Key Points from Scene 7

Some notes on the key points from Scene 7. Remember, they are only notes and resultantly you must combine them with things we have discussed in class, your own analysis, wider reading etc etc etc. Being able to comment on DRAMATIC METHODS and the EFFECTS these produce is what is crucial now that you are at AS Level so you must be considering this at all times if you want the top marks this year.

• Scene full of dramatic contrasts.

• THE TWO BLANCHES ARE COUNTERPOISED: facts vs. her illusions.

• Cheerful mood of pleasant anticipation as Blanche’s birthday is organised juxtaposed with Stanley’s destructive account of Blanche’s past misdemeanours.

• Denouement: the point in the play at which things become clear.

• Blanche’s ruin is sealed by the end of Scene 7.

• STAGE  DIRECTION: “Blanche is singing in the bathroom a saccharine popular ballad which is used contrapunctually with Stanley’s speech.”  Discuss the effects of Williams constructing the scene in this way and the impact it has on the tragic nature of what is happening.

•  Bathroom is a functional symbol in Scene 7 as it is used to reveal the dual world of Blanche’s existence with the tension between her and Stanley.

• “Sister Blanche is no lily!” – destruction of Blanche’s image of purity and innocence.

• What do you think Stanley’s motives are for telling Stella? How does Stella react?

• Significance of Blanche’s song:

“It’s a Barnum and Bailey world, Just as phony as it can be –

But it wouldn’t be make-believe If you believed in me!”

• Blanche’s future rest in Mitch believing in her act or believing in her strongly enough to make the act reality.

• STELLA: “It’s pure invention!”

•  Blanche’s song – asserts the capacity of the imagination to transform mere facts.

• CONSIDER: How does the fanciful way that Blanche perceives the world heighten the tragic impact of the play?

•   “And as time went by she became a town character. Regarded as not just different but downright loco-nuts.” cf. Elements of the Southern Gothic.

• STELLA: But when she was young, very young, she had an experience that – killed her illusions!

• STELLA: This beautiful and talented young man was a degenerate.

(Southern Gothic Literature and the tendency of writers to detail the plight of the ostracised.  Link with modern domestic tragedy and the ordinariness of its characters. Antithetical to epic/classical tragedy and people of nobility). 

• SD: The distant piano goes into a hectic breakdown. Effects of dramatic methods?