Hey guys! The last post got me thinking mostly about Blanche – her separation from the other characters is apparent largely through her obvious education, which reveals itself in her manner of speaking and the various literary allusions she references in the text.
Here are a few of those allusions:
The inscription on Mitch’s lighter – “And if God choose,/I shall love thee better after death!” – is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43. Love in death (literal (Allen, other family members) and figurative (time, the past, Belle Reve)), is a huge theme in the play, and knowing this poetry off the top of Blanche’s head demonstrates both her literary education, but her familiarity with the topics of death and love.
Blanche also makes a Biblical reference to the notion of ‘the blind leading the blind,’ when Stella leads her away from the men’s poker table.
She is frequently dropping in French words or quotes from French plays (including one from “La Dame aux Camelias” by Alexandre Dumas – she says this to Mitch, and I’m pretty sure she is remarking on how Mitch does not appreciate her)
It is also of note that the only references Stanley brings into the play are in the current, political genre. He talks about both Napoleonic code and Huey Long (elected governor of Louisiana in 1928), both of which are meant to reassert his dominance and relevant knowledge; however, he knows little of the art, music, language and poetry that Blanch often recites. Again, he appears less cultured and more barbarian.