Example Essay: Relationship between Blanche and Mitch

Williams presents Blanche and Mitch’s relationship as toxic in a way so subtle that neither of them notice the spiral they voluntarily go down until one of them is mad and the other has to watch them be sent to an asylum. Right from the start of the play, they bond over their mutual losses, “you need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be you and me, Blanche?” A relationship founded on death and decay could foreshadow an ending even more destructive than their past one. Williams could be warning that there is no way that a relationship between a man and a woman from two different sides of the Civil War could ever survive in a relationship together, Mitch working a blue-collar job and Blanche, a ‘Southern belle’ raised in wealth on a plantation. 

Williams presents the relationship between Blanche and Mitch as one of mutual destruction and dependence. Blanche’s loss of her husband Allen still preys on her, evidenced by the repeating motif of the Varsouviana Polka, the last dance they shared before Allen killed himself. Therefore, it seems wrong that she would move onto another man when she is still so deeply hurt. Her guilt could also be seen through this motif, as it often plays when she is around Mitch, who is also the only person she opens up to about him. A relationship where one of the participants is already regretful doesn’t seem healthy. Moreover, Williams presents Mitch as the most redeemable character, his kindness and sensitivity his strength, but if we look deeper, his desire for that normality leads him to ignore the abusive relationship between Stella and Stanley. The first time we get a sense that not all is right, is when he comforts Blanche after Stella and Stanely’s fight, commenting “there’s nothing to be afraid of, they’re crazy about each other.” He further silences Blanche’s protest at the violence, suggesting that there will be more of this invalidation of Blanche’s feelings throughout the relationship. Blanche’s desperate search for love could be leading her down a dangerous spiral where she becomes too dependent on a man, that when she is inevitably rejected, she falls back into that unhealthy tunnel of devaluing herself. This is further argued by critics, suggesting that ‘Blanche’s tragic flaw is that she adheres to the Southern tradition that she needs a man for completion when she can complete herself’. The whole relationship between Mitch and Blanche seems to be built on lies, that by the end of the play are excruciatingly revealed to Blanche, along with the facade of sweetness surrounding Mitch, which she has almost romanticised in her head, falling down. “I’ll tell you what I want. Magic!” Blanche is forced to admit to herself that everything she has built about herself is a lie, and whatever she had hidden beneath these lies might not be something anyone wants. Mitch forced her to see this, emphasising the incompatible nature of the two. Williams seems to be criticising the fact that Blanche forgot about Mitch’s separate upbringing in the war, and therefore the violence he was capable of, and Blanche’s desperate attempts to hide her secrets behind the lie of a Southern Belle seems to bring this violence out of Mitch, a man very deeply rooted in reality. This suggests that their relationship was built on lies and misunderstandings, as well as convenience – Blanche needing a husband to hide behind, and Mitch wanting a wife to bring home to his mother – which, due to their differing social standings, would never have allowed them to have a truly loving relationship. Here, Williams is commenting on the fact that the two sides of Civil War would never be able to live in peace, their views differing too much, almost resembling Shakespeare’s famous story of Romeo and Juliet. 

Furthermore, Williams presents Blanche and Mitch’s relationship as dangerosuly volatile and isolating despite the comfort a relationship is supposed to bring. Right from the start of the play, Blanche is presented as ‘the other’. When she arrives she is described as “incongruous to the setting”, a semantic field of white making her seem otherworldly, whilst at the same time distancing her from the surroundings. Later when we find out that she was exiled from her former job and lost her childhood home, it becomes even more apparent that she has no home and nowhere to belong. Mitch represents Blanche’s last chance at finding love and stability within a world that is changing before her eyes quicker than she has time to adjust to. His rejection of her in Scene 9, could represent her moment of peripeteia, where she will never find love again. Her desire to paint everything in an ideological light clouding her views could be identified as the trigger for this distance between her and the rest of the world, highlighted by her demand of Mitch to cover the light, “I can’t stand a naked bulb.” This could be a metaphor for her inability to connect with reality, which has proved so disappointing to her. This is further emphasised by the motif of light throughout the play and her early description of being like a “moth”, wanting to be close to the light and the “magic”, and yet harming themselves in the process. It seems her desire to paint Mitch into becoming her perfect Southern beau, demanding he dance with her, despite him doing it “awkwardly”. This adjective highlights the illusion she fabricates around herself, as she calls hims her knight and he clumsily fumbles around her ‘magic’, possibly leading to the collapse of their relationship as Mitch finds out about all the “lies, lies, lies!” Her efforts to turn Mitch into her perfect husband despite him being a member of the new America after the Civil War, separates them, as he doesn’t appreciate the ideology of Blanche, a women clinging onto the old American ideals. Williams further underlines the inevitability of the collapse of the relationship with Blanche’s first impression of him before they’ve even met, when Stella says that “Stanely’s friends” are coming for dinner and Blanche immediately assumes they’re “Polacks?” Furthermore, her continued mocking of his lack of intelligence, specifically when she uses French words or phrases that he cannot understand, such as “Rosenkavalier”, shows that she only needs him to ensure her financial stability. However, the play Der Rosenkavalier has connotations of knights and comedic, happy endings, suggesting that that is what Blanche desires, despite her lies to Mitch. This again emphasises the destructive nature of her refusal to see reality, and how the relationship between Mitch and Blanche only pushed her further into her isolation, ending with her in an insane asylum. 

Overall, Williams presents the relationship between Blanche and Mitch as damaging to both characters, emphasised by the ending, when Mitch is left “sobbing” on the floor and Blanche is banished to an asylum. By the end of the play, Blanche is more alone than she was at the start, her sister having abandoned her, leaving her with no hope of returning to her former life. Ultimately, Williams does this to highlight the backwards nature of the Southern values of women, as it pushed Blanche to the limits, and announces that they will inevitably cease to exist in a modern society because they will forever be at odds with the new society, emphasised by Blanche’s inability to empathise with Stanley or Mitch and in turn ending up in an insane asylum. 

Tragedy In A Streetcar Named Desire

Here’s a post on A Streetcar Named Desire, and my interpretations of how tragedy plays a key role within the play. It’s not structured like a proper essay but hopefully some of the ideas are useful!

To what extent is the play a tragedy and is it a conventional tragedy?

Williams’ is genius in how he plays with tropes of Greek tragedy and manipulates them to suit his aims and place Streetcar in the context of his time, 1940’s America. It is not conventional in this way, but the play still keeps many key elements of a tragedy. Ideas of hamartia and hubris can be seen in our tragic heroine – Blanche. Blanche makes several errors of judgement throughout the play: she blames Stella in scene 1, she decides not to go back to Laurel in the birthday scene, and continues to buy into illusions. She also displays hubris in how she denies fate and tries to escape death and reality through her illusions. Ironically, this only leads her further to tragedy. While these features of tragedy can be clearly seen in Blanche, the play itself is less clear-cut as a tragedy. I make the argument that there is no clear climax or turning point as such, and the play doesn’t follow a typical tragic arc. It could be argued that there are several points that could be considered the climax, or the point where there is no going back e.g: the birthday scene, the rape scene, the scene with Mitch, or even the final scene. Through this lack of clarity, Williams’ may be suggesting that tragedy in the play is inevitable and no specific moment can have the power to change the course of the play entirely, rather a series of events lead up to tragedy or events before the play even starts may predetermine the play’s tragic end.

I think it’s fair to say that a play’s ending is often what characterises it as a tragedy – or not a tragedy. The ending acts as the determiner. Typically, tragedies end in irreversible catastrophe, or death. While we do see catastrophe at the end of Streetcar, it is questionable how tragic the ending is as no-one dies, as the audience may expect. Also, there is a sense of victory for Blanche, which is conflicting for the audience. What I mean by this is that Blanche is so unaware of what is happening to her, she almost suffers the least out of the characters present in the final scene. She metaphorically describes her death, in a very romanticised way ‘And when I die, I’m going to die on the sea […] I shall die eating an unwashed grape one day out on the ocean.’ – she is claiming control of her end, and so in a way, she wins. She also leaves on the arm of a gentleman (the doctor), which we can imagine is what Blanche would want, so maybe it’s not so tragic for her after all? However, the play is tragic for other characters in this final scene. Notably, Stella: she is the one in the middle who has to deal with the emotional turmoil of what has happened to her sister, she cries out ‘Blanche! Blanche, Blanche!’. So, on a practical level, she arguably suffers the most. Furthermore, the perhaps most tragic aspect of this scene is how Stella has to live in illusions much like her sister now, as she is aware that Stanley raped Blanche, but chooses to ignore reality ‘I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley.’. Maybe, the tragedy has only begun and the real victim here is Stella.

Overall, the play is a tragedy, just not a conventional one. Williams’ makes tragedy more down-to-earth and adapted to the world he inhabited as his characters are not noblemen or women, they are just ordinary people. Arguably, Williams’ version of tragedy is more valuable to modern readers as we can relate to his characters more and take away messages from the play that are truly in correlation with today’s society.

When does the tragedy of the play begin?

Once again, I think it is up for discussion when the tragedy of the play begins, as arguably tragedy starts before the play even takes place and there are also many moments of tragedy very early on. It can be argued that the tragedy of the play resides in the old-fashioned ways of the South, as ultimately Blanche is a product of that world. So, the idea of the ‘Southern Belle’ is a cause of tragedy that exists before the play even starts. By doing this, Williams’ highlights the ongoing conflict between the North and South of America, and he may be commenting on the importance of progression in society, that it is foolish to confine ourselves to traditional beliefs. Furthermore, the tragedy of the play could start when Allan dies, and Blanche is constantly escaping death and reality from that moment on, which we know is ironically only going to lead Blanche towards more despair. The Varsouviana is played at moments of tragedy or heightened tension for Blanche in the play, which may support this theory that Allan’s death was the moment where tragedy began. In terms of the play itself, tragedy may begin the very moment that Blanche turns up at Elysian fields, which is hinted at when Blanche says ‘They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields!’ – in essence, Blanche has been unknowingly led to her downfall by coming here as ‘Cemeteries’ is symbolic of her metaphorical death. Finally, hints towards tragedy are evident early on in the play e.g: when Blanche talks about the deaths at belle reve in scene 1, hints towards Allan’s death at the end of scene 1, and the poker night scene. Williams’ suggests that tragedy is very much dormant throughout the play – and in time it will surface.

-Martha

Cultural Allusions and Analysis in A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire, although still widely studied and observed as relevant in our current era, is a text indelibly tied to to its time of writing. One place in which this is most noticeable is through its allusions to American culture of the 1940s.

• In Scene 1, Eunice says to Stella, “Tell Steve to get him a poor boy’s sandwich ’cause nothing’s left here.”
  • A poor boy’s sandwich is a food closely associated with New Orleans. It is believed to have originated from the Martin brothers of the 1920s, former streetcar drivers who supported drivers’ strike by handing out these sandwiches. Through the 30s and 40s, stands selling these were commonplace throughout New Orleans. Relating the New Orleans culture to Eunice and Steve in the play’s very first scene, establishes their roles as two almost archetypal, typical figures of the area.
• In Scene 6, Mitch states: “Last Christmas I was given a membership to the New Orleans Athletic Club.”
  • This is a real venue, occupying 222 North Rampart Street, in New Orleans – the second-oldest athletic organisation in the US, founded in 1872. Williams himself trained there. Once again, the characters resident in New Orleans display themselves to be fully involved in its real culture, perhaps even making references to places an audience would recognise. The absence of these references in Stella and Blanche’s speech sets them apart for their wealthy, faded Southern background.
• In Scene 8, Stanley quotes Huey Long: “Remember what Huey Long said – “Every Man is a King!”
  • Huey Long became the governor of Louisiana in 1928, then went on to become a U.S. Senator in 1932. He championed the rights and living standards of the poor white population; himself coming from an impoverished background, he put into action a wide program of road and bridge construction, widened state university facilities and created a state hospital, affording these measures through heavier inheritance and income taxes. Nonetheless, he largely maintained his power through intimidation – taking personal control of all civil service positions in Louisiana by 1934. Stanley seems to echo the exact man Long aimed to inspire with his policies, and Long’s control over Louisiana indeed parallels Stanley’s patriarchal, new-money position.

On the other side of these lie older, more ‘intellectual’ allusions. Whilst cultural allusions serve to involve the audience in the real, existing New Orleans, they also serve to demonstrate Blanche’s quite opposing values, emphasising literature and fantasy.

• In Scene 1, Blanche exclaims: “Only Poe! Only Mr. Edgar Allen Poe! – could do it justice! Out there I suppose is the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir!”
  • This rather melodramatic depiction of Stella and Stanley’s home emphasises how Blanche uses a culture she understands – in this case, Gothic literature – to shade a culture she does not, probably unfairly. She directly quotes Poe’s 1847 poem, “Ulalume”, which details the narrator unwittingly returning to the grave of his lost love. Blanche likewise makes a seemingly subconscious allusion to her past, as the audience goes on to learn of her own lost love, through husband Allen.
• Closing Scene 5, Blanche asks the young man collecting for The Evening Star, “Has anyone ever told you that you look like a young prince out of the Arabian Nights?”
  • Arabian Nights is a series of Middle Eastern folk stories, first published in English in the early 18th century. Dramatic irony demonstrates Blanche’s projection of her desire here; the young man certainly does not appear the exotic figure Blanche makes him out to be, who “stands like a bashful kid”. He additionally refers to having had a “cherry soda”, symbolic of American commercial culture and entirely juxtaposing the foreign influence Blanche imagines. This wildly unfitting comparison by Blanche reflects her misuse of literature (a comfort zone, as a former English teacher) for self-delusion.
• In Scene 6, Blanche tells Mitch: “Je suis la Dame aux Camellias! Vous êtes – Armand!”
  • In an allusion Blanche plainly knows Mitch will not understand, French or not, she compares their relationship to that of Alexandre Dumas fils‘s (son of the more famous Dumas) 1848 play, La Dame aux Camélias. This play details the tragic love between a courtesan and a middle-class man (Armand). The courtesan is convinced to leave by her lover’s father and her lover believes her to be with another man. There are obvious parallels to Blanche here – her past promiscuity demonising her, her ultimate abandonment by everyone around her. Mitch’s obliviousness to this allusion foreshadows his abandonment of her, and represents how Blanche is ‘lost in translation’, an obsolete relic of Southern gentility.

The disparity between Blanche’s cultural allusions and those of any other character make evident the different beliefs and lifestyles she has from the residents of New Orleans. She is hopelessly different – but in the eyes of a theatre-going audience, more likely to be of the wealth she herself exhibits than of the working culture of the New Orleans characters, perhaps her educated airs lend her greater sympathy. Certainly, Williams leaves no character uncriticised.

– China

One Down, One To Go!

Hi!

We hope everyone found the exam alright today. If not, don’t worry, there’s still another one to go! We’ll keep posting prose tips up until Wednesday night, so don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Good luck!

Masculinity – Streetcar Themes

Image: Marlon Brando© Kitchen With a View

“There’s even something-sub-human-something not quite to the stage of humanity yet!…Stanley Kowalski-survivor of the Stone Age! Bearing the raw meat home from the kill in the jungle!”

Quick Points

• Stanley Kowalski is the antagonist in the play and is the embodiment of masculinity which in Streetcar, represents aggression, control, violence and physicality.
• Adding to the idea that the play explores the conflict between the old and new America is the lack of gentlemanly manners possessed by the men “No one is going to get up so don’t worry!”
• Throughout their is a balance of masculinity being brutish and dangerous, somewhat caveman like, and another than is sexually appealing, especially to the somewhat oppressed (traditionally from their sexuality) southern belles Blanche and Stella
• Masculinity is often associated with animalistic traits