It has been said, that colors in the light spectrum can be used to symbolize a person's mood or emotions. In the case of Blanche and Stanley the colors red and white are being used to symbolize their state of mind. Blanche, which can be derived from the word "Blanco" to mean white, depicts a person who is pure. In the case of Stanley, the color red is used to symbolize his inner anger and misery. You can't really know a person just by what they look or dress like until one really takes the time to get to know them. A "Streetcar Named Desire" has quite a few key characters and colors, but Blanche and the color white are quite significant and seem to stick out a lot in the book. The color white has a lot to do with Blanche's state of mind. In this book, it explains Blanches appearance in an all white dress and that reflects on her deteriorating state of mind because as …show more content…
But the second character that seems to be really important also is Stanley, and his significant color of red. The color red seems to appear a lot in this story, especially around Stanley at the Poker Night in scene three. Red reflects on Stanley's angered peace of mind. The color red represents anger and promiscuity. Stanley does have a lot to be angry about. First off, he's getting old, he's poor, lives in the ghetto, is having a child, and is a huge control freak. So know that we know that the color red means anger and promiscuity, it is easy to see that anger is provoked by Stanley's problems that he has to face and endure day in and day out. Stanley is shown in the book to be a really aggressive and angry man. This can be seen especially when he always takes his anger out on his poor wife Stella by mentally, and physically abusing her and also her sister Blanche. So now it can be really understood that the color red, which symbolizes anger can be paired to Stanley because of his state of
Delicate Blanche, virile Stanley. Dynamic Maggie, impotent Brick. Williams' protagonists are distinctly different in temperament. In "A Streetcar Named Desire" Blanche exemplifies the stereotypical old south: educated, genteel, obsolete. Stanley is the new south: primitive, crude, ambitious. Blanche, a fading beauty, uses her sugary charm and soft southern ways to attract men. In comparison, Stanley "sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications" to "determine the way he smiles at them" (Williams, Street 29). Course and deliberately aggressive, he is a "survivor of the stone age" (Williams, Street 72). Despite their differences they both possess a raw sensuality. In their first confrontation, Blanche's thick display of charm angers and attracts Stanley. He wants her to be truthful and "lay her cards on the table" but simultaneously would "get ideas" about Blanche if she wasn't Stella's sister (Williams, Street 40-41). Their relationship overflows with sexual tension as they battle for Stella. Stanley, the new south, defeats Blanche, the old south. After destroying her chance for security, his sexual assault erases her last traces of sanity.
Identity in Contemporary American Drama – Between Reality and Illusion Tennessee Williams was one of the most important playwrights in the American literature. He is famous for works such as “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)”. As John S. Bak claims: “Streetcar remains the most intriguing and the most frequently analyzed of Williams’ plays.” In the lines that follow I am going to analyze how the identity of Blanche DuBois, the female character of his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, is shaped. Firstly, we learn from an interview he gave, that the character of Blanche has been inspired from a member of his family.
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, main character Blanche Dubois to begin with seems to be a nearly perfect model of a classy woman whose social interaction, life and behavior are based upon her sophistication. The play revolves around her, therefore the main theme of drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the misfortune of a person caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present.
The colors in the hat are extremely significant. Its purple velvet flap creates the image of royalty, and the rest of it, green, represents money. This is the only time that green is mentioned in the story, for money is not something that they have, which even the mother cannot dispute. In addition to the hat, the sky of their once “fashionable” neighborhood is the color of “a dying violet,” and the house...
The loss of her beloved husband kept Blanche’s mental state in the past, back when she was 16, when she only cared about her appearance. That is why at the age of 30 she avoids bright lights that reveal her wrinkles. Blanche does not want to remember the troubles of her past and therefore she attempts to remain at a time when life was simpler. This is reinforced by the light metaphor which illustrates how her life has darkened since Allan’s suicide and how the light of love will never shine as brightly for Blanche ever again. Although, throughout the play Blanche sparks an interest in Mitch, a friend of Stanley’s, who reveals in Scene three that he also lost a lover once, although his lover was taken by an illness, not suicide, and therefore he still searches for the possibility of love, when Blanche aims to find stability and security.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play founded on the premise of conflicting cultures. Blanche and Stanley, the main antagonists of the play, have been brought up to harbour and preserve extremely disparate notions, to such an extent that their incompatibility becomes a recurring theme within the story. Indeed, their differing values and principles becomes the ultimate cause of antagonism, as it is their conflicting views that fuels the tension already brewing within the Kowalski household. Blanche, a woman disillusioned with the passing of youth and the dejection that loneliness inflicts upon its unwilling victims, breezes into her sister's modest home with the air and grace of a woman imbued with insecurity and abandonment. Her disapproval, concerning Stella's state of residence, is contrived in the face of a culture that disagrees with the old-fashioned principles of the southern plantations, a place that socialised Blanche to behave with the superior demeanour of a woman brain-washed into right-wing conservatism. Incomparably, she represents the old-world of the south, whilst Stanley is the face of a technology driven, machine fuelled, urbanised new-world that is erected on the foundations of immigration and cultural diversity. New Orleans provides such a setting for the play, emphasising the bygone attitude of Blanche whose refusal to part with the archaic morals of her past simply reiterates her lack of social awareness. In stark contrast Stanley epitomises the urban grit of modern society, revealed by his poker nights, primitive tendencies and resentment towards Blanche. ...
The vibrant use of colors is meant to express the environmental conditions, as well as the character’s emotions. The main color during the whole film is red. The film uses red, yellow and orange to show me and keep reminding me about the heat. There is a scene in the film where three men sit against this bright red wall, and this shot isn 't just shown once in the film but multiple times. Even though the bright sun is never shown, I can tell how hot it is because of the colors. It also uses red to convey the character’s emotions such as anger, struggle, dissatisfaction, and frustration. For example, Jade’s apartment is red color to show Jade is a frustrated character in the film. It’s as though; colors were characters in the movie
The use of colours plays an important role in A Streetcar Named Desire. Throughout the play, Williams makes direct use of colours as a means of indicating the characters and the atmosphere of the setting. Colours are used to express emotional moods, human qualities, and hierarchical position. The first apparent use of colour in the play is the symbolic meaning of Blanche’s name. Her name in French means white.
The characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, most notably Blanche, demonstrates the quality of “being misplaced” and “being torn away from out chosen image of what and who we are” throughout the entirety of the play.
Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.
The color white symbolizes pureness and purity, which Blanche does not live a pure nor clean lifestyle. The color white resembles a state of innocence which Blanche is living the total opposite. Instead Blanche lives a very sad life which evokes her to become an alcoholic, and to also partake in sexual promiscuity with different men in the story. Which does not at all comply with the fact she wears the color white so
Superficial is the first impression that Blanche gives when she enters the play. Consumed by appearance and face value, she is unable to see that Stella’s new lifestyle is not as horrid as she imagines. In comparison to Belle Reve, it is true that these New Orleans slums may not meet Dubois standards, but Blanche is unable to see beyond the way things appear in order to realize that Stella’s world does not revolve around material items. This flaw is intertwined with her vanity and her need keep up appearances. On the surface, Blanche appears to be snobbish and conceited.
Perhaps her 'white radio' being tossed 'out of the window' tells us that Stanley is already against Blanche and does not like the sound of her being around. I shall conclude this essay with a brief understanding of symbolism. It is a very useful concept and often needed to give the audience a few suggestions. Symbolism makes people think and broadens their mind with varieties and ideas. In A Streetcar Named 'Desire', symbolism has been significantly used to show the roles of men and women in society
When Harriet first meets Roy, she wears a "dressy black dress", carrying a "skinny black hat box" with her and her hair is "a forth of dark curls". However,"her face was striking, a little drawn and pale..."(8). Malamud uses only black and white to describe Harriet. Black and white give people a sense of mystery. "The color black relates to the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, and as a result it creates an air of mystery"(Empower yourself with Color Psychology). Whenever Harriet appears in the novel, she is always related to these two colors. When Harriet invites Roy to her hotel room, the scene is also filling with black and white. "As she shut the door she reached into the hat box which lay open next to a vase of white roses on the table and fitted the black feathered hat on her head"(32). This is not a coincident. From these scenes, we can see that Malamud shapes Harriet in terms of color. The color Malamud uses to describe Harriet create a mysterious mood in the brain of the readers of Harriet unconsciously. Therefore, this successfully creates the surreptitious image of
From the moment Stanley and Blanche met the contrast between the two characters was apparent, Stanley even points out ‘The Kowalskis and the DuBois have different notions’ (S2:pg.135*). Williams uses the dramatic device of colors to symbolize a distinction between Stanley and Blanche; Stanley wears vivid colors ‘roughly dressed in blue denim’(S1:pg.116*) representing his masculinity and authority he possesses in the Kowalski household, before Blanche arrived, in contrast to Blanche who ‘is daintily dressed in a white suit’ (S1:pg.117*) representing purity and femininity. Blanche wears white at the beginning of the play thinking she will be able to hide her impure behaviour but Stanley saw right her act and knew she would be a threat to his marriage with Stella. The reason being is that Blanche constantly criticizes Stanley making derogatory comments about him calling him a ‘common’ and ‘bestial’(S4:pg.163*) along with conde...