By the end of scene one how has Tennessee Williams established the main characters?
The characterisation in a written play is very different from the characterisation in the final stage production. This is because when watching the play on stage we can see the performance in front of us, so we can see the setting, what the characters look like and how the characters react. But this is not our interpretation of the play because we are made to see them as the director and the casts conceive the characters to be like. However, when we read the written play we use our own imagination and form our own ideas of what the setting looks like and most importantly what the characters look and act like. Stage directions are very important when reading a play because they help to reinforce the various themes such as desire and death to help the audience relate further to the characters. They help us as readers to understand the scenes in greater detail and really enjoy the play in depth.
Tennessee Williams also uses stage directions to create effect when introducing his main characters. For example when Blanche Dubois is introduced into the play her appearance is described in more detail than any of the other characters because beauty is incredibly important to Blanche. Williams also focuses on not only her clothes, but also the impression she gives of vulnerability and delicacy, like when Williams writes, her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light. In the stage description of Blanche, Williams draws instant attention to Blanches pristine white outfit, this is an immediate clue that Blanche will not fit in, in this environment which shows that she incongruous to the setting. White also represents purity and innocence but it becomes clear as the scene progresses that Blanche is none of these things. From this we get the impression that Blanche is trying to hide her true self behind the perfect image she has created because outwards appearances means everything to her.
At the end of the Blanches introductory paragraph Tennessee Williams writes, There is something about her uncertain manor, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth. This can be interpreted in many was, it could be that the moth is a dark stain on her character giving the reader the impression that her elaborately created reality is a lie. The second interpretation could be that Blanche is herself the moth, drawn to light, New Orleans, which will eventually expose her frailty and perhaps kill her. The theme of death has already begun before Blanche has even set foot in New Orleans because the streetcars she takes are like a metaphor to the whole play, the fact that she is on a tram shows that she is fixed on her route. Firstly she takes the streetcar named desire, which symbolizes her desire for self-esteem through being admired and also Stanleys physical desire for her. Next Blanche takes the streetcar called cemeteries, which indicates that this desire could lead to a death. We later learn that this is not a physical death but is the subsequent crumbling of Blanches self-image and sanity. Williams uses irony in the name of Blanches final destination, Elysian Fields. In classical mythology Elysian Fields are the equivalent of paradise. In the play Tennessee Williams uses Elysian Fields as a living death and this delusional paradise, which is where Blanche will end up at the end of the play.
New Orleans is a cosmopolitan city where there is a mixture of races living together harmoniously. Due to her aristocratic past, Blanche is uncomfortable when relating to Negro people and we become aware of this when she dismisses the Negro women at the start of the play. The reason as to why Blanche looks down on the Negro woman is because in Blanches past Negro people we used as slaves on plantations, which is where Blanche and her sister grew up. It is striking that Blanches sister, Stella has been able to adapt to being able to treat Negro people equally whereas Blanche is still stuck in outmoded ways of thinking. This could reflect Blanches desire to hold onto her past contrasting with Stellas willingness to embrace new ideas. When Blanche was talking to Eunice she was very distant, trying not to engage into any conversation and she has this attitude about her showing that she is better than her and we might even think that she might be hiding something because when Eunice brings up Belle Reve Blanche instantly wants to stop talking and tells Eunice to leave. We become aware of her class snobbery, the way she dismisses the black womans kindness and the company of Eunice.
From the first scene we come to have our suspicions that Blanche may have her problems with drink. We think is because she is incredibly discrete about having the drink and is careful to remove all evidence. Another reason why we have our suspicions is because the way she is acting before she has the whisky, she is incredibly tense and dissociated from her surroundings and the drink helps her to ground herself and shows that she could be drinking to cure her insecurities. Drink offers Blanche temporary amnesia and reassurance this could suggest that drink may play a big part in the play because of the way the story is going to play out.
The relationship between Stella and Blanche is central to the events of the play. Although Blanche is 5 years older then Stella, Stella is more protective of Blanche and acts as the older sister. This is another hint to Blanches insecurities and also shows that the relationship is unbalanced. When Blanche and Stella first meet in scene 1 it is aware that they have not meet in a while because Stella is shocked with the arrival of Blanche we know this because for a moment they stare a each other this could also suggest that there has been a lot of history between them in the past. In fact when Blanche begins to speak to Stella she speaks very fast (with feverish vivacity) as if she is frightened to think about the events of the past as it say in the stage directions. Blanches desire to forget about the past extends to her habits of taking long baths. In fact she doesnt even let Stella look at her before she has bathed, but dont you look at me, Stella, no, no, no, not till later, not till I bathed and rested! This is indicative of Blanche wanting to wash away her sins and be purified. It is left to the reader to decide what these things are; is she just trying to preserve her looks or is she trying to cover up something deeper? Blanche also tells Stella And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I will not be looked at in the merciless glare! This relates back to the fact that Blanche always wants to look good and she is worried about her fading beauty because in her eye it is her beauty that attracts men which is her route to self esteem. On a deeper level that merciless glare symbolizes how New Orleans exposes the cracks in her carefully constructed faade. In fact at one point Blanche even says to Stella, daylight ever exposed so total a ruin! This provides a clue of what may happen later on in the play and gives us an insight into how she thinks and this can help us understand other events that may happen later on in the play.
When reading the conversation between Stella and Blanche it is obvious that they are nothing like each other and that even though Blanche looks down on the way that Stella lives she secretly wants a life like that and that she is jealous that Stella has everything that she wants but Blanche doesnt. But Stella is embarrassed by the fact that she doesnt have a big house and she hasnt done as well as Blanche has in some ways and we can see this when Stella tells Blanche that the house has only two rooms and in the stage directions it says, she is embarrassed. Also Blanche is very forward towards Stella whereas Stella is quite taken back by the arrival of Blanche so doesnt how who to react in her company. When Blanche tells Stella about her losing Belle Reve she is very protective of herself and doesnt want Stella to take it the wrong way. She even uses a guilt factor to cushion the bad news, take into consideration you left! and the reason why she might have done this is because she knows that Stella feels bad about this and will possibly not take the news as bad. But I personally feel that Blanche is very ignorant about how Belle Reve was lost but she does understand that if was not entirely her fault and that it was the cavalier attitude about money that was the main reason why it was lost.
It is quite different when Blanche meets Stanley because they have never meet before so it is a very casual conversation and she is quite comfortable talking to Stanley and doesnt dismiss him like she did to the negro woman and to Eunice. You do find that Blanches English is a lot better the Stanleys and she uses phrases that make her seem quite upper class, she sues phrases like, why, I- live in Laurel and this makes Stanley look a lot more second class and Blanche a lot more superior to him. This could be a reason as to why early on in the play Stanley takes a dislike to Blanche, which creates the bases of most of the play. Also in the conversation between them both we learn something new about Blanche, that she was married! This could possibly change the way that you feel about blanche altogether because we also find out that her husband has passed away and a death can change a person completely. This information is important for our understanding of Blanche and it also makes us think about her actions in a different way such as the drinking and the way that she dresses and this persona she puts on to make herself feel better. It makes us feel sorry for Blanche and by the end of scene one all of our first interpretations of Blanche instantly change.
Tennessee Williams does not introduce Stanley in the same way that he introduces Blanche, he doesnt give us that much physical description about him but from what we do find our first impressions of Stanley is that he is a typical man who goes out to work and looks after his wife Stella and socializes with his friends. From this short description it seems that Stanley is a masculine man because of the way that he is in uniform and that he is carrying meat, which shows he family oriented. We first become aware that Stanley is quite the alpha male the first time we ever meet him when he is in mid conversation with his best friend, Mitch. It seems that he has the control in the conversation because he is the one who is developing it. Also from that small speech we find that they both work at the same place and they both are earning the same amount of money at the moment but Stanley feels that he should be getting more money because he says, We gotta have odds. This shows that Stanley feels more superior to Mitch and he seems at ease with saying something like that in front of him and not scared that it will offend him. This helps us to understand his character, the fact that he is at ease with his friends and that he is quite confident of his own superiority to Mitch.
Right at the start of the scene there is only a short bit of dialogue between Stanley and his wife, but from the information that we do have we get the sense that him and his wife have a loving relationship because of the way that he calls her Stella baby and the way that he jokes with her by throwing the meat at her obviously showing her his masculine side and he knows that she likes it and he takes pride in the ability to please his wife but we later learn that is just a part of his core personality along side his love of work and drink. There is nothing more that we get from that part of the scene but later on at the end of the scene you get more of an insight into what Stanley is like around more friends because there is a short conversation between him, Mitch and another friend, Steve. In the conversation you again get the impression that Stanley is the prominent male even though he doesnt say as much as the others but he still hold the control by asking the questions and making the decisions. He also orders his friends but in a friendly but controlling manner by saying, you bring beer. We get the impression that Mitch is the quieter one and it seems that they have both known each other for a long time so have a strong relationship. Also it seems that Mitch has just accepted that Stanley is a stronger character and is the dominant one which is why this relationship will have an impact in how the play evolves. Williams has added a large part of description mainly focusing on the fact that Stanley has this animalistic physical energy about him, animal joyin all his movements and attitudes and this might be an important characteristic about him as the play develops. Also in this description it focuses on the fact that men like Stanley like their women and basically like sex, pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it this may also have greater importance throughout the play because it is quite a strong obscure description he has given to Stanley who is happily married to Stella.
The meeting of Blanche and Stanley is quite casual seeing as they have never met before and that this is the first time either of them has spoken to each other but they have heard a lot about each other through Stella. But it is interesting that when Stanley takes out the bottle of whisky and Stanley kindly offers it to her she instantly says that she hardly touches a drop but we know that is not true because earlier in the scene she does drink! At this point we also come to believe that maybe drink might be a problem for Stanley because he stays, liquor goes fast in hot weather this could show that drink may play a huge part in the play for both Blanche and Stanley because he has noticed that some of this whisky is missing. We also become aware that Stanley is interested about Blanche and who she is because all he knows is what Stella has told him. He asks her simple questions like where she lives and what she teaches and even within this part of the dialogue you can tell that there is this class difference between Blanche and Stanley, Stanleys ungrammatical speech betrays his lack of education because when he asks where she lives he replys, not in my territory which could mean that he is not to sure about where the place is. We see that Stanley is very straightforward with Blanche because he brings up the death of her husband and wants to know what happened and this could show that Stanley is someone who wants to know all the details and this might cause a rift in the relationship between Blanche and him.
Like with Stanley we dont get a lot of direct information about Stella, we learn more about her from other characters comments in the play especially from Blanche when they are first reunited in the first scene. We get the impression that Stella seems happy with her life before the arrival of Blanche, which triggers of Stella uneasiness.
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