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, This association stands in complete contrast to her actual behaviour and actions. Well, life is too full of evasions and ambiguities, I think. I like an artist who paints in strong, bold colours , primary colours. This paragraph clearly shows the irony in her words, because she herself is the one who is embodying a distinct difference between her actions and her statements.
She is the one who is neither straight-forward nor honest, but pretends to expect this from other people to a certain extent. 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 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.
S tanle y. He and his friends usually dress in rather solid materials, like cotton, or denim, and their clothes are mainly coloured in blue, and sometimes green. The colour blue is considered to be a symbol for the divine or heavenly, but also for the truth Becker Stanley is an honest person with no sympathy for lies and superficiality.
Stanley however is not the only character displayed in this way. 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.
Music :. The blue piano. 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.
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. 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. When Stanley gives her a ticket back to Laurel for a birthday presents, the situation means disaster for Blanche. Again, the polka represents disaster. Animals :. Blanche the moth. Both butterflies and moths start life as ugly caterpillars and only later transform into something more beautiful.
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 finall y does not conquer her fate. Stanley the ape. Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!
Stanley is at this point compared to an ape. Characteristic traits of apes are mobility, intelligence, deceit, but also lasciviousness, the drive to imitate and quarrelsome stinginess Becker Apes often live in the jungle , for it is their habitat.
It appears to be an appropriate place for Blanche to visit, when the "white woods" actually camouflage the "noises of the jungle" dominating her mind. Symbolism in A Streetcar Named Devices Symbolism : In literature, symbols are widely used by authors as a means of emphasising certain atmospheres and characteristic features of people and places. Stella Stella is a Latin term which simply means star. 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.
Indeed, the importance he placed upon names is evident in the very title of the play. Williams uses names as bridges to wider, deeper themes in the play, especially those of identity, duality and deceit. A brilliant theme linking all these names to keep in mind while reading this article, is that of appearances vs reality. Thus, this name has connotations with innocence, purity and virginity. This is extremely ironic as the audience eventually finds out Blanche is the opposite: she is promiscuous, infatuated with underage boys, aging a stain on the fairness of youth , and degrading mentally.
This false front is thus symbolised through her name. Her presented identity is not of flesh, but artificial and fake, constructed by Blanche for her benefit, like a tool used to her advantage. This is a rare commonality held between her and Stanley. However, she does not interpret her heritage as anything in common with Stanley, and rather sees this as more of a divide, which is a great insult to Stanley who yells.
This is made ironic through the setting of New Orleans, one of the more diverse and integrated communities in America at the time. The denseness of woods may foreshadow that there is much more to Blanche than she presents.
Stella for star! The romantic aspects of stars also link Blanche and Stella as sisters, establishing the love between the two characters. She is unable to provide Blanche with the light she needs, as Stella betrays Blanche. Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Themes All Themes. Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive.
Desire is a controlling force: when it takes over, characters must submit to its power, and they are carried along to the end of the line. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Scene 1 Quotes. Related Characters: Blanche DuBois speaker. Related Symbols: The Streetcar.
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