A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis

Williams again uses dramatic methods and shows the episode’s effective ending through the characters Stanley and Stella and their failure to acknowledge and reflect upon past events. After Blanche is taken away to the mental institution, normality returns in the home of Stanley and Stella. In the play Blanche’s exit shows the way Stanley and Stella return to their ‘happy marriage’ “the luxurious sobbing, the sensual murmur fades away under the swelling music of the ‘blue piano’ and the muted trumpet.” This is significant in terms of the music imagery, the blue piano represented memories for Blanche throughout the play, this could show how Blanche is now just a collection of memories for both Stanley and Stella. It can also be noted that Blanche

The audience could foresee that Blanche’s madness would soon over power and her genuine reality would be revealed. This adds to an effective end to the play as again it makes the audience sympathise with Blanche and realise that she has been dismantled and destroyed as she struggles to seek kindness in anyone around her “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” here shows a vulnerable individual, as “she allows him to lead her as if she were blind” , this stage direction is effective as it visually shows Blanche’s weakness to the audience and how yet again she puts her trust into a male stranger. It could also in some respects present Blanche as almost juvenile where she has ‘always depended’ and ‘on strangers’ this displays how she could be viewed as naïve. It is also ironic as it could be a metaphor for her ‘sleeping around’ which links to another part of the play where Blanche openly confesses to Mitch that she finds comfort for her loneliness in strangers, shown through the line “After the death of Allan the intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty head with” here Williams again portrays Blanche as weak and vulnerable, unable to get any other character to truly sympathise with her