The Importance of Light in A Streetcar Named Desire :: A Streetcar Named Desire Essays

This idea will discuss the use of commence in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams.Blanches relation to gentle is quite obvious because she tries toavoid bright light of any kind. Her answer to light can beregarded as an attempt to report her true(a) nature as well as hervanishing beauty and y forthh. By hiding from the light, she tries toescape reality. She covers the naked light bulb with a Chinese paperlantern, saying, I cant stand a naked light bulb, any more than Ican a rude utterance or a vulgar action (Sc.3 p. 2093). This remarkshows that Blanche would rather hide behind polite phrases than accepttruth and reality. The paper lantern is not real stable, though, andit can easily be destroyed, just like her illusions. In characterization six,she dumbfounds Mitch home with her and says, Lets leave the lights off(Sc.6 p. 2309). Blanche thinks of Mitch as a future husband, andthusly she does not want him to know her past or her true age, andthe best wa y to hide her age is to stay out of bright light where hecould possibly see her wrinkles and fading youthfulness in her face. Laterin that scene, Blanche testifys Mitch about her husband Allan When Iwas sixteen, I made the discovery love. All at once and much, much also completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light onsomething that had always been half in shadow, thats how it struckthe world for me (Sc. 6 p. 2113).In her past, light used to represent love, but now it representssomething devastating for her. Allans suicide erases the light orlove, and thus she now does not believe in it any longer and tries toescape from the light and therefore escape reality.When Mitch tears off the paper lantern in order to take a closer lookat her in the bright light, she utters a frightened gasp (Sc. 9 p.2125). Then she tells him, I dont want realism. I want magic Yes, yes, magic I leaven to give that to people. I misrepresent thingsto them. I dont tell truth, I tell what ough t to be truth.