Examples Of Stage Directions In A Streetcar Named Desire

Stage directions are used during the play to reveal even more of the personality of each of the characters. The extremely-confident personality of Nick is made clear in the first scene, when Nick, Lucy and Lewis first enter the darkened theatre, and Nick starts to toy with Lucy in the dark, pretending to be a ghost. Stage directions can also be used to reveal the feelings of characters. When Lucy and Nick leave, and Lewis is left with Roy, you can tell just by watching the way Lewis holds his body, and moves about the stage, he feels betrayed by Lucy, and by Nick.

The reader may view Blanche as someone who tried to escape her sordid past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister, yet due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, was unable to do so. Stanley reveals Blanches’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her ‘same old act, same old hooey!’ This tells the reader that his research of Blanches’ past is way of stopping her from finding a new life. Blanche attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch, yet Stanley again reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her and also contributing to her fate. Stanley, after mercilessly divulging all her truths and bringing her to the edge of her mental capacity, rapes Blanche which brought about her final collapse. The reader may view Stella as someone at blame for her sisters’ fate, as though she shows some moral support of Blanches’ situation and listens to what she has to say, Stella continuously throughout the play neglects to notice Blanches slow mental deterioration and ignores Blanches’ outcries and incessant need for attention. Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche, despite her warnings about him being ‘volatile, violent and sub-human which represents not

Both allusions are a way for Blanche to escape the harshness of the real world. "It's Only a Paper Moon" is sung by Blanche while she is bathing. She sings, "say, it's only a paper moon, sailing over a cardboard sea/- But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me" (p.1821). The song suggests that fantasy can be reality if both lovers believed. It is interesting how the lyrics are reliant on another person's believe in an imaginary world to make fantasizing acceptable. Therefore, it seems that Blanche is aware of how she is portrayed by others and how to avoid being seen as psychotic. It is also made evident that she relies on another person to feel complete, especially men.... The irony of this scene is blissfully singing she is unaware that Stanley is giving an accurate description of Blanche's true actions to Stella. Revealing facts about the flamingo etc... The contrast between reality and fantasy portrayed simultaneously is both clear and ironic. Furthermore, the "Paper Doll" is described as being heard in the distant during Mitch and Blanche's first encounter. The singer sings "I'd rather have a Paper Doll to call my own than have a fickle-minded real life girl" (site). This song is not explicitly derived from Blanche and the lyrics are not written in the play, instead it is a device which sets the tone for Mitch and Blanche's relationship for those familiar with the song and to

On page 13, Stanley is described fully, using stage directions. You can tell by the length of his description that Stanley is quite a complex character. The start of the stage directions read ‘Stanley throws the screen door open’, the verb ‘throw’ is very strong and follows the theme of men overpowering women which contextually fits in with the time period in which the play was written.

     Another key element in the story is the blue piano. Whenever this piano is heard playing during the play it signifies that Stanley has had a victory over Blanche in some way. The blue piano also signifies that Blanches illusion is begging to unravel. The reality of Blanches situation becomes apparent to Stanley who then tries to expose Blanche for what she really

In the second part of the tripartite structure in Scene Two, Blanche and Stanley flirt and argue with each other. This section emphasises the contrast between old and new as Stanley’s main reason for talking to

The music is symbolic of typical life for the inhabitants of that part of the city and "plays for a brief interval" (P43) following Stanley's violent attack on Stella, reinforcing to the audience that Stanley's violence is part of the way of life in Elysian Fields. It also returns at the end of scene ten when Stanley rapes Blanche. The symbolism Williams uses in the opening scene of A Streetcar Named Desire gives the reader more insight into the main characters of the play, makes them more vivid and also hints at the outcome for these characters. Stanley as he enters scene one, "carries … a red stained package from a butcher's" (P20).

He abuses his wife Stella physically and emotionally as he strikes and hits his pregnant wife while Stella represents the self-deprecating, submissive wife who tolerates and excuses her husband behavior. Another central theme in Williams’ play is the theme of illusion; Blanche lives in a fantasy world of sentimental illusion. She exerts efforts to maintain the appearance of being an upper-class young innocent woman, even though she is a fallen woman. Another theme is the theme of loneliness as Blanche is lost and alone in the world and she desperately seeks protection and companionship in the arms of strangers. Mitch is another character who is a victim of loneliness and he needs to find a woman to love him the way his mother does. The theme of sexual desire is related to destruction. Blanche wants to be a lady but she continually tripped up by her sexual desire. Stanley leads a violent brutal desire and views Stella as a sexual object and his final act as he rapes Blanche emphasizes his lustful desire. The theme of hatred is prevailed throughout the play as Blanche’s insult and insolence aroused the hatred of Stanley. The play focused on the feeling of repulsion between

Occurring frequently throughout the play, but particularly predominant at the end of Act I is the use of stage directions to

Stanley is a character in this play, whose perspective is clearly reality based. Since Blanche’s outlook on life is fantasy based, there is a lot of hostility between the two characters. Stanley is the one that always exposes the lies that Blanche is always hiding behind. He is constantly trying to get her to accept his perspective. When she finally begins to understand him, it’s too late. With such a huge change, she loses her mental state. Her personal beliefs get interchanged between fantasy and reality, to such an extent, that it seems as if she no longer realizes what is true or what is malign.

As she sings this song, telling the story of her tendency to believe a more pleasant, warped view of reality over the actual reality, Stanley is telling Stella the horrifying truth about Blanche's scandalous past. These lyrics sum up Blanche’s approach to life. She believes that her lying is only her means of enjoying a better way of life and is therefore essentially harmless.

In the opening two scenes of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, the audience has its first and generally most important impressions formulated on characters, the plot and the mood and tone of the play overall.

Blanche’s unexpected arrival at the entrance of the play is what stirs an even bigger monster in Stanley. Upon her entrance, she immediately causes trouble due to her and Stanley’s differences. Blanche is a southern belle from a very wealthy background. She is very proud of being brought up in the upper class while Stanley is proud that he lead his own life through the working class. This makes him a very rude and animalistic man with a lower level of education. Even their first conversation

It is Williams's brilliant and intriguing characters that make the reader truly understand the play's meaning.   He also presents a continuous flow of raw, realistic moods and events in the play which keeps the reader fascinated in the realistic fantasy Williams has created in A Streetcar Named Desire.   The

Blanche declares that she trembles for Stella as she chooses to live with Stanley and have a child with him. Stella is obviously blinded by love. There are a large amount of people struggling in relationships, but still have that love for one another no matter what they go through. Stella may represent any woman who has gone through difficult situations in their relationship, but still have reason to love the other person. Conflicts like these happen every day in our life’s and some people may not even know it.