A Streetcar Named Desire Light Analysis

In Tennessee Williams book, “A Street Car Named Desire”, he uses a variety of techniques of stagecraft such as costume, lighting, and music. Throughout the play he uses very dramatic ways to describe what is going on between the characters and background. He describes what the characters characteristics are like and what their personalities seem to be. He uses italics in the book to show the emphasis of the lighting, music, and how the character looks. One of the main examples for lighting is Blanche. Blanche’s relationship towards the light is obvious as she tries to avoid the light in every single way possible. The readers can say that her reaction towards light can be seen- her trying to hide from her true nature. She hides from the light to escape reality. On page 60 (scene 3), she quotes, “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action”, and She covers the light with a Chinese lantern. This proves that she doesn’t want to show herself. She wants to look pretty and presentable but she doesn’t think she is young enough to look good in the light, which is why she hides in the dark. In scene six Mitch wonders how old Blanche is. Blanche tries to hide her age from Mitch, who is a man she …show more content…
In scene two, Stanley doesn’t understand how many expensive clothes/dresses she has. He says angrily, ”Look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in! What’s this here? A solid gold dress, I believe! And this one! What is these here? Fox-pieces! Genuine fox fur-pieces, a half a mile long...!”. The clothing/costume that Blanche has makes her look very rich but people do not understand how she has a solid-gold dress and many fox fur-pieces. Not only Blanche but also you can see the class difference, for example, Blanche is dressed really well but compared to Stella there is a difference. This also tells us the symbolism for the