The Theme Of Light In A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams

The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who goes to live with her sister after she loses her home in Mississippi. Between the hardships of her previous life and the way she is treated now, she is not in a good way by the time the play ends. She basically has a mental breakdown. There are three stages of Blanche’s mental state. She lives in a fantasy, Mitch rejecting her, and Stanley raping her, Blanche is mentally unstable by the end of this ply.

Blanche repeatedly lied to make herself look pure to others. It only served as a masquerade to hide her dirty, sinful reality. She lied about her age, alcoholism, promiscuity, and why she had to leave Laurel. When Stanley asked her if she wanted a shot, she replied, “No, I—rarely touch it” (Scene 1, page 1548). She could not confront her reality, so she retreated to her world of illusion. This was Blanche’s most prominent flaw. If she could have accepted things for what they are, she could have salvaged her sanity. If, from the beginning, she had been truthful to Stanley’s friend Mitch, he could have forgiven her. Dismally, Mitch would not trust her after finding out everything she said was fabricated. “I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it” (Scene 9, page 1590). Blanche feared lights which symbolized her fear of reality. She claimed that with Alan’s death, all light had gone out of her life. “And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that’s stronger than this—kitchen candle.”

Blanche is unable to cope with her loss of her fortunes and estate at Bell Reve, and the abrupt social shift erupted after World War Two, and this inability to adapt shapes her ultimate anagorisis. In addition, Blanche’s botched relationship with Allen Gray and his subsequent suicide were in all likelihood even larger catalysts for her plunge into delusion. In addition to having a more externally-catalyzed delusion, Blanche more selectively and maliciously employs her delusion. Williams continually points this out throughout the play with profuse use of a metaphorical light to represent truth. The employment of this metaphor reveals to Blanche’s fear of the truth, shown in “…turn that over-light off. I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare!” The clear link to Willy Loman here is that both characters refuse to hear the truth in fear of what it might destroy, whereas in actual fact only through letting go of the past will they reach a true stage of final

Blanches’ emotional state of mind is also conspicuous at the start of the play as she circumvents direct light, fearful of showing her fading looks and the light would make her vulnerable to the truth. Blanche is unable to withstand harsh light, calling the light a ‘merciless glare’(S1:pg.120*) because with Allan’s death, the light had gone out of her life and the effect this had is that she wanted dim lights hiding the reality of her painful memories. This links to the theme of dream and reality as Blanche, a delicate character, refused ‘to accept the reality of her life and attempts to live under illusion’ (*2), living on the borders of life similar to a moth which creates the image of Blanches’ fragility.

Throughout the play Blanche also lies about her real age because she want to be perceived as younger, since she is still single she doesn't want people to think that she has lost her opportunity. Because of this she uses paper lanterns and avoids being seen in light since she doesn't want people to realize the truth. She justifies this by saying she “never was hard or self-sufficient enough... You've got to be soft and attractive. And [she's] fading now! [she] don't know how much longer [she] can turn the trick” (92). The paper lanterns are a way she can conceal her true identity, it's a way for her to not deal with the reality. She's living in this lie where she thinks that by putting paper lanterns everything is seen in those pastel colors, concealing the truth behind them. But I don't think she is conscience that that is not how it works and sooner or later she must face reality. Another event she conceals is her ex husband's death. She lies about what had really happened to him and the reasons why he had died. Being left because your husband was a homosexual would affect her reputation. People would talk about her behind her back and spread rumors which would ruin blanche’s reputation. That is why instead she created her own story. After hearing herself tell Mitch the real story she says she had never lied “Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart” (9.59). Meaning she had believed all the lies she had been saying. She had immersed

She “[couldn’t] stand a naked lightbulb” in Stella’s house because of the fear it would expose her too blatantly to the very people from whom she tried to hide (Williams 60). Williams used the word “naked”, instead of another synonym, to describe the vulnerable and delicate position Blanche would be in if her lies are disclosed. She believed that if she hid herself physically, her dark, internal self would thus be hidden. No one-- especially Stella, Stanley, and Mitch, the people closest to her-- would be able to see through the barrier of lies she created to cope with the death of her husband and her past which devastated her. She was forced to face her biggest fear when “he (Mitch) [turned] on the light and [stared] at her. She [cried] out and [covered] her face”, as to mourn the death of her facade (Williams 145). As soon as Mitch turned on the light, Blanche knew every part of her being, including her appearance and character, were utterly exposed to a man whom she desired to appear to as wholesome. It was as if she was in pain when the light hit her which was symbolic of how painful it would be if she came to terms with the truth. Blanche, then, “[covered] her face” to keep herself from total indecency in front of Mitch and keep the most vulnerable, valuable part of herself hidden and, therefore, wholesome. Williams used short, blunt sentences to make a statement and emphasize her fear. At the end of the

In scene nine, Blanche is confronted by Mitch, who has learned the truth about her past. Mitch tells Blanche that he has never seen her in the light. He tears Blanche's paper lantern off of the plain, bright light bulb, and tries to see her as she really is, and not in a view warped by Blanche's efforts to make herself seem more innocent, young, and beautiful than she is. Blanche responds to

     In Tennessee William’s masterful play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the reader meets a middle – aged woman by the name of Blanche DuBois. Blanche lives in her own faerie tale world, one of a young, beautiful debutante, surrounded by admirers, and loved by all whom she encounters. In reality, Blanche is an aging woman who cannot cope with the actualities of life. She makes up wild stories, and when Stanley Kowalski, her brother – in – law, rapes her, the realities of life cause her to drift into absolute lunacy.

Without realizing, Blanche compares herself to being like the light bulb and how it uses a paper lantern to cover up. She is however, fully aware of her alternating personality and that she uses it to impress others because in order for people to like her she feels she has to act like something that she is not making her very vulnerable. In order to protect herself, Blanche covers up by making fake stories and lying to everyone to seem more attractive. When her sister asks why she cares so much about her age, Blanche responds, “Because of hard knocks my vanity’s been given. What I mean is—he thinks I’m sort of prim and proper, you know. I want to deceive him enough to make him—want me . . .” (Williams 58). As opposed to letting herself shine, Blanche uses the

In Blanche's long monologue dedicated to her failed marriage with her husband, I seem to see the reason behind all of Blanche’s distress. The motif of light seems to replay in Blanche's mind when she compares her future relationships never meeting the potential brightness "that's stronger than this — kitchen — candle!" Williams uses light and dark imagery to emphasize the nature of both the relationship and the death, this imagery burns brightly through this speech, as Blanche compares her love to a blinding light, something that is so bright it is hard to even be able to see it at all. This is referenced when Blanche's love towards her husband becomes "a blinding light" she doesn't realize he was gay until it was too late.

Blanche associates death with her receding beauty. Her fear of human mortality is displayed in the play by her denial to be seen in pure daylight. Blanche exclaims, ‘“I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action”’ (Williams 60). The implication that it would be considered a travesty to be in the presence of an object that reveals the slightest imperfections shows that death is a haunting and unfortunately inevitable factor in Blanche’s life.

As Blanche arrives at the house of Stella and Stanly, right away you see his mood go into a very dark place as if he does not want her to be there. Stanly’s character in the film comes off to be very rough and aggressive. The night after Blanche arrived, she meets Stanly’s friend Mitch, who is different from Stanly just by the way he carries himself. Mitch and Blanche catch a glimpse of each other which brings some light back into her being there. Stella was in support of her sister blanche meeting Mitch as it may have been an effective way for her to comfortably. Light and dark effects in a dramatic film play a big part because it sets the tone of the storyline and helps give the suspension of where the story will go and end up. It can be good for a film to bounce back and forth from light and dark moments to keep scenes impactful to the viewer. [For example, in the scene where Blanche buys a cover for the light in the bedroom area, it made her happy, and the others seemed as if they supported it to make her feel comfortable, and then towards the end of the film when Stanly snatches the cover off the light as he is angry, it changes the

dark is also used throughout the play to help convey the theme illusion vs. reality. One example of this is the paper lantern. Blanche covers the exposed light bulb in the Kowalski’s apartment with a chinese paper lantern. “ I bought this adorable little paper lantern, put it over the light bulb!” (60). Blanche’s colored paper lantern was a approach to create her own beautiful world to mask the hideous reality that she does not want to deal with. However, when Mitch finds out the truth about Blanche, she finally admits that she tried to disguise the harsh reality. “ I don’t want realism. I want magic. Yes, yes magic!”(117). Another example how darkness and light express this theme is Stanley Kowalski’s violent nature. In the beginning of the play, he is displayed as a likeable person, as he is faithful to his friends and passionate about his wife. However, Stanley’s pleasant and good-natured character is found to be harsh and detrimental. Later in the play, he beats his wife and rapes his sister-in-law. Williams displays his true image when describing Stanley’s monstrous and menacing shadows that appear on the wall before he rapes Blanche. This theme is also shown by Stanley’s wife, Stella

            Blanche is not really lost in illusions; rather she uses them as camouflage. She wears them as she wears her clothes and her glass necklaces, as protection from a reality that she finds horrifying. One must not think of Blanche as just a fragile, delicate blossom. There is a fierce desire in her for life at any cost. Her masquerade may

The darkness all begins when Blanche arrives at Stella’s apartment after her family home was lost. Stanley initially doesn’t trust Blanche and thinks she swindled Stella out of her share of the family home to pay off her own debts. The two are sisters and immediately Blanche begins to criticize their apartment because of coming from a high-class place. This immediately bothers Stanley and he becomes agitated with Blanche since they have taken her in and let her stay in their home. This adds issue between the characters right away because of both of their backgrounds. Blanche come from money and Tennessee Williams quotes “Her appearance is incongruous to the setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district.” This is all build the plot showing contrast in difference in the two characters right away, the darkness begins to come upon Blanche.