Thematic Analysis: Three Key Themes, Light, Shower, Drunkenness
In the show, Blanche has avoided the light, especially in front of her suitor, Mickey. She also wouldn't reveal her age, apparently avoiding the light so that Mickey wouldn't discover that her features were actually emaciated and senile. Generally speaking, the light also symbolizes the true face of her past life. Everything she lost haunts her like a ghost, her first love, her purpose in life, her dignity, and the high society her ancestors lived in. Blanche covered the exposed light bulbs in Kowalski's room with a Chinese-style paper lantern. She refuses to go out with Mickey during the day, even in dimly lit places. In Act 9, when Mickey hears about Blanche's past from Staley and reprimands her face to face, pointing out Blanche's reality of escaping the bright light, and then forcing Blanche to stand in direct light, he tells Blanche didn't care about her age, he just hated her for deceiving himself. Blanche replied that she had no intention of hurting others, and that she believed in magic, not reality, that made life look what it should be. Blanche's rejection of the light proves that she is getting farther and farther from reality.
In Act 6, Blanche tells Mitch that when she fell deeply in love with her husband Ellen Gray, the whole world was brightly lit by a strong bright light, but since Ellen committed suicide, she has never seen the light . She had sex with other men without any results, all she saw was a dim light. Therefore, the strong light represents Blanche's youthful innocence, and the faint light represents her maturity and disillusionment. The dim light confirms the theme that fantasy cannot break reality.
Throughout "A Streetcar Named Desire," Blanche bathes constantly, her sexual experience turning her into a hysterical woman, but, as she herself says, bathing can soothe her nervous nerves. Came to New Orleans Blanche wanted to forget about his inglorious past in a new environment. Taking a shower represents Blanche's effort to wash away her past. But just as she couldn't wash away the past, the bath didn't do the trick. Stanley also bathed and showered after beating Stella, suggesting that he also relied on water to wash away his crimes, which calmed his temperament. He also eagerly called his wife's name after taking a shower. Blanche couldn't properly handle the relationship between sex and death, and ended up betraying each other with a tragic fate.
There are several places where Stanley and Blanche were both drunk, but their motives were different. Stanley drinking was a social act. Drinking and Blanche always drinking alone, and trying to cover up the fact that she is drinking, she secretly drinks to escape the harsh reality, after drinking unconscious, Blanche is able to stay away from reality and imaginatively, including Make up the story of flying away with the rich. The consequences of being drunk can be devastating for both people. Stanley's domestic violence and Blanche's self-deception, Stanley was not hurt because of the evil things he did after drinking, but the drinking precision made Blanche to the brink of collapse step by step. Blanche pinned all his hopes on men and lived in fantasy all his life.
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