The importance of symbolism in a street car named desire
...home. We can see this after an incident occurs between her sister, Stella, and Stanley, Stella's husband. In the third scene, Stella, who is pregnant at the time, is beaten by her husband Stanley. She immediately runs upstairs to her friend's apartment, but soon thereafter, Stanley runs outside and screams "Stell-lahhhhh". She proceeds to come down, and they then spend the night together. The next morning Stella and Blanche discuss the horrible incident. Blanche asks "How could you come back in this place last night?” Stella answers "You're making much too much fuss about this" and later says that this is something that "people do sometimes". One sees that this is actually a common occurrence by the fact that the same exact thing happens to the neighbors a few scenes later. Another place in the play where Blanche indicates that she does not fit into these surroundings is when she describes it as a place that "Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allen Poe!-could do it justice!” The person whom Blanche is most directly contrasted with is Stanley. Blanche loves living in an idealistic world, while Stanley strictly relies on facts. In the story Blanche makes up a good portion of her past for the majority of the play. When she was young she lived an eloquent life in a mansion, but she eventually lost it due to unpaid bills. She tells everyone this part of her history but neglects to tell them what she had done during the interim period, before she came to Elysian Fields. Ms. DuBois never told them about the promiscuous life she lived before she came. Stanley, on the other hand, persisted in trying to find out her true past throughout the story. Considering that this is Stanley's house, his domain, it is easy to see that this spells doom for Blanche. The difference between Blanche and Stanley would not be so bad if it were not for one of Blanche's flaws. This harmful trait is Blanche's inability to adapt to her surroundings. This is seen by noting a play on words used by Williams. In the first scene Blanche is described as "daintily dressed" and mentions that she is "incongruous to her setting". Blanche cannot adapt to her surroundings, but instead tries to change them. Later in the story she says "You saw it before I came. Well, look at it now! This room is almost-dainty!” By using the word dainty in both places, Williams shows us how Blanche tries to change her surrounding to match her, instead of adapting to them. This will not work with Stanley. Blanche deceives everyone for a good portion of the play; however, Stanley is continually trying to find her true history. Blanche says "I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, Magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth." Stanley does not enjoy "magic", he says that "Some men are took in by this Hollywood glamour stuff and some men are not" Stanley never believes Blanche’s act (i.e. her "Hollywood glamour") he only likes the truth. This difference of philosophy creates much tension between the two. The climax of the tension between them is in the seventh scene. While Stanley is revealing to Stella Blanche's promiscuous life, Blanche is singing the following song: "Say it's only a paper moon. Sailing over the cardboard sea- But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me! It's a Barnum and Bailey world. Just as phony as it could be- But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me!" The louder Stanley gets on insisting on the undeniable facts about Blanche, the louder Blanche sings. This is a symbolic collision of their two philosophies. Stella, the link between the two, must listen to the facts given to her by Stanley, and the virtues of idealism given to her by Blanche. Light plays a crucial part in the struggle between Blanche and Stanley. From the beginning Blanche insists "I cannot stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark" She then puts an artificial lantern on the light bulb. Light represents truth, and Blanche wants to cloak the truth by covering it up. Later in the play Stanley "brings to light" the true facts of Blanche's life. When Mitch, Blanche's potential boyfriend, is "enlightened" by Stanley about her history he proceeds to rip off the paper lantern from the light bulb, and demands to take a good look at her face. The scene when Stanley rapes Blanche is the end for Blanche. Sex is her most obvious weakness. That is the reason why she ran to New Orleans in the first place. Since she had come to New Orleans she had tried to avoid it. But, once again, Stanley is in direct contrast to this. Williams describes him: "Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women. He sizes them up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing into his mind and determining the way he sm...