In literature flowers often represent beauty and youth. They are used to show how individuals crave their past youth. Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, the flowers help Blanche mask her aging, loss of purity, and beauty. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the flowers represent how Blanche wants to hold onto her youth.
Throughout the play, Blanche tries to keep her youth through the use of flower print dresses. They represent being young and beautiful. Some words associated with flowers are gorgeous, lovely and dainty. These show Blanche’s mentality. She wears flower patterned dresses to alter the way people see her. Blanche does this to mask her age. She repeatedly tries to convince herself that she still is as pure and youthful …show more content…
She realizes that she isn’t as beautiful and pure as she once was. She knows her youth is lost. When Blanche was staying with Stella and Stanley a Mexican woman, trying to sell flowers, walks by saying, “Flores? Flores para los muertos,” (148). It translates to, “flowers? Flowers for the dead.” It represents how her youth withered away from her, and all this time was wasted on trying to keep her purity even though aging is inevitable. Additionally, when Blanche was packing she was drinking. She had to pack up her youth and beauty because she is older. Blanche was both figuratively and literally packing. In the literal sense she was packing to leave her sister’s house. Figuratively, Blanche was packing away her youth and memories of who she used to be. It says,” She has dragged her wardrobe trunk into the center of the bedroom. It hangs open with flowery dresses thrown across it. As the drinking and packing continued,” (151). The drinking shows her purity is lost because she has to drink to handle things that can cause stress, like having to move out. She was trying to escape reality in a way that isn’t healthy. In addition, her beauty is lost because she was never who she said she was. Blanche realized that she has to let go of who she once was because youth doesn’t last
Throughout the play, Blanche tries to keep her youth through the use of flower print dresses. They represent being young and beautiful. Some words associated with flowers are gorgeous, lovely and dainty. These show Blanche’s mentality. She wears flower patterned dresses to alter the way people see her. Blanche does this to mask her age. She repeatedly tries to convince herself that she still is as pure and youthful …show more content…
She realizes that she isn’t as beautiful and pure as she once was. She knows her youth is lost. When Blanche was staying with Stella and Stanley a Mexican woman, trying to sell flowers, walks by saying, “Flores? Flores para los muertos,” (148). It translates to, “flowers? Flowers for the dead.” It represents how her youth withered away from her, and all this time was wasted on trying to keep her purity even though aging is inevitable. Additionally, when Blanche was packing she was drinking. She had to pack up her youth and beauty because she is older. Blanche was both figuratively and literally packing. In the literal sense she was packing to leave her sister’s house. Figuratively, Blanche was packing away her youth and memories of who she used to be. It says,” She has dragged her wardrobe trunk into the center of the bedroom. It hangs open with flowery dresses thrown across it. As the drinking and packing continued,” (151). The drinking shows her purity is lost because she has to drink to handle things that can cause stress, like having to move out. She was trying to escape reality in a way that isn’t healthy. In addition, her beauty is lost because she was never who she said she was. Blanche realized that she has to let go of who she once was because youth doesn’t last