A Streetcar Named Desire- Theatricality in Blanche

A Streetcar Named Desire- Theatricality in Blanche

1. Costume

   • Colours and patterns
     • White is typically associated with purity and innocence
       • Scene 2: 'I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours, primary colours. I don’t like pinks and creams-
         • Ironically, she then wears a 'pink brassiere and white skirt' in Scene 3
       • Contradicts this in her lack of sexual purity
     • Red symbolises sex and desire, but also danger
     • Flowers are temporary, and bound to wilt
   • Scene 1
     • 'daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace, and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party'
       • 'gloves'= concealment
       • 'pearls'- link to death at sea, and yonic shape- sex
   • Scene 2
     • 'a flower printed dress'
     • 'a red satin robe'
   • Scene 3
     • 'she takes off the blouse and stands in her pink silk brassiere and white skirt'
     • 'dark red satin wrapper'
   • Scene 5
     • '"Right on my pretty white skirt"'
       • Stained- corruption
       • Coke bottle is a phallic symbol
         • Stickiness of coke has sexual connotations
   • Scene 9
     • 'scarlet satin robe'
   • Scene 10
     • 'soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown'
       • Purity has been corrupted
     • 'scuffed silver slippers with brilliants'
       • Destruction of fairytale
     • 'rhinestone tiara'
       • Like a costume
       • False aristocracy
   • Scene 11
     • 'red satin robe'
     • 'Della Robbia blue [jacket]. The blue of the robe in the old Madonna pictures'
       • 'Madonna'= Virgin Mary
         • Ironic due to her sexual promiscuity
         • Facade of purity

2. Props, symbols and sounds

   • Mirror
     • Link to appearance
   • Varsouviana polka
     • Link to Blanche's past and madness
   • Light
     • Truth
   • Paper lantern/ Paper Moon
     • Fragility
   • Bathing
     • Purity
   • Flowers
     • Temporary- inevitable wilting
   • Butterfly/moth
     • Fragile, with a short life span
   • White radio
   • Alcohol
   • Yonic imagery
   • Rhinestone tiara
   • Blue piano
     • Reality
   • Streetcar
     • Fate
     • Desire leads to death, be it literal or metaphorical
       • Women and gay men
     • For Stanley, desire leads to life- his baby
   • Grapes
     • Link to wine