Notesale: Turn your study into money

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xpressionism: originated in Germany, to try to express the emotions/inner drama
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Plot/structure: seres of vignettes, each scene represents an idea
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Dialogue: at times fragmented, way often lyrical and poetic with lots of imagery
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New Orleans is perfect
setting
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The blue piano is not alone: adds a trumpet, and then the drums
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becomes a polka, and then a versuviana
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The polka started getting into her head then
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The first time we hear
the cat when Blanche waits for Stella to get into the house as soon as she arrived and felt
out of place
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Another sound effect is the blind woman and
the tomali vender “red hot”, when passion and desire was starting, and “flowers for the
dead”
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Highlights drama and tragedy, because Stanley is gossiping about
her
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Desire
leading to her doom
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SCENE ONE:
Opening stage directions, role of the colors:
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Blue sky attenuates the “atmosphere of decay"
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Dim white, emphasizes situation of decay
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Role of Music:
Changes as people change and talk about different things
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When Blanche feels she needs to be comforted
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Page 50: Polka is introduced

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We are introduced to Blanche, her character:
We see her as a lonely character, also loses ancestral home
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She thinks Stella is at fault for
leaving, she left the house when she was 15
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Blanche is introduced as completely white, looks out of place, in this run down part of
New Orleans
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When Blanche is introduced, her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light: she pretends
to be pristine but she is not, so she cannot be exposed
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She is compared to a moth, an insect
that flitters around the light, and dies if it gets too close to the light
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She does not want to appear under the light because she does not want to show her age,
and show her imperfections
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When Blanche comes into the neighborhood, Eugene asks her whether she is lost
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very much in love with Stanley

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Stanley:
He is an animal, a complex animal however, He provides things for Stella
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She is attracted by Stanley’s violence and his manliness
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SCENE THREE:
the poker night
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Stanley comes in angrily, goes to the radio and throws the radio out of the window
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Mitch is a foil, he is used to contrast with Stanley
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Mitch is lonely because he is not married
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This is not the first time Stanley beat Stella, as in the tragic genre, violence does not
occur on stage
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The attraction is sexual and primal, basic level of attraction
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SCENE FOUR:
Opens with a picture of Stella contempt, Stanley’s pajamas are in the threshold of the
bathroom
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The sex happens off stage, we only see the aftermath
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For her it is not only normal but also attractive
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Blanche is scheming to get Stanley out of the picture, claims to do so by involving
money
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Recalls Shep Huntleight, ex boyfriend, millionare
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However, she can’t even use a phone
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Desire is important, in Blanche’s case the desire is to
find a partner
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Page 46: Shortly after Stella has pointed out to Blanche that there are things that go on in
the dark that make things okay, and that Blanche thinks too highly of herself
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Stanley is hearing what Blanche feels about him
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Blanche
says: “bearing the raw meet”: recalling the first scene, when he throws the meat
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Stanley mocks
Blanche by looking at her and smirking over Stella’s shoulder
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Astrological sign conversation: Blanche’s zodiac sign is the Virgo, ironic, while Stella is
a capricorn: the goat, associated with Lust
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The significance of the fight between Eunice and Steve: reinforces the
environment
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Whereas, between Eunice and Steve shge asks " bright" - " has he killed her"
underscores the normality of violence in this environment
Clearly Blanche is a virgo ( ironic- even though she is always dressed in white
which denotes innocence) while Stanley is a capricorn a symbol of lust - very
often the devil is represented as a capricorn
Blanches use of white colors is ironic- she is clinging desperately to a past she
can no longer claim
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But

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now she has lost her wealth, plantation and heritage
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From time to time she consort analyze her situation in
more or less direct terms
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The environment is completely different
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It is clearly very hostile towards her especially when she is more
fragile and vulnerable
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- in an animalistic society we compete for our
survival, a sort of survival of the fittest
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Blanche and Mitch, learned about Blanche’s past and her husband
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Mitch proposes that they get together: “You need somebody and I need somebody too
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THE DATE
Blanche wants to present herself as a prim and proper girl " i guess I have old
fashioned ideals"

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she lies all the time- make herself an ideal candidate
stage directions " rolls her eyes knowing that her cannot see her face" she can't
believe the lie herselfThey are completely opposite- he talks about the gym while
she talks about the constellation and
Mitch is plain spoken, has non of the guile that Blanche has
the direct plainness is juxtaposed to the seductive language ( implies hiding)
evasive and untruthful
Mitch's intentions about Blanche are absolutely serious- he says things to praise
her "

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THE PAST
The love was so powerful that it shown a light on the world
Her relationship with him showened a big light on the world
The light disappeared as she realizes the Falsity of the relationship
she caught him sleeping with another men
her first marriage ended in extreme violence- she isn't a stranger to violence
Stanley is speaking to Blanche " sheepishly" denotes his cowardice
Scene 6 ends on a a hopeful note
Blanche's desperate need to connect with someone
pg
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Could it be- you and me,
Blanche?
STAGE DIRECTIONS pg
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“But it wouldn’t be make believe if you believed in me"
She says that while Stanley is telling her true story
This scene reverses the previous one, as Blanche is now unaware of the gossip towards
her
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If we didn’t know about her past, we
would just think she was reckless and a drunk
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The audience doesn’t judge her
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the song shows the appearance versus reality
people's need to have someone acknowledge their existence
the song of Blanche in the backgroundBlanche's dreaming seems to be some kind of reaction- love
Showering and bathing is done in order to cleanse away the painful reality of her
past- she wants to live in her delusions
From the first scene in the play she is out of place in this particular world in which
violence of all kinds is so much a fabric of everyday existence
As Blanche is singing away her paper moon song, and washing away her past
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The audience knows what Stanley thinks of Blanche and how Stella
responds
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In
this opposition between the two characters, the audience sympathizes with Blanche as we
realize that she its because she is embarrassed
Stanley uncovers what she has done in her past in order
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She desires young men as her own youth is slipping
away and needs reassurance
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Her own youth has been marked by a very tragic event
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77 àhe’s had enough, he’s fed up with
Blanche’s language and how Stella changed since Blanche came and being called
inferior, different, animal, a pig (but before he didn’t mind: contrast)*
Blanche and Stella conflict but they haven’t done anything: just incompatible à Stanley’s
town his territory and he wants Blanche out, it’s HIS town, not Blanche’s stanley’s
actions are motivated by Blancheìs treatment of him, but she treats him in a way that is
completely intolerable to him, he explodes, and she is very condescending, he can’t take
it anymore, when Blanche calls him subhuman the audience agrees, Stanley is more one
sided than Blanche in play, Blanche’s fault that she treats him that way, blanche sad
character but not without fault
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Stanley also hates her because to him it always has to be about him (youre going out to
dinner what abput my dinner), so now Blanche is in the house, HIS house, ans Stella does
everyuthing for her, she does so much for her all attention is not for him, it’s for blanche,
and he doesn’t like it, it cannot be about Blanche in his house, it has to be about him, he
is annoyed by how Stella does stuff for Blanche** (Jealous: she is his only), invading
territory, animal
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Then when Stella goes on about his greasy fingers and orders him to help her clean up he
says since when do you give me orders he explodes and says you cannot tell me what to
do, grabs her and says you cannot call me polack… pig (p
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Ideas of marriage at the
time: Stanley man of the hosue, Stella wife, so submits to what she says, but the gender
determines behavior, Stanley man of house, so he’s the boss of the house
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78:
it’s gonna be all right when she goes and when you’ve had the baby, the way it was, ghe
nights we had together (Earlier: Stella to Blanche: things that happen in the night btween
a man and a woman: unexplicable) colored lights Stanley’s siymbol for their love
making*********when blanche is put everything good because she has intruded his
world and he needs to kick her out
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80-81) After phone
call, sister Blanche, I’ve got a little birthday remembrance for you (another of Blanche’s
lies: 27 age but she is 30 but she has aproblem with it she is ashamed of her age so she
lies about it, Blanche lies about all the things she is ashamed of***)
Stanley gives as a present to Blanche a ticket to Laurel for Tuesday on the Greyhound,
he’s throwing her out of the house (Stella mad: you didn’t have to do that, then she says
why meaning Blanche is alone and sensitive so he shouldn’t have done it, she was so
sensitive but people like Stanley abused her and that is why she changed)***
Phases of Stanley and Stella’s relationship: the colors love making, then pulling off
columns and she loved it, he is common as dirt he says it but he is proud of it because
they were happy together, before/until Blnche came** So for everything to be okay again
she needs to go, he wants her out* Stella about to have baby they go to the hospital
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Says he did not expect her to be sixteen, however she is afraid of her age
and being shown as she is
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Mitch, that has hitherto thought of Blanche as a wife, now he sees her as a prostitute, the
same view all the other men have of her
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The Mexican woman: blind mexican woman selling funeral flowers, symbol of death
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We have seen that
represented repeatedly with Stella
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Stanley is happy because he has come home form the hospital,
he takes out the silk pajamas of his wedding night, however still rapes his sister in law, as
a celebration
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“i’ve been on to you from the start”: knew blanche was putting on a show, that she cannot
accept reality and therefore tries to avoid
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Now the
audience can see the sidewalk, a prostitute has robbed a drunkard
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Sounds move into sounds, the blue piano turns into a locomotive
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Stage directions are very
elaborate, details are cured for
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Stella’s reactions to Blanche’s story: Stella decides to side with Stanley for the final time,
because if she believes that, she would not be able to live with Stanley
Eunice’s character: says to stella that “you’ve got to keep on going”
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Mitch would have liked
for things to go differently, he is a “weak” animal because he has feeling and is sensitive

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