In literature, symbols are widely used by authors as a means
of emphasising certain atmospheres and characteristic
features of people and places. A symbol is an object or image that stands for
itself and also for something else. In a sense, all language is symbolic
considering that letters form words which stand for, or symbolise, real things.
However, in literature, a symbol can be thought of as an image that evokes a
different aspect of reality in order to suggest another level of meaning.
Names:
Blanche DuBois
Blanche DuBois is the main
character of the play and also the most thoroughly described one. The name
Blanche is French and means white or fair. Her last name DuBois
is of French origin as well and translates as made of wood.
Since the colour white stands for purity, innocence and
virtue, the symbolism of Blanche‘s first name reveals these qualities, which
stand in contrast to her actual character traits. The name suggests that
Blanche is a very innocent and pure person, but throughout the play it becomes
obvious that Blanche cannot call any of these traits her own. Only the illusory
image which she tries to create for herself suggests these traits, but her true
nature is not like that at all. She constantly tries to hide her embarrassing
past from all of her new acquaintances, because she fears that they might not
accept her anymore. In order to maintain her apparent social status among her
new neighbours and friends, she builds this
intertwined net of lies which creates a false image of herself.
She herself believes in this imaginary world, and as soon as there is the
slightest sign of its destruction, she seems to be lost, and her nervous
condition worsens. Therefore all she cares about is to keep that image alive.
Her first name is therefore quite ironic since it means the exact opposite of
Blanche’s true nature and character.
Her last name, however, stands in
contrast to her first name. ‘Made of wood’
suggests something solid and hard, which is the exact opposite of her fragile
nature and nervous condition. However, wood
can also be associated with forest
or jungle, and regarding her past,
the connection becomes clear. Blanche used to indulge in a rather excessive
lifestyle. She had sex with random strangers and was known throughout her
hometown
As already mentioned above, wood represents something hard, or
hard-working.
The Du in front of that, however, suggests something
aristocratic and noble. There seems to be a contradiction in these two terms
which can be explained with the nature of her character. The way Blanche tries
to create an aristocratic and sophisticated image of herself,
but is in fact the complete opposite, displays this ambiguity.
Combined with her first name, her entire name would
translate as “white wood,” which she explains to Mitch in scene three, “It’s a
French name. It means woods and Blanche means white, so the two together mean
white woods” (Williams 150). Blanche DuBois cannot
only be translated as white wood but
also as white and made of wood, which
makes it easier for the reader to detect that she seems pure and innocent on
the outside, but is really quite tough and calculating when it comes down to
her image and her future, especially concerning her search for a husband.
Overall, Blanche’s entire name is heavily symbolic because
it reflects her true nature in a very clear way. Just as first and last name
are being read out in an exact order, Blanche’s character is revealed in the
same way. At first she seems to be innocent and pure, but later her past and
her true nature can be discovered.
Stella
Stella is a Latin term which simply means star. Stars in general are considered to
be the light which breaks through the darkness. Considering that light is the
opposite of darkness, and darkness itself stands for not-knowing and intellectual
dullness, the stars can be regarded as reality and knowledge shining through
ignorance. Stars can also be a symbol for high ideals or goals set too high.
Stella represents Blanche’s ideal concerning the fact that she is leading a
contented life.
The deeper significance of her name reveals her role in the
play. The symbol of a star suggests light,
hope and stability. This is quite a good description of her role and her
position in the play. Stella is the connection between Blanche and Stanley, the
two major characters, because she contains character traits of both of them,
and can therefore relate to them better than anyone else can. Therefore she can
be considered to be the stabilising element of the
play. She is the negotiator between the two so very different characters.
Stella and Blanche have the same rather wealthy and cultivated background,
which is the connection between the two women. Stella also has several things
in common with Stanley.One of them is their love for
wild sex (Ehrenhaft 72). During a conversation with
Blanche, Stella tells her about her wedding night:
Stella: Why, on
our wedding night – soon as we came in here – he snatched off one of my
slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it.
Blanche: He did – what?
Stella: He smashed all the light-bulbs with the heel of my
slipper!
Blanche: And you – you let him? Didn’t run, didn’t scream?
Stella: I was – sort of – thrilled by it. (Williams 157).
This excerpt clearly shows the connection between Stella and
Stanley, but there is something else that ties them together. Stella is, just
like
For both, Stanley and Blanche, Stella is their star and
their hope. They always seek her support and shelter. Stella is the stable
element of the play, because she does not show any sign of rapid mood swings
like Blanche and Stanley do, and this is what makes her the small and quiet star of the play.
Places:
Belle Reve
Belle Reve is the name of the
sisters’ family’s plantation in their hometown
Desire,
Cemeteries and Elysian Fields
At the
beginning of the play Williams introduces three terms which do
not reveal their symbolic meaning right away, but the reader comes to realise their sense and importance later in the play. In
scene one, Blanche describes to Eunice her journey to her sister’s place: “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” (Williams 117).Blanche’s journey on New
Orleans’ streetcars represents the journey of her own life.
Desire is her first step, just as it was
the first step of her life after her husband Allan had died. Still struggling
with this loss, she was desperately longing for love and companionship, but
ended up leading a life which was filled with sex with random men, who never
cared about her: “Yes, I had many intimacies with strangers. After the death of
Allan – intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart
with…” (Williams 205). At this time she was hence obsessed by desire.
The next step of her journey is Cemeteries, which is an obvious symbol for death. Her promiscuous
lifestyle had got her into trouble. She lost her job because she had had an
affair with one of her students, and was banned from
Elysian Fields is the name of the street where
Stella and Stanley live, and it is a mythical allusion to Book VI of Virgil's Aeneid. According to Roman mythology, Elysium (or Elysian Fields) was a part of the underworld and a place of reward
for the virtuous dead. Elysian Fields,
though, was just a temporary place of the souls’ journey back to life:
Light:
The light
as a symbol for truth and reality
The light plays an important symbolic role throughout the
play because it clearly reflects Blanche’s and Stanley’s characters. The light
is considered to be the basis for sight and recognition, and, as already
mentioned above, it is the opposite of darkness which symbolises intellectual dullness and ignorance (Becker
171). Blanche and Stanley stand in contrast concerning their attitudes towards
light, which again underlines their different characters.
Blanche’s aversion to light
Blanche’s relation to light is quite obvious
because she tries to avoid bright light of any kind as well as she can. Her
reaction to light can be regarded as an attempt to hide her true nature as well
as her vanishing beauty and youth. By hiding from the light she tries to escape
reality, for light clearly represents reality in this play. The first time that
Blanche’s aversion to light becomes obvious is in scene one: “And turn that
over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare” (Williams 120).
In scene three, she covers the naked light bulb
with a Chinese paper lantern: “ I can’t stand a naked
light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (Williams
150). This remark shows that Blanche would rather hide behind polite phrases
than accept truth and reality. The paper lantern is not very stable, though,
and it can easily be destroyed, just like Blanche’s illusions.
In scene six, she takes Mitch home with her and
says, “ Let’s leave the lights off” (Williams 177).
Blanche thinks of Mitch as a future husband, and therefore she does not want
him to know her past or her true age, and the best way to hide her age is to
stay out of bright light where he could possibly see her wrinkles and fading
youth in her face. Later in that scene, Blanche tells Mitch about her husband
Allan: ‘When I was sixteen, I made the discovery – love. All
at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a
blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it
struck the world for me’ (Williams 182).
Therefore, in her past, light used to represent
love, but now it represents something destructive for her. Allan’s suicide
erased the light or love, and thus she now does not believe in it any longer
and tries to escape from the light and therefore escapes reality: “…electric
light bulbs go on and you see too plainly” (Williams 196). This again shows her
fear of light since for her it represents reality, and in scene nine this
becomes even more obvious. When Mitch tears off the paper lantern
in order to take a closer look at her in the bright light, “she utters a
frightened gasp” (Williams 203). Then she tells him: ‘I don’t want
realism…I’ll tell you what I want. Magic! Yes, yes, magic! I misrepresent
things to them. I don’t tell the truth. I tell what ought to be truth. And if
that is sinful, then let me be damned for it! – Don’t turn the light on’
(Williams 204).This is Blanche’s first statement concerning her true intention
and nature, and it is probably the only time where she ever confesses that she
builds up an illusory image of herself.
Blanche
The first apparent use of
colour in the play is the symbolic meaning of Blanche’s name, which, as already
mentioned above, is French and means white.
When she appears in scene one, “she is daintily dressed in a white suit with a
fluffy bodice, necklace and ear-rings of pearl, white gloves and a hat…”
(Williams 117).
As already mentioned above, the colour white
stands for purity and innocence, but it is also the colour of light and
represents perfection and virginity (Becker, 330). This association stands in
complete contrast to her actual behaviour and actions. Blanche is a seductive
and promiscuous woman, who lies in order to maintain her image, and therefore
Williams’ use of this colour for her name and her outer appearance is quite
ironic.
In scene two Blanche talks to
In scene nine, she changes her clothes from soft
colours to strong bold ones for the first time: “She
has on her scarlet satin robe” (Williams 200). The colour red symbolises love, passion and fertility on the positive
side, but also fire and blood on the negative one, so this is the first time
that her outer appearance actually matches her intentions (Becker 244). She is
meeting Mitch in this scene, and her dress certainly shows the seductress in
her. Mitch refuses to marry her because of her past, and after that, in scene
ten, she wears a white satin evening gown, which implies that she returned to
her habit of soft colours in order to underline her
pureness and virtuous nature.
The colour blue is considered to be a symbol for
the divine or heavenly, but also for the truth (Becker 44). Once again,
Williams uses a certain colour to express a person’s human qualities, although,
in this case, the association is not ironic, but matches the person’s
behaviour.
Later, in scene nine, Mitch “comes around the
corner in work clothes: blue denim shirt and pants. He is unshaven” (Williams
200). In this scene he meets Blanche, who is wearing her red satin robe. The
confrontation of the colours red and blue, symbolises the confrontation
between femininity and masculinity.
The blue
piano
The blue piano is first mentioned in the
introductory stage directions of the first scene: “This ‘blue piano’ expresses
the spirit of the life which goes on there” (Williams 115). Throughout the
play, the blue piano always appears when Blanche is talking about the loss of
her family and Belle Reve, but it is also present
during her meeting and kissing the young newspaper man. The blue piano thus
stands for depression, loneliness and her longing for love, which the adjective
blue already suggests. This quality
is not identical with the colour symbolism of blue. It describes
Blanche’s emotions and represents her need for companionship and love, but also
her hope, as the scene with the paper-boy shows. Mitch tells her in scene nine
that he will not marry her due to her promiscuous past, “the distant piano is
slow and blue” (Williams 207). Later, in scene ten, it grows louder when she is
on the phone trying to get in touch with Shep Huntleigh. In this situation, her hopes are rising, and so
does the piano. In the last scene, Blanche is being taken away to a mental
institution, and Stanley and his friends play poker again: “The luxurious
sobbing, the sensual murmur fade away under the
swelling music of the ‘blue piano’ and the muted trumpet” (Williams 226). The
blue piano, accompanying the card game, symbolises
The Varsouviana Polka
The Varsouviana Polka
on the other hand appears when Blanche is being confronted with her past and
the truth, or when she talks about Allan. The reason for this seems obvious,
for exactly this polka had been played when her husband Allan committed
suicide. The polka represents death and immanent disaster. Blanche tells Mitch
in scene six about Allan, and how she caught him cheating on her: “Polka music
sounds, in a minor key faint with distance” (Williams 183). When
In scene eleven, the connection between the
polka and Blanche’s state of mind and emotion becomes even more obvious. She
gets totally lost in her illusions about Shep Huntleigh and runs into her room when the doctor arrives:
“The Varsouviana is filtered into weird distortion,
accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” (Williams 222). Thus the
polka’s weird distortion matches the confusion in her mind.
Blanche
the moth
In the first scene, Blanche is
compared to an animal: “There is something about her uncertain manner, as well
as her white clothes, that suggests a moth” (Williams 117). Both butterflies
and moths start life as ugly caterpillars and only later transform into
something more beautiful. The butterfly and cocoon symbol reflects Blanche’s
attempts to re-create herself and, so to speak, spring
forth a new, beautiful person from her cocoon of lies. In contrast to the
butterfly, who lives during daytime, the moth mainly lives during the night,
which makes it a creature of the darkness, and the butterfly one of the light.
As already mentioned above, the butterfly leaves the dark cocoon to live in the
light, but the moth stays in darkness for that is the time when it is feeding.
This can be adapted to Blanche as it seems as though—contrasting with her
name—it is her fate to live in the darkness, which symbolises
ignorance. Blanche does not find a way out: at the end of the play she is being
taken away to the mental institution, which means that she finally does not conquer her
fate.
In contrast to Blanche,