How does Williams create a sense of tension and drama for the audience in this extract (page 47)?

Blanche's monologue on page 47 is arguably one of the most tense scenes of 'A streetcar named Desire' because of the dramatic irony used by Williams to put across to the audience Blanche's fleeting power and how Stanley has the upper-hand.

One of the most important aspects of the play is Williams's use of stage directions. In 'Streetcar', the stage directions are used to create an authentic atmosphere, to engage the audience into a whole society, rather than a few characters on a stage. This extract is no exception, after Blanche asks Stella if she may speak "plainly", a stage direction follows: "Under cover of the train's noise Stanley enters from outside". Williams uses dramatic irony to heighten the drama, because although the audience can see Stanley is eavesdropping, Blanche and Stella cannot. Therefore, the one time that Blanche speaks "plainly" and gives up her facade of a southern belle, Stanley is there to hear it. This suggests that ultimately Stanley has power over Blanche despite their power struggle, because he is able to catch Blanche when she is vulnerable. Moreover, hiding under the roar of a "train" is significant because train's are industrial and mechanical - they are the future. Stanley is protected by the future, because he is the future. However, Blanche becomes a victim of the train's noise, because she represents the past.

Blanche's monologue uses the lexical field of apes and animalistic imagery to describe Stanley. This extended metaphor immerses the audience into the monologue, and creates a comical image of apes dressed up playing poker ("this party of apes"), almost undermining Blanche's credibility, because her point isn't being taken seriously. The film interpretation of 'Streetcar' reinforces this idea, as the poker scene in the film is portrayed in a lighter version of the play, Stanley's friends laughing as they stand Stanley under the shower and then him pushing them out one by one.

Blanche compares Stanley to an animal: "he acts like an animal, has an animal's habits", which coheres with Williams's stage directions for Stanley, "animal joy is implicit in all his movements". These consistent references to animals highlight Stanley's dangerous side and his unpredictability, such as in scene three where he suddenly throws the radio out of the window. Furthermore, after Blanche's monologue in this extract, the stage directions say: "Stanley hesitates, licking his lips". The action "licking his lips" suggests "an animal's habit's", it also shows Stanley's simplistic desires of revenge and passion, foreshadowing the rape scene in scene 11. However, it is ironic that Blanche compares Stanley to an animal, because when Stanley rips open Blanche's trunk in scene 2, he pulls out a white fox fur piece. Williams includes this detail to exhibit that Blanche herself has animalistic tendencies, she is sly like a fox.

Furthermore, Blanche mentions "such things as art - as poetry and music" in an effort to win Stella over Stanley. However, in scene 3 Blanche tells Mitch that her students are not interested in these things: "their literary heritage is not what most of them treasure above all else". People are no longer interested in what Blanche and the past has to offer, they are more concerned about earning things and living the American dream (Eunice: "we own this place"). So, when Blanche says: "don't hang back with the brutes" it is essentially foreshadowing Stella's decision to choose Stanley, the "Brutes" are going forward, and the audience knows this as the play was set at the same time as it was written so would have been relevant to the times.

A streetcar named Desire massolit lecture notes - SCENE ONE (John McRae)

Atmosphere:

·         Long stage directions – clue to important themes of the play

·         The play is set from May to September: A long, hot summer – heat is apparent, scenes often take place in the evening once it’s started to cool down

·         The scene is full of people, jazz music (as opposed to just two or three characters on stage), it’s a representation of a whole society – a multi-cultural, multi-vocal society; communicating to all the audiences senses

·         Integration of white and black (Eunice and the neighbour): much more advanced than any place in the US in the 1940’s

o   Black

o   White

o   Latin

o   Polish

o   DuBois (French)

Characters:

·         First line between Eunice and neighbour: physicality, a dog licking a woman

·         “Red hot! Red hots!” and “Blue moon cocktail” Primary colours to echo vibrancy of the scene and of the integrated society

o   Blanche = White. Before she has even entered the scene she is already separate from the rest of society

·         Stanley, Mitch and Stella enter: audience doesn’t know who they are, they are established to be with money, odds and bowling – very lively, very active setting

·         Blanche arrives: Quiet and static movement in relation to the movement just witnessed by other characters – “incongruent to this setting” Blanche is in the wrong place right from the beginning.

o   Described as a moth: suggestion of a moth to flame, linking to the bright colours of Elysian fields. Alternatively, foreshadowing her downfall as she races for “fire” – with Stanley (passion), with trying to settle down in Elysian fields etc.

o   “Delicate beauty must avoid a strong light”: reinforcing the imagery of the moth and those interpretations

·         Eunice to Blanche: “We own this place” – Blanche owns nothing other than what is in her trunk

Blanche:

·        “Blanche sits in a chair very stiffly” – Reinforcing that static movement from earlier

·        She starts drinking by herself DRAMATIC IRONY because after this scene, Blanche consistently assures people she isn’t a drinker, when the audience knows that she actually is. (complicity and sympathy from the audience to Blanche)

·        When Stella enters and her and Blanche begin talking, Blanche brings up the deaths from Belle Reeve (The past – Blanche only has a history, no future)

o   “Funerals are pretty compared to deaths”

§  A prettification of death, Blanche is determined to find the beauty for things, even death: “…with pretty flowers. And, oh, what gorgeous boxes they pack them away in!”

o   Atmosphere established: Solitude, death, loss

Stanley:

·        Masculine character

·        The new man in modern America

·        “Since earliest manhood the centre of his life has been pleasure with women…with the power and pride of a richly feathered male bird among hens” ALPHA MALE

·        Polish

·        “gaudy seed-bearer”: The emblem of the new America of capitalism, materialism and integration – A representation of what Blanche cannot aspire to, she belongs to the old society in America (Laurel, Belle Reeve, Southern Belle)

·        Stanley and Blanche:

o   “You must be Stanley, I’m Blanche”: sets the tone for their relationship – power, attraction, Blanche’s vulnerability (Stanley changes his shirt, which for the 1940s was an intimate, sexual act)

o   Stanley asks Blanche about her husband and the whole tragedy is capsulated in the final words of the scene.