1 / 7

Kelso High School

Kelso High School. A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams. Scene Six. The opening mood of this scene is downbeat and depressing. Mitch and Blanche’s date has been a failure. Characterisation: Blanche. Blanche’s encounter with Mitch exposes her sexual double standards

jnitta
Download Presentation

Kelso High School

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Kelso High School A Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams

  2. Scene Six • The opening mood of this scene is downbeat and depressing. Mitch and Blanche’s date has been a failure

  3. Characterisation: Blanche • Blanche’s encounter with Mitch exposes her sexual double standards • Her play-acting emphasises her need for make-believe situations which make it possible for her to bear her life • Her recklessness is also apparent. She asks Mitch in French to sleep with her and when she speaks to him about her old fashioned ideas about women’s behaviour she rolls her eyes, knowing that he cannot see her face

  4. Characterisation: Blanche • Blanche describes her first love in terms of lightness and darkness. When she fell in love her world was consumed by “blinding light” and when her husband died, “the searchlight was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this – kitchen – candle” • A lack of light has enabled Blanche to live a lie, but without light Blanche has lived without a clear view of herself and reality

  5. Characterisation : Blanche • Blanche needs Mitch as a stabilizing force in her life and if her relationship with him fails, she faces a world that offers few prospects for a financially challenged, unmarried, middle aged woman • Yet, although she confesses her role in her husband’s suicide, her failure to be truthful about her age, her past and her intentions suggest their relationship will fail

  6. Stagecraft • The Varsouviana music that plays in the background as Blanche tells her story is symbolic. This is becThe music represents Blanche’s memories of her husband’s suicide • ause the same music was playing when Blanche told her husband (just before his suicide) that he disgusted her • When we hear the music in the play it shows Blanche is escaping into a fantasy world and remembering her greatest regret

  7. Foreshadowing • Blanche’s incoherent musing about Stanley conveys that she thinks his dislike might be a kind of perverse sexual attraction • This speculation foreshadows her fatal encounter with Stanley in Scene 10.

More Related