Blanche

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.

Thus far…

Ok, I tried to combine everything we have come up with so far.  I altered the polar attitudes according to what you were saying Jason, but if I didn't say it the way you meant, you can just either edit this, or add a comment and I'll add/replace things.  I think we should try and find some political stuff maybe? It's possible that there isn't any, I don't remember finding it.  We can also incorporate "professional politics" (the way people get along, so it kind of crosses over with social).  And also, religious can include moral ideas, like strength of family and the values of the people.  I'll add stuff too in a bit.

Environmental Facts:

1. Geographical

·       Set in New Orleans

·       Exterior of a corner building on a street called "Elysian Fields"
*Elysian Fields-ancient Greek version of the afterlife; heaven.
between the river and the train tracks in a poor section of New Orleans with "raffish [crude] charm

·       House #632

·       Steve and Eunice live upstairs
Stanley and Stella live downstairs

·       There are two rooms (kitchen and bedroom) and a bathroom.

·       There is a bar within earshot

·       bowling alley down the street

2. Date

·       Sc. I: Early May evening

·       Sc. III: Early morning: 2:30 AM

·       Sc. VII: Late afternoon in mid-September

3. Economic

·       Shabby, faded, everything is falling apart
Blanche DuBois: dressed in a white suit appropriate for an upper-crust social event

·       Stanley and Mitch are in denim "work clothes"

·       Blanche is shocked that Stella has no maid

·       Stanley controls the household finances (Stella does not receive a "regular allowance"; possible that this is the norm?).

 

4. Political

5. Social

·       Stanley treats Stella badly: yells at her

·       Blanche DuBois: dressed in a white suit appropriate for an upper-crust social event

·       Blanche and Stella are originally from Laurel, Mississippi

·       Blanche is a school teacher

·       Stella is pregnant

·       Stanley and Mitch are 28-30 years old, and in denim "work clothes"

·       Stella looks 25 and has "a background obviously quite different from her husband's" (4)

·       Stella, Eunice and Blanche are white

·       Blanche is around 5 years older than Stella. They are sisters.

·       Stanley is Polish, and a Master Sergeant in the Engineers Corps

·       Blanche has an acquaintance named Shep Huntleigh, who she dated in college. Shep has become fairly wealthy through the oil business. Social

·       Stanley controls the household finances (Stella does not receive a "regular allowance"; possible that this is the norm?).

·       Stanley is a Capricorn.

·       Blanche (claims she) is a Virgo.

·       Blanche can speak at least a few phrases of French; Mitch cannot

·       Blanche has "old-fashioned ideals."

·       Mitch's mother worries that he will not marry before she dies

·       Stanley and Mitch work at the same plant and play on the same bowling team

6. Religious

·       Blanche references God and being made in His image; implies that she is a Christian.

Previous Action:

·       Blanche lost Belle Reve estate after the deaths of her and Stella's remaing relatives.  It was lost on a foreclosed mortgage.

·       She has taken a leave of absence from teaching "for her nerves" but later it is discovered it was because she slept with a 17 year old student.

·       Stella is pregnant.

·       Blanche was married before to a man named Allan, but after she discovered he was homosexual, he committed suicide.

·       Steve has been engaging in behavior giving Eunice cause to suspect him of infidelity

·       Mitch and Stanley served together in the "Two-forty-first."

·       Blanche was kicked out of The Flamingo Hotel for her promiscuous behavior, and ruined her reputation in Laurel.

Polar attitudes of main characters:

·       Blanche: Starts the play with a superior ability to ignore the aspects of her reality she does not like, by masking herself in a web of lies. By the end of the play, the web has untangled, and she falls into insanity to avoid acknowledging the stress of her past behavior.

·       Stella: Stella begins the play hoping to help her sister, and ends the play having given up on her.  She also has fluctuations with her relationship with Stanley: She seems relatively content at the beginning of the play, attempts to leave him in the middle for a brief period, returns to him, and ends the play purposefully ignoring his rotten behavior so that she can attempt to be happy with him.

·       Stanley: Stanley does not change much throughout the play.  He is violent and head strong at the beginning, and violent and headstrong at the end.

·       Mitch:  At the start of the play, Mitch is very polite and respectful to Blanche, believing her to be a pure woman.  By the end of the play, he has become disrespectful after learning of her past, but also depressed at her mental state

Thoughts

For given circumstances, I’ll just continue in Alyssa’s format and go scene by scene, putting down whatever information was revealed in the dialogue.

Scene 4

-Blanche has an acquaintance named Shep Huntleigh, who she dated in college. Shep has become fairly wealthy through the oil business. Social

– Stanley controls the household finances (Stella does not receive a “regular allowance”; possible that this is the norm?). Social/Economic

– Blanche references God and being made in His image; implies that she is a Christian. Religious

Scene 5

– Steve has been engaging in behavior giving Eunice cause to suspect him of infidelity. Previous Action

–  Stanley is a Capricorn. Social

– Blanche (claims she) is a Virgo. Social

Scene 6

– Blanche can speak at least a few phrases of French; Mitch cannot. Social

– Blanche has “old-fashioned ideals.” Social

– Mitch and Stanley served together in the “Two-forty-first.” Previous Action

– Mitch’s mother worries that he will not marry before she dies. Social

Scene Seven

– “Late afternoon in mid-September.” Date/year/season/time

– Blanche was kicked out of The Flamingo Hotel for her promiscuous behavior, and ruined her reputation in Laurel. Previous Action

– Stanley and Mitch work at the same plant and play on the same bowling team. Social

Couple thoughts on polar attitudes as well. I’m not sure if the qualification is strictly how a character changes from the beginning to the end, but if we were to examine changes in the middle of the show it might be interesting to look at Stella’s relationship with Stanley, and the tides of violence, love, trust, and mistrust that seem to ebb and flow between them when Blanche is around. Also, I might rephrase the polar attitude provided for Blanche. She doesn’t necessarily have a grip on reality, as she is constantly lying to herself and people around her in order to conceal the shameful truth. As long as these lies are unchallenged in any major way, she is able to function and maintain her sanity. However, when Stanley (and subsequently Stella and Mitch) begin to press her for the truth, she shows that her fragile psyche cannot deal with the stress of acknowledging her past behavior. So I would argue that Blanche never really has a grip on reality; rather, she is able to brush reality aside, underneath the rug she has made of lies.

Previous Action:

Again, this is probably not all of the previous action, it is just what I found.

Previous Action:

Blanche lost Belle Reve estate after the deaths of her and Stella's remaing relatives.  It was lost on a foreclosed mortgage.

She has taken a leave of absence from teaching "for her nerves" but later it is discovered it was because she slept with a 17 year old student.

Stella is pregnant.

Blanche was married before to a man named Allan, but after she discovered he was homosexual, he committed suicide.

After losing Belle Reve, Blanche lived in a cheap motel, and would bring back lovers to make her feel less empty.

Polar Attitudes

Ok, I worked on this, but I think they can be better… If you guys can think of things to add or take away that would be great. 🙂

Polar attitudes of main characters:

Blanche: Starts the play with somewhat of a grip on reality. The events of the play drive her to desperation and she ends giving into her imaginations, almost completely crazy.

Stella: Stella begins the play hoping to help her sister, and ends the play having given up on her.

Stanley: Stanley does not change much throughout the play.  He is violent and head strong at the beginning, and violent and headstrong at the end.

Mitch:  At the start of the play, Mitch is very polite and respectful to Blanche, believing her to be a pure woman.  By the end of the play, he has become disrespectful after learning of her past, but also depressed at her mental state

Actions that lead to ideas

1. The males abuse females but reconcile at the end: seems to suggest that male dominance is the nature of human beings, because males are physically and socially stronger. Women do not have the power to fight against this, and all they can do is to accept it and deal with it. It is the nature of human beings.2. Female dependence on men: All the females, especially Blanche, cannot survive without depending on males. Males are much more stronger than females in the society. This goes back to the primitive state of human life, in which males were hunting and females stayed in the house.3. Blanche’s contradictions: despite all her talks about how she worships art and music, Blanche cannot resist her desire for alcohol and young men. This seems to suggest the dominance and inevitability of desire within human beings.4. Blanche is not looked as a marriageable subject because of her past: seems to suggest that sexual appeal is the only value that women have.5. Blanche’s covering the light: seems to suggest that there is something to hide about human beings. This can be the decaying of her physical beauty or her dark past. Covering the light allows her to ignore and escape from reality.

Animal Metaphors

 AnimalsStanley "That shut her up like a clam." (41)Steve (Old farmer, hen and rooster joke.) (50)Blanche "Is he a wolf?" (53)Stanley "You hens cut out that conversation in there." (55)(Like a dancing bear) (62)Stella "He was as good as a lamb" (71)Blanche "Yes, something —  ape-like about him, like one of those pictures I've seen in – anthropological studies! Thousands and thousands of years have passed him right by, and there he is – Stanley Kowalski – survivor of the stone age! Bearing the raw meant home from the kill in the jungle." (80)Blanche "Night falls and other apes gather! There in front of the cave, all grunting like him, and swilling and gnawing and hulking! His poker night! – you call it – this party of apes! Somebody growls€”some creature snatches at something – the fight is on!" (80)Stanley "Same canary-bird, huh!" (113)Blanche "Parot" (123)Mitch "He says you been lapping it up all summer like a wild-cat." (133)Blanche "I stayed at a hotel called The Tarantula Arms!" (136)Stanley "but he's not going to jump in a tank with a school of sharks." (119)

Core Ideas

I divided the quotes into different categories that I thought are core ideas in the text, in order to make some kind of sense out of them.IdeasGenderStanley "Have you ever heard of the Napoleonic code?"Blanche "You men with your big clumsy fingers."Stanley "I've never met a woman that didn't know if she was good-looking or not without being told, and some of them give themselves credit for more than they've got."Stanley "Some men are took in by this Hollywood glamor stuff and some men are not."Mitch "Poker should not be played in a house with women."Eunice "you can't beat a woman and' then call €˜er back!"Stella "When men are drinking and playing poker anything can happen."Blanche "A man like that is someone to go out with – once – twice – three times when the devil is in you."Blanche "And men don't want anything they get too easy. But on the other hand men lose interest quickly. Especially when the girl is over €” thirty. They think a girl over thirty ought to €” the vulgar term is €” "put out."” (91)Blanche "The one (law of nature) that says the lady must entertain the gentleman €”  or no dice!" (97)Mitch "A man with a heavy build has got to be careful of what he puts on him so he don't look too clumsy." (101)Stanley "Hughey Long €˜Every Man is a King'" (124)Blanche "A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man's life €” immeasureably!" (145)Eunice "I always did say that men are callous things with no feelings, but this does beat anything. Making pigs of yourselves." (153)SexBlanche "but the only way to live with such a man is to – go to bed with him!" (77)Stella "But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark — that sort of make everything else seem – unimportant." (78)PokerStella "When men are drinking and playing poker anything can happen." (71)Stanley "nothing belongs on a poker table but cards, chips and whiskey." (48)Mitch "Poker should not be played in a house with women." (63)LifeBlanche "And funerals are pretty compared to deaths. Funerals are quiet, but deaths – not always." (25)Blanche "Death is expensive, Ms. Stella." (26)Blanche "There is so much – so much confusion in the world." (68)Stella "People have got to tolerate each other's habits, I guess." (73)Eunice "No matter what happens, you've got to keep on going." (154)Stanley "To hold front position in this rat-race you've got to believe you are lucky." (152)Blanche "But, honey, you know know as well as I do that a single girl, a girl alone in the world, has got to keep afirm hold on her emotions or she'll be lost!" (98)

Some Dialogue Ideas

Nice job on the research! I have some stuff about dialogue, which I may end up confusing with Language by accident, but here goes:

  • there’s a lot of slang, establishing an informal atmosphere, much like it did in Death of a Salesman, except its a different setting, and thus, different slang
    • Stanley specifically speaks in very simple, blunt sentences. In fact, he doesn’t say more than two words per sentence until he brings his friends home from bowling. His lines are often followed by exclamation points like his first four lines “Hey, there! Stella, baby” “Catch!” “Meat!” “Bowling!”
    • Stella has a less distinct voice than Stanley or Blanche, but shes always confident in what she says. She supports Stanley in most of her lines and is always working for him.
    • Blanche is long-winded, insecure, and more proper sounding in her lines. She is very direct and says exactly what shes thinking, no matter how harsh. She speaks in less slang than the rest of the cast, and definitely has the most monologues in the play.