Streetcar Named Desire- Scene 9
Closely annotate the opening stage directions:
A while later that evening. Blanche is seated in a tense hunched position in a bedroom chair
that she has re-covered with diagonal green and white stripes. She has on her scarlet satin
robe. On the table beside the chair is a bottle of liquor and a glass. The rapid, feverish polka
tune, the ‘Varsouviana’, is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the
sense of disaster closing in on her, and she seems to whisper the words of the song. An electric
fan is turning back and forth across her.
The "Varsouviana" music- the tune which played when her husband shot himself
— is heard as background music and Blanche is drinking to escape it all.
Red robe indicates her more dangerously sexual side, rather than the innocent,
naïve white she wears throughout most of the play.
Almost posed in the foetal position- a form of protection and this image certainly
conveys one of entrapment not only as Blanche is alone in the apartment, but as
assumed by the drinking, she is also trapped in her own mind and perhaps
memory of her past as indicated by the polka music.
‘disaster closing in on her’ ‘drinking to escape it’- sets the precedent for this
scene and the interaction with Mitch. Sense that Blanche has accepted her fate
and foreshadows her continual downfall for the rest of the play. Stella’s labour
was a turning point in the way that she is now reliant on Stanley and must
prioritise her family, instead of Blanche, and perhaps her drinking here is a form
of escapism from this harsh reality that Stanley is victorious and has won over
her sister.
What impression of Mitch is created by his behaviour in this scene?
‘Comes around the corner in work clothes…he is unshaven’-The appearance of
Mitch, unshaven and dressed in his dirty work clothes emphasises again that he
is Blanche's last chance. He has lost his gentlemanly composure and it’s instantly
Closely annotate the opening stage directions:
A while later that evening. Blanche is seated in a tense hunched position in a bedroom chair
that she has re-covered with diagonal green and white stripes. She has on her scarlet satin
robe. On the table beside the chair is a bottle of liquor and a glass. The rapid, feverish polka
tune, the ‘Varsouviana’, is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the
sense of disaster closing in on her, and she seems to whisper the words of the song. An electric
fan is turning back and forth across her.
The "Varsouviana" music- the tune which played when her husband shot himself
— is heard as background music and Blanche is drinking to escape it all.
Red robe indicates her more dangerously sexual side, rather than the innocent,
naïve white she wears throughout most of the play.
Almost posed in the foetal position- a form of protection and this image certainly
conveys one of entrapment not only as Blanche is alone in the apartment, but as
assumed by the drinking, she is also trapped in her own mind and perhaps
memory of her past as indicated by the polka music.
‘disaster closing in on her’ ‘drinking to escape it’- sets the precedent for this
scene and the interaction with Mitch. Sense that Blanche has accepted her fate
and foreshadows her continual downfall for the rest of the play. Stella’s labour
was a turning point in the way that she is now reliant on Stanley and must
prioritise her family, instead of Blanche, and perhaps her drinking here is a form
of escapism from this harsh reality that Stanley is victorious and has won over
her sister.
What impression of Mitch is created by his behaviour in this scene?
‘Comes around the corner in work clothes…he is unshaven’-The appearance of
Mitch, unshaven and dressed in his dirty work clothes emphasises again that he
is Blanche's last chance. He has lost his gentlemanly composure and it’s instantly
