Blanche is emotionally honest with Mitch during the play, especially in Scene 6. At the same time she deceives him many times from their first meeting, and presents herself as an “old maid” – hence her old fashioned language, such as “Unhand me”. She tries to hide her age, asking him to hang the Chinese paper lantern. Blanche even admits these deceits – announcing that she wants to deceive Mitch enough to make him want her. Once again employing her escapist methods, and ignoring reality, she flirts with a “young boy” at the end of scene 5. After kissing him full on the lips, she sends him away, just in time to meet Mitch, who is bearing flowers. This…
In the commencement of the play, Blanche is quickly described as a damsel in distress. She is portrayed as a wealthy woman “in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earing of pearl, white gloves and hat…” (5). She resembles an embellished white moth. The fact that she is forced to live with her younger sister Stella and her domineering husband truly shows that Blanche is in a truly desperate situation. Her overall character is depicted as a traumatized woman that is in complete desolation. Experiences such as witnessing her family on a “...Long parade to the graveyard” (21). Being forced to live with your family until their tragic demise would emotionally and mentally torment anyone. She lives inside of her own world in which she…
-In the end, Stanley's down-to-earth character proves harmfully crude and brutish. His chief amusements are gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking, and he lacks ideals and imagination. His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats his wife, is fully evident after he rapes his sister-in-law. Stanley shows no remorse for his brutal actions. The play ends with an image of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife as she holds their newborn child. The wrongfulness of this representation, given what we have learned about him in the play, ironically calls into question society's decision to ostracize Blanche.…
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. However, it isn’t just in one instance that we see this fearful response; the passage is littered with actions that give evidence of anxiety, reiterating the point that she does not feel secure. Actions such as her “frightened gasp” show her instability and insecurity, the word “frightened” shows her fear, while “gasp” present her surprise. The audiences is then able to…
Stanley's harsh, realistic world is often seen throughout the play this shows how different Blanches is. An example of this is Stanley's main interests: gambling, drinking, fighting, sex and bowling. All of these are very realistic things to do, very down to earth. Also throughout the play he shows no remorse for what he's done,…
Once Mitch meets Blanche he instantly feels an attraction. Blanche, trying to seem like she still has some innocence, manages to convince him that she is not the kind of girl who easily falls into temptation and therefore causes Mitch to walk on eggshells around her. Mitch is constantly trying to find a balance between a sick mother, his best friends, and now his new girl. This stress added to Blanche’s constant back-and-forth flirting eventually wears him down. Then Stanley comes in and tells him that Blanche has been fooling him he refuses to believe it at first until he does his own research. Mitch shows his instability in scene nine when he says, “I don’t think I want to marry you any more. You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother” (Williams 150). This amount of stress would cause anyone to be driven…
Blanche becomes more and more acquainted with one of Stanley’s friends, Mitch. The first time she meets him, she tells him, “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (Williams 55). This was her justification for wanting her paper lantern put over the light bulb. The paper lantern assisted in alleviating the unhappy truth about her age, her tensions, and her situation. Smith-Howard and Heintzelman state, “...Blanche has an aversion to being viewed in bright light that will reveal her true age.” Blanche lies to Mitch about her age and prevents herself from being with him throughout the day and rather sees him during the evening or the night (Smith-Howard & Heintzelman). When they meet a second time, Blanche tells Mitch a part of her past. She tells him about a man, Allan Grey, that she used to be married to. She tells Mitch that she discovered love at a young age and at first it was like, “...you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in the shadow...then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again...” (Williams 95). Williams illustrates that Blanche was at one point in her life at ease and unafraid. After discovering that her husband was homosexual and telling him that he disgusted her, Allan committed suicide; as a result…
Stanley looks past the fake front that people put on and focuses on what is real and ignores the “Hollywood glamour” and lies that surround them (39). Stanley does not want any deviation from what is known to be true and wants “no ifs, ands, or buts” (43). Deep down Stanley needs to unearth any falsehoods when anyone feeds him a “pack of lies” no matter how dark they are (118). Regardless of the awful truths of Blanche’s life, Stanley states the truth in the simplest sense, and he finally reveals Blanche is not “such a refined and particular girl” as he gives out her dark truths. He pushes away Blanche’s pleasant dream and posters the harsh truth of Blanche’s problems in plain sight so no one, not Mitch, Stella, or even Blanche can not miss it. Ultimately, Stanley feels no empathy for anyone, and digs up the lies and falsehoods that surround…
the two of them were dancing, she told him what she had seen and how he…
Blanche and Stanley come from two very different upbringings. Blanche comes from a very wealthy upbringing, being raised in a giant Southern plantation. Stanley grew up with the poor, immigrant family who had to work for everything they had. Blanche often uses the derogatory term ‘Pollack’ for describing Stanley to refer to him as common or inferior. She then contradicts herself when she says “We are French by extraction. Our first American ancestors were French Huguenots” (Williams 31). Blanche seems to think her ethnic origins make her better than others, and uses it as a point of pride. She often during the play is seen showing her self-proclaimed superiority towards all of the other characters. In the film, Blanche is attracted to Mitch because…
Around this time males are still looked upon as the “providers” for their families, therefore they had a higher position. Even without Stanley raping Blanche he already had some type of influence over her and her sister. Blanche tries to make Stella leave Stanley. Stanley already does not like Blanche and when he notices her not falling in line with what he wants he begins to attack her. First by removing Mitch from her side then by removing Stella. Once he notices she is weak he decides to strike.…
Blanche often fails to tell Mitch the truth about her past which he ignores and uses illusion by regarding Blanche as the perfect woman in order to escape her lies and false reality. In a criticism written by Joanne Woolway she states, "It appears that the connection in Blanche's past between violence and desire in some way contributes to the events within the time scale of the play." (292) This suggests that Blanche uses illusion to escape the bad memories of past violent relationships. “I guess it is just that I have old fashioned ideals! [She rolls her eyes, knowing he cannot see her face.]” (108) Blanche leads Mitch on by choosing to appear sexually naive, and this is apparent when she lies to Mitch about her past, adding to her facade. Mitch falls for Blanche’s charm which becomes evident when he says, “You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be- you and me, Blanche?” (116) He is blind to her deception and even defends Blanche when Stanley tells him the truth about her life and promiscuous relationships with men. Mitch is too consumed by her beauty and his fantasy of marrying a perfect woman to consider she is lying to…
He is a self-appointed boss of everyone he knows. From his friends to his family, Stanley barks orders to make sure that everything goes as he wants. Even at his poker night, he tells his friend when they can leave or not. So, when Blanche starts making changes around “his” house, he shows a strong hatred to her and how his wife treats her. When he realizes that whatever Blanche wants she gets, he starts to unravel her past and show everyone for whom she is, a selfish, demanding person. Sound…
He is a lot more mature, possibly due to him attending the constant needs of his sick mother. When Mitch meets Blanche, he sees an opportunity to love again. He wants to play prince charming for her, which he does, through kind gestures such as bringing flowers and Bowing like a gentlemen. While he does this however, Stanley brings to attention the fact that Mitch is not being his true self. When Stanley tells Mitch about Blanches false identity, he is heartbroken. In the end, he takes reality over fantasy, and let's Blanche…
Blanche seems eager to point out Stanley's faults to her sister whenever the opportunity arises. When Stella supposes that perhaps, Stanley is “common”,…