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Society during french revolution
Reflection on the revolution in france
Reflection on the revolution in france
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In, The Song Scaffold At The Scaffold by Gertrud von Le Fort, Blanche’s story is told through the eyes of Villeroi, as he proves to his friend that Blanche is a hero. In France, it is currently chaotic, as the French Revolution is in full swing. Here, Blanche’s heroic story takes place. Blanche’s mother, as a result of the Firework’s Catastrophe, gives birth to Blanche prematurely, and dies immediately after. This tragedy shapes and affects Blanche her whole life. The Infant King gradually helps Blanche to cope with her fear as she gets older, and finally helps her to conquer it, and the Revolutionaires. The Infant Child plays a huge role in Blanche’s early life. As a result of her mother’s death, Blanche has a fearful temperament, and …show more content…
Every year, the statue of the Infant King “is carried into the cell of every Carmelite on Christmas.” A decree of the National Assembly confiscated all church goods, including the crown and the scepter of the Infant King. Regardless, the Carmelites carried on the tradition. The statue came to Blanche’s room, and she was moved to tears as she saw the poor Infant King, clad only in a handmade cape. She held the statue and said, “Oh so small and so weak”, Sister Marie corrected her saying, “No, so small and so powerful.” Blanche’s misconception was that the Infant King was only powerful if he was wearing his crown, and as she bent over to kiss it, she noticed his crown was missing. At the same moment, she heard Carmogle being sung in the streets. She immediately dropped the statue and its head broke off. She cried, “Oh, the Infant King of Glory is dead!” From that moment on, Blanche’s demeanor changed, as her hope was shattered, like the Infant King. She now realizes that the good Infant King was not protected from suffering. In fact he embraced suffering to sacrifice for the good of others. She began to accept her condition. Mother Teresa asked Blanche if she still hoped to overcome her weakness, and Blanche replied, “No Reverend Mother… Consider the secret of my name.” Blanche was referring to her religious name bestowed on her by the bishop: “Jesus in the …show more content…
The Carmelites were forced no longer wear their habits, but plain clothes instead. Similarly, the Carmelites dressed the statue of the Infant Jesus with plain clothes in hopes to disguise it when they ship it to the Dauphin. Afraid of martyrdom, Blanche flees the convent and returns to her father’s house; she ran right into the heart of her fear. Her father is killed by revolutionaries, and as she stands over his dead body, a revolutionary spots her. He soon realizes that she is a nun, and forces her to receive “communion”, but instead of receiving the Blood of Christ, she is forced to drink to blood of the people slain by the revolutionaries. According to Villeroi, “Blanche at that moment, embodied her martyred country…” She was taken by the “September Mothers”, thus falling right into the hands of her foes. Likewise, the Revolutionaries intercepted the package containing the Infant King, and it too, fell right into the hands of the foes. The Carmelites expected this to happen, as their motivation of sending the package was to get the Dauphin martyred, as they themselves wanted to be martyred. This hope for martyrdom was what led Blanche to flee the convent. The Carmelites are now being brought to the scaffold, and Blanche is present there against the crowd. After the last nun is martyred, Blanche, still in the crowd, carries on their song. The
Celianne, a fifteen-year-old pregnant girl, was raped when a dozen men raided her home and forced her brother and mother to sleep together. She found out she was pregnant and boarded the boat as soon as she’d heard about it. The child represents the hope of a new life, away from the persecution awaiting back in Haiti. Celianne finally gives birth to a baby girl and the acting midwife prays for the baby to be guided by God, “Celianne had a girl baby. The woman acting as a midwife is holding the baby to the moon and whispering prayers . . .
The Song at the Scaffold, by Getrud von Le Fort, takes place in France during the French Revolution. It is the story of Blanche de la Force and her journey to understanding the meaning behind her unusual fear and discovering her vocation in life, and ultimately a story of bravery and heroism. After a traumatic birth, young Blanche is forever scarred, and her external expression of this ordeal is an irrational fear at nearly anything. She grows up timid and afraid, unable to muster any sort of courage, although she often attempts to overcome her fear. Later, she joins a Carmelite Convent, and it is here her journey truly begins. It is also at the Convent that she meets Sister Marie of the Incarnation, the novice mistress. Although Sister Marie is protective of Blanche, even she eventually becomes impatient and annoyed at Blanche’s feebleness and often perplexing fear. Sister
In analyzing this story, there are several other interesting facts that merit further exploration. For instance, throughout the story all references to the little convent girl use black or dark references. But, when plunging to her death, the author describes the little convent girl as a "flutter of white petticoats, a show of white stockings". What is the significance of the sudden color change? Also, Since the reader must assume that the little convent girl is Catholic, what can be concluded about a proper catholic committing suicide?
As Stanley continues torturing Blanche and draws Stella and Mitch away from her, Blanche’s sanity slowly dwindles. Even though she lied throughout the play, her dishonesty becomes more noticeable and irrational due to Stanley's torment about her horrible past. After dealing with the deaths of her whole family, she loses Belle Reve, the estate on which her and her sister grew up. This is too much for Blanche to handle causing her moral vision to be blurred by “her desperate need to be with someone, with ancestors for models who indulged in “epic fornications” with impunity, [Blanche] moves through the world filling the void in her life with lust” (Kataria 2). She also loses a young husband who killed himself after she found out he was gay when she caught him with another man. After that traumatic experience she needed “a cosy nook to squirm herself into because ...
In this play the character blanche exhibits the theme of illusion. Blanche came from a rocky past. Her young husband killed himself and left her with a big space in her heart to fill. Blanche tried to fill this space with the comfort of strangers and at one time a young boy. She was forced to leave her hometown. When she arrives in New Orleans, she immediately begins to lie and give false stories. She takes many hot bathes, in an effort to cleanse herself of her past. Blanche tries also to stay out of bright lights. She covers the light bulb (light=reality) in the apartment with a paper lantern. This shows her unwillingness to face reality but instead live in an illusion. She also describes how she tells what should be the truth. This is a sad excuse for covering/lying about the sinful things she has done. Furthermore, throughout the story she repeatedly drinks when she begins to be faced with facts. All these examples, covering light, lying, and alcoholism show how she is not in touch with reality but instead living in a fantasy world of illusion.
Blanche may seem prideful, but it is a facade, like the rest of her. In reality, she has a very low self esteem. “Stella: And admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche. Her little weakness.” (Williams 484). This is why she is so worried about her age and her appearance. She feels that since she is soft she must also be attractive in order to have protection and mean something. “People don’t see you - men don’t - don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you. And you’ve got to have your existence admitted by someone if you are going to have someone’s protection. . . . You’ve got to be soft and attractive. And I - I’m fading now!” (Williams 515). Blanche is so afraid of not being attractive enough she has relied on lies and deception to create a fantasy to escape realism. If only she saw her worth and loved herself for who she was, she would not be desiring to be acknowledged by men or to create a fantasy. Lack of self-esteem is the hidden part of Blanche’s tragic
Blanche’s developmental history or character development points to her diagnosis. Blanche comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella after being fired from her job as a schoolteacher due to having an inappropriate affair with a teenage student. When she arrives to see her sister, she is consumed with insecurities regarding her appearance and is condescending to her sister’s humble lifestyle. Stella’s husband Stanley immediately has distrust and dislike for Blanche and treats her
As to her first name, Blanche, it is clear to the reader that white stands for purity, innocence, and virtue. This descrip...
Blanche could not accept her past and overcome it. She was passionately in love with Alan; but after discovering that he was gay, she could not stomach the news. When she revealed how disgusted she was, it prompted Alan to commit suicide. She could never quite overcome the guilt and put it behind her. Blanche often encountered flashbacks about him. She could hear the gun shot and polka music in her head. After Alan’s death, she was plagued by the deaths of her relatives. Stella moved away and did not have to deal with the agony Blanche faced each day. Blanche was the one who stuck it out with her family at Belle Reve where she had to watch as each of her remaining family members passed away. “I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard! Father, Mother! Margaret, that dreadful way! You just came home in time for the funerals, Stella. And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths—not always” (Scene 1, page 1546). Blanche lost Belle Reve because of all the funeral expenses. Belle Reve had been in her family for generations, and it slipped through her fingers while she watched helplessly. Blanche’s anguish caused her loneliness. The loneliness fueled her abundance of sexual encounters. Her rendezvous just added to her problems and dirtied her rep...
...es and thinks that her hopes will not be destroyed. Thirdly, Blanche thinks that strangers are the ones who will rescue her; instead they want her for sex. Fourthly, Blanche believes that the ones who love her are trying to imprison her and make her work like a maid imprisoned by them. Fifthly, Blanche’s superiority in social status was an obscure in her way of having a good social life. Last but not least, Blanche symbolizes the road she chose in life- desire and fantasy- which led her to her final downfall.
She desires a fairy tale story about a rich man coming and sweeping her off her feet and they ride away on a beautiful oceanic voyage. The most interesting part about Blanche is that through her unstable thinking she has come to believe the things she imagines. Her flashy sense of style and imagination hide the truly tragic story of her past. Blanche lost Belle Reve but, moreover, she lost the ones she loved in the battle. The horror lies not only in the many funerals but also in the silence and the constant mourning after.
Blanche represents a deep-seated attachment to the past.5 Her life is a lesson how tragic events events in the past can ruin a person's future. Her husband's death affects her the most.
During scene one, the audience is introduced to Blanche as Stella's sister, who is going to stay with her for a while. Blanch tries her best to act normal and hide her emotion from her sister, but breaks down at the end of scene one explaining to Stella how their old home, the Belle Reve, was "lost." It is inferred that the home had to be sold to cover the massive funeral expenses due to the many deaths of members of the Dubois family. As Blanche whines to her sister, "All of those deaths! The parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way!" (21). The audience sees this poor aging woman, who has lost so many close to her, and now her home where she grew up. How could anyone look at her, and not feel the pain and suffering that she has to deal with by herself? Williams wants the audience to see what this woman has been through and why she is acting the way she is. Blanche's first love was also taken from her. It seems that everyone she loves is dead except for her sister. Death plays a crucial role in Blanche's depression and other mental irregularities. While these circumstances are probably enough for the audience to feel sympathy for Blanche, Williams takes it a step further when we see Blanche's...
‘The Varsouviana rises audibly as Blanche enters the bedroom.’ implies Blanches tension rises with the music. The stage direction ‘[with faintly hysterical vivacity]’ suggests Blanches delirium and insanity. Her fantasy is encouraged by Stella and Eunice as they allow her to live in her dream-world rather than face society, as a way of being empathetic and expressing sympathy for
Blanche who had been caring for a generation of dying relatives at Belle Reve has been forced to sell the family plantation. Blanche is a great deal less realistic than Stanley and lives in illusions which bring upon her downfall.