(Scroll me!) Hi everybody. This is going to be the first of many longer posts. Usually, when I read or watch something, I'll just do a little review of it with my normal journals. Cannot do it for this one. I watched the 1951 film adaptation of Streetcar last week knowing nothing about it. It completely blew my mind. I immediately read the play and have spent the past week obsessively reading the play over and over making loads of notes. So I'm going to post my notes on it. None of them are really groundbreaking, I haven't looked at any academic writing or anything about it yet but the ideas are all out there already I would guess. I just needed a place to get all of my thoughts about it down because I have so many. I originally ordered this in terms of theme, but they all blend together so I'm just going through in chronological order. Strap in girls!

SCENE ONE. Blanche off the bat rejects and denies sexuality. When she arrives at the house, she asks questions like "will it be decent?" and comments that she "doesn't like a bed that gives much". She presents herself as a refined woman to will herself the respect that she desires. By refusing to acknowledge herself as sexual, it means that she is able to exist within society, but as this facade falls throughout the play, she once again is alienated. It also opposes her to Stanley and his carnal desire and emphasises the difference between them too. This difference is reinforced by Blanche's attitudes towards class, and her later comment comparing Poles and the Irish. There's a lot more to say about class later so I won't go into it now, but it's very interesting from a religious aspect as the sexual ethics of Catholicism really feed into this dynamic with Stanley's strict sexual morals over Blanche and his andocentrism. But that is also a point for later. Anyway back to it. Blanche says to Stella that "I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be alone". Blanche deeply fears alienation. I can't figure out why. Maybe it's seeing everybody leave her during her time looking after Belle Reve, maybe it's Allen choosing to die than to stay with her. Whatever causes it, Blanche is deeply lonely and this sentence is euphemistic, with casual sex being an easy way for close proximity. However, casual sex is only brief desire and doesn't satisfy her need for true connection, which is what leads Blanche to neurosis. Having a quick tangent, the name of Belle Reve itself is very important for Blanche. Translating to 'beautiful dream', it creates an idealised picture of the deep south. Blanche is the last vestige of the confederacy, and her projected image of a respectful woman slowly being diminished throughout the play reflects the death of the American south in favour of industrialism. This industrialism is humanised through Stanley, who is introduced as a carnal and violent man. Unlike Blanche, he views sex as a force of power, not of love. An army vet, he weaponises his masculinity through violence to gain respect, whereas Blanche weaponises her femininity through sex to gain respect.

SCENE TWO. Blanche comes in wearing a dress with a "flowered print". It reinforces this gentle image of femininity that she wishes to project. However, it is a print, which shows the artificial nature of this image. The print also captures the flowers, preventing them from wilting and dying, an image of Blanche's arrested development. In the stage directions, Stan is described as having "lordly composure". It presents him as an authoritarian figure like God the Father. I disagree with Mary Daly but 'If God is male then the male is God' explains it better than I can. Moving on. Stella says that (in reference to Blanche), one has to "admire her dress and tell her she's looking wonderful", something that occurs many times later in the play. It shows Blanche's vanity as she associates these compliments with being seen as youthful and desirable. She deeply craves the attention and power that this gives her because it allows herself to forget her loneliness. Blanche says that "in my youth I excited some admiration". Again, she calls back to her youth in a very euphemistic manner, conflating ideas of youth and sex in her head, which leads her towards her predatory behaviour towards young men. Stanley's sexual behaviour is also approached in this scene, with him telling an anecdote about a former romance. He says that his attitude towards her "shut her up like a clam", and that it ended the "conversation" instead of the romance. This language creates violent sexual imagery, and foreshadows his abusive behaviour towards both of the sisters. Blanche ends this conversation by saying that she "cannot imagine any witch of a woman casting a spell over you". It's obvious that this line is in reference to herself, showing her self depreciation/low self esteem and her need for approval. The reference to magic also shows her reliance on magical thinking and fantasy, and creates an image of her as an old hag, which she wants Stanley to disprove by rejecting her, which does not end up happening and she loses her youth.

SCENE THREE. Mitch is introduced. I still haven't fully cracked his character so this may be a bit sketchier than the others. He has issues with his mother (which will be addressed later where it is better suited), and laments that "I'll be alone when she goes". At an opposite ends to Stanley and his male violence, Mitch is introduced as a companion to Blanche, who understands her loneliness and sensitivities. Moving onto the rest of the poker group, Steve gives a story about a rooster chasing a hen. It is a story of sexual dominance, a metaphor for men like Stanley and the American Dream. The punchline of the rooster leaving the hen for food establishes the overt sexualisation by the men in the play, but also how they view sex as an impulse similar to hunger rather than an emotional experience. Later, Blanche and Mitch are talking, and he shows the cigarette case inscription of "and if God choose, I shall love thee better after death". This sets up Blanche and Mitch's relationship as a parallel to Allan and Blanche's. They are both tales of a sensitive person finding out their lover is a sexual deviant and punishing them for it, leading to their (either literal or mental) death. Singling out Blanche and Allan, in the most primal horde-y way ever, this quote reflects how she totemises Allan in her head as a messiah-like figure knowing that she was responsible for her death. She does this in order to absolve herself of guilt, which she becomes unable to do as the play goes on when the consequences of this guilt (the inappropriate relationships with minors) come back to bite her. Blanche's surname translating to "white woods" is also mentioned in this conversation. It creates a portrait of innocence and mystery within Mitch's vision of her, but it again shows how their relationship is stained by her guilt over Allan due to his suicide in a white wood. Blanche's fear of light is addressed in this scene. She says that "I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action". There is so much to say about light in this play that I can't fit it all right now. Blanche cannot face up to the reality that she is no longer either rich or young or desirable. She also lives in darkness, in depression and without hope. Although she creates fantasies like Shep Huntley, it is unfair to class this as hope because she knows that it is false hope. Alternatively, naked could be meant in a literal sense, showing her disgust at vulgarity and her high standards. Her comment alongside the light that she cannot stand rude remarks also serves to exemplify this and put her at further odds with Stanley. Returning briefly to Stanley, when Stella leaves briefly at the end of the scene, he cries out that "my baby doll's left me". The sexualised male view of women is clear in this statement with how he both infantalises and objectifies Stella. It presents her as a character who is easy to break and able to be commodified, the opposite of Blanche, who despite being fragile mentally, presents herself as having great fortitude in opposition to Stanley.

SCENE FOUR. Stella defends Stanley, remarking that "he was as good as a lamb" and that he's "really very, very ashamed of himself". It again presents Stan as a religious, sacrifical figure. Where for Blanche, Allan takes significance, it is Stan for Stella. The second statement presents him as a defiant kid. Stella is not immune to the patterns of magical thinking that lead Blanche to madness, she deludes herself that Stan is incapable of harm and traps herself in this cycle of abuse. She goes on to tell the story of Stan smashing up the lightbulbs on their wedding night. The symbolism of (the lack of light) shows up again, creating parallels between Stan and Blanche. Stan similarly deludes himself to multiple realities, that the American dream is false, his marriage is breaking, and that a new American lifeform will replace him soon as he has replaced Blanche. Moving on from Stan to Blanche. She writes a note using a Kleenex and an eyebrow pencil, a juvenile statement. The materials are also associated with vanity, again reinforcing Blanche as childish and vain. She argues with Stella over Stanley, saying "the only way to live with such a man is to go to bed with him! And that's your job -- not mine". There's something very Freudian within the triangle but I can't figure out what. Maybe it'll come to me later so I'll just leave this quote here for now. The titular streetcar then rattles past. I love this metaphor so much. Blanche is driven by desire to her end, both literally and symbolically. It also brings up notions of fate, and the play tends to take a very deterministic view. She's driven on one, unchanging path and there is no way to save her.

SCENE FIVE. Apologies if these paragraphs are getting shorter, its a play about all these repeated ideas of sex and violence and although they do come up again, I think it would be boring to read if I just said the same points over and over again. Anyway, Blanche talks about Stanley's past, saying he "must have had lots of banging around in the army", and its that which drives him to violence. She illustrates the cycle of violence, particularly male violence in American society. This is a tangent related to the film but Marlon Brando as Stanley blows my mind just because 20 years later, he played a similar role of an army vet driven to violence in Apocalypse Now. Marlon Brando just fascinates me a lot but I might save that for a different piece. Back to the play, the "banging around" seems euphemistic but that might be me clutching at straws so I'll leave it. Onto the star sign discussion. Stella says that Stan was born "just 5 minutes after Christmas". If we're interpreting that as 12:05 on the 25th then it shows Stella's image of Stanley as a saving figure who is sinless, without him, she would be just like Blanche so she has to forgive him. If it's the 26th, it subverts this and presents Stanley as an unholy character, he's missed the glory of Christ. Blanche, however, is a Virgo, "the Virgin" as she says. It shows her again as youthful and pure, but it also absolves her of her sexuality and any sins of adultery. Forward to another conversation. Blanche says "soft people have got to shimmer and glow -- they've got to put on soft colours... and put a paper lantern over the light". There's nothing to say here that I haven't said already I just really like this quote. I'll explore the paper lantern later on because its more poignant in the latter half of the play. Anyway she follows this by saying "it isn't enough to be soft. You've got to be attractive". For women to exist as mentally ill, they have to justify it with their attractiveness. See the Virgin Suicides. For Blanche, as her attractiveness fades, she can no longer live up to this expectation and this leads her to her institutionalisation. After this, Blanche's drink foams over and it stains the white skirt. This imagery of drinks exploding has obvious parallels to Blanche's mental state. There's also a tentative link with Allan and his gunshot. The white skirt being stained reflects the stain that this event left on her purity. The young man then shows up, and she converses with him about soda. She is aware of his youth and plays it up, she sees Allan in all of these young men she frequents. She knows it is wrong but she needs the validation it brings her.

SCENE SIX. Streetcar is back! Blanche asks if it is "still grinding along the tracks at this hour?". Blanche questions whether her life is really heading towards any destination at her age. The word 'grinding' implies that her life is starting to fall apart as the streetcar loses control. More talk about Allan! What a great scene! Blanche describes her love for him as "it was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow". What a quote. Such a perfect description for. The numinous quality of our world that has been enlightened through love. Blanche describes love so sensitively and it really puts her at odds with Stanley who is more carnal. The parallels between Blanche and Allan are also emphasised with her "slipping in with him". There was no way Blanche could fulfill his desire because she wasn't a man so he had to succumb to illness, and Blanche seems to be following suit as Mitch isn't young. Although I love this scene to bits most of it I've already touched on so this one is quite short.

SCENE SEVEN. This explores the same ideas of the previous scene, but through the unsympathetic eyes of Stanley instead. There's something significant in Blanche's room being referred to as "Out-of-Bounds" but I can't place it. I think it's the othering of Blanche and how it presents her as being on the cusp. Whether that's of sanity or youth I don't know. Stanley also refers to Blanche, saying that "her future is mapped out for her". This could just simply be Stanley knowing that she'll either get on the bus back to Laurel or end up in an institution. But it reminds us that Blanche is a microcosm for all women in America, that her life is dictated by the fact she is a sexually promiscuous woman. That's all I have to say for scene seven it's quite short.

SCENE EIGHT. The background fades "gradually into a still-golden dusk". Blanche's time is coming to a close. The fact it fades into 'gold' in particular is significant. I don't know why lol. Because I think it means she still has her youth and her wealth albeit in a purely intellectual form. But I'm not sure about that one. Anyway Blanche gives the story of tricking a parrot by "putting the cover back on its cage so it would think it was night and go back to sleep". It's another allegory for Blanche. She needs to be told that she is youthful and desirable and she needs to be stuck in her youth because otherwise she'd wake up and completely lose it. Something something parrot as a exotic caged bird but thats very cliche so I'm not talking about it. Back to Stanley. Where Blanche's freak outs are marked by. More gentle explosions like the drink overflowing. Stanley's are marked by acts of violence, such as in this ecene where he hurls a plate to the floor. The plate is significant because it shows a destruction of the peaceful domesticity of Stanley's marriage. Stella then defends Blanche to Stanley, saying "nobody was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change". I don't know who she's referring to with 'people like you', I assume it's men as a whole but I also feel like I'm missing something. If it is men, Stella must be referring to Blanche's sleeping around, and she denies it in her head by convincing herself that it is men abusing Blanche's trust rather than a conscious choice. It builds up this innocent picture of Blanche like the Virgin that was established earlier on in the play. However, I'm not sure if this is a 'correct' interpretation because Stella tends to defend systems of masculinity throughout the play, so I'm not sure why she would subvert that for this statement. Continuing through the argument, Stan replies that "I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going!". This quote shows how the deep South has being destroyed by industrialisation, with Stella being choosing to follow the American Dream and prosper with Stan, whilst Blanche cannot be compatible with the times. The metaphor of light is also back, showing how Stan and Stella both deny and choose to live in blindness to the violence within their relationship and American society as a whole. There's something special about these lights being coloured. I think it might just be a reflection of racial diversity within cities versus the white columns. Not sure though.

SCENE NINE. Mitch is back! There's not a lot here to say about Mitch that hasn't been said before earlier though. He tears Blanche's paper lantern. This marks the beginning of the end for Blanche, where her facade has been completely removed by somebody she sanctifies and she can no longer delude herself to reality. She reacts to this with my favourite line from the play, "I don't want realism. I wan't magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!". I don't have anything of note to say about that one I just love it so much. Dwell on it a bit please. The Mexican flower vendor also shows up in this scene. Her social status is at odds with Blanche, she's obviously working class, and is highlighting the death of the American South as the Blanche that we know dies. Returning to Mitch, Blanche's vision of him is destroyed in this scene, with him tearing the lantern and later "fumbling to embrace her". I think rather than the events of the next scene being what leads her to madness, the debasement of Mitch is what leads her to the gallows and Stanley's rape is what hangs her. With Mitch's rejection of her, she sees all men as carnal beings, and Stanley's act in the next scene is what shows that she is true. I want to zoom in on the weird bits about Blanche and Mitch's relationship. The scene ends with Mitch saying "you're not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother". Very Freud-y. He's very close with his mother, and knowing she is dying soon, subconciously sees Blanche as her replacement. Upon learning that Blanche does not fit this mould with her adultery, he shuns her and takes on the role of the father. This is bullshit I'm just moving onto the next scene.

SCENE TEN. Blanche shows up in a "somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown", and upon seeing the state of herself, smashes and breaks a mirror. Great imagery. It shows the ruin of Blanche as a pure figure now that she has been degraded. Her slamming the mirror tells us that her facade has fallen, yet she is still trying to return and cling to it. Stanley then opens a bottle and a "geyser of foam" comes out. Very phallic. It's clear to see what his intentions are. It again shows us Stanley's impulses as violent / destructive / intense. His silk pyjamas that he wore on his wedding night show up. It implies a destruction of virginity and purity. Again, there are very obvious allusions to Blanche's fate. She then says to him that "deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never been guilty". I just like this one again. It shows her sublimating her guilt from Allan, but also opposes her to Stanley, who is about to demonstrate the worst act of deliberate cruelty. "Lurid reflections" then appear on the wall and create a sense of wilderness, highlighting Stanley's animal nature and his loss to primitive instinct. Alternatively, it could also shows Blanche's descent into this world as she loses her sanity and intellect and all the things that make her refined. There is something significant in Stanley's "we've had this date with each other from the beginning". The word "date" shows how casual he is about violence within relationships. It could also show the objectification Stan shows and how every woman is seen as an object for sexual conquest to him. It's also a comment on fate again.

SCENE ELEVEN. Final scene. Blanche asks Stella to bring a "silver and turquoise pin in the shape of a seahorse". A very fitting brooch for her Caribbean adventure with Shep Huntley, she cannot tell what is reality and fiction anymore as she cannot accept the reality that Mitch left, that Stan raped her, and that Allan died all those years ago. She would rather live in a dream then have to bear the weight of male violence. She also asks Stella to retrieve these from the "heart shaped box I keep my accessories in" and I just love that imagery. It shows her vanity and her need for glamour and fashion in her heart of hearts. Stella then talks to Eunice. "I couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley", to which Eunice replies "don't ever believe it". Just awful. She would rather reject her sister and the South and everything else Blanche stands for then to accept that her husband is capable of (sexual) violence. The big famous line of the play comes up once Blanche has been taken by the doctor, "whoever you are -- I have always depended on the kindness of strangers". Obvious euphemism, her sexual encounters enable her to feel youthful and desired. Alternatively, it shows her loneliness and how she cannot depend on her family anymore with Stella's betrayal, strangers are all she has. Once Blanche has been taken away, Stella sobs "with inhuman abandon". Without Blanche, Stella takes on her role. She sides with the Stanley and the abuse and the patriarchy because she thinks that it protects her, but from the ending, we can see that this too is a facade.

That's all of my notes. I love this play to bits and its taken on a very dear place in my heart. I'm going to read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof soon because multiple people have said to me that it's even more up my street. So if they're true then expect another one of these big long things for that ha. Bye everyone and see u soon :3

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