgar actions, which then she proves she has an extreme distaste for lighting. Presumably, Blanche believes her beauty is like the light, as she shows this when she frantically explains to Stella about how awful it was living back in Laurel, “I never was hard or sell-sufficient enough. When people are soft--soft people have got to shimmer and glow--they've got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a-- paper lantern over the light.... It isn't enough to be soft. You've got to be soft and attractive. And I--I'm fading now! I don't know how much longer I can turn the trick” (82). She shows that

These rumors were a threat to what she has created in order to help her with the chaos in her life. Although she tried to build a new life with Stella, Stanley never gave in to her act and was constantly suspicious of her actions. Stanley's constant investigations and interrogations on Blanche’s old life. This is a representation of reality is starting to creep in of Blanche's newly created life. From the beginning Stanley has doubted Blanche, this is seen as he went through Blanche's things with Stella, questioning her belongings, “has she got this stuff out of teacher's pay?”(2.33). Stanley continues to impose his reality onto Blanche, which causes her more anxiety relying more and more on herself to create more of an illusion by creating an admirer for herself, saying that she ended it with Mitch because she does not deserve “deliberate cruelty”, and crating this alter ego for herself as being pure. While Stella is in the hospital, he and Blanche are left alone for the night as she continues bragging about her admiration coming from Sheep Hunt Leigh and how she just got a wire from him. Stanley catches her in her life, finally tearing apart Blanche's illusions. Although Stanley has been a threat to her through his suspicion and empowering masculinity over her, the last scene is where he finally takes final control over her, or symbolically where reality has a final triumph over her illusions. While catching her in the midst of her lies she reveals to Blanche that “[he’s] been on to [Blanche] from the start!” (10.225). towards the end of the play Stella, Mitch, and Stanley play a role in imposing reality into her allusions. As Stella calls for the Doctor to pick Blanche up it rips her away from her fantasies with Shep Huntleigh. When Mitch reveals to Blanche that she isn't pure enough to take home to his

In Scene 10, Blanche is begging Stanley to let her get by and he is not moving to let her through. Stanley says that he thinks Blanche would not be too bad to interfere with in a sexual way going back to Scene 6, when he would walk through the rooms in his underwear at night near Blanche. Blanche complained about the little bit of privacy she had in the house and that was exemplified when Stanley later picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Blanche had thought in the beginning that her situation was frightful, but never to the degree in which she experienced towards the end of the

In a scene with Mitch Blanche says, “I don’t want realism, I want magic! [..] Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell the truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” Blanches magic is seen through her illusions and delusions. In Blanches world Mitch doesn’t fit however she has reached a point of intimacy by being honest about her first husband and the guilt she endures as she begins to share the painful moment of her life with him. Stanley’s intrusion ruins her plans of marriage with Mitch and yet again she had to retreat in the world of her delusions. Stanley who represents realism in this novel and play pops Blanche’s illusion bubble through seeing the realism in scene ten he says: “not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes!” Not only Stanley had broken her world of illusion, but also Mitch who is influenced by Stanley and destroys the protection of darkness by exposing her to the bright light. Stanley bringing up the past contributes to how Blanches ends up, alone and insane expressing the theme that what happened in the past determines the present, and illusion and fantasy directly correlate.

Blanche’s suppression begins after Allen’s death. For Blanche his death opened up a floodgate of fear and desire which she could not manage. After Allen’s death Blanche was filled with fear, fear that she would end up alone and become a spinster. This panic "drove [her] from one [man] to another, hunting for some protection”(117). As well Blanche states that when she met her husband, she “made the discovery-love. All at once and much, much too completely” (95). Blanche made the discovery of her desire for the first time, but this hunger could not be satisfied. Her husband’s death and his homosexuality kept her from feeling what it is to be desired and, in turn feeling desire. Her sexual desires which at first had been denied by her husband 's death were now denied by her need to find a husband. As she no longer owned Belle Reve, which afforded her some social status, her only means of tempting suitors was through her sexuality and her fading looks. Blanche’s knowledge that she must attract men with her physical body is shown when she tries to get Mitch 's attention by undressing in the light so that he can see the outline of her body “Blanche moves back into the streak of light. She raises her arms and stretches, as she moves indolently back to the chair” (88). However, her sexual encounters quickly gained her a reputation that prevented many

Blanche feels the need to be appreciated by men at all time and seeks attention when she does not receive it, especially from Mitch. “She dupes him regarding her age and declares herself younger to Stella, tries to fool him regarding her drinking habits, avoid going out with him until after dark and manages to avoid being seen in direct bulb-light!”(Kararia 24). Blanche is portrayed as a liar and attention seeker who wants to be showered with compliments from Mitch. She tries to fool and flirt with Mitch so she can secure her future with him. “She sees in Mitch an opportunity to prove her allure and score an easy sexual conquest.”(Kataria 24). Blanche desires to be desired by Mitch. Before Blanche met Mitch, she was trying something with Stanley. “She flirts with him, sprays him with her atomizer asks him to button up her blouse…”(Kataria 27). Since Blanche has not had men attracted to her in a while, when she meets Stanley, she flirts with him. Not only does she want attention from men, but she is willing to obtain it from young boys. “You make my mouth