I thought that a really interesting theme from "A Streetcar Named Desire" was light. It seemed to show up at so many points and really signify an eye opener. Blanche was especially sensitive to light, and she was thus afraid of seeing the truth.
Throughout the story we see many examples of how afraid Blanche is of the truth, and of what is here and now. She is very stuck in the past. She always uses light covers, never goes out in the day time, and if she does it is only to dimly lit places. Blanche is very afraid that the light will allow someone to see that she is "putting on a front." This happened when Mitch saw her. He realized how old she was. At this point when the lights were revealed, Blanche's promiscuous past was also revealed. She can not come to the present and realize that the past is over. "I don't want realism, I want magic."
At the end of the play, we find out that Blanche was not the only one hiding in the darkness. Stella was also really irrational and couldn't believe her sister even though she kind of knew it was true on the inside. She knew that if she did believe Blanche then she couldn't go on living with Stanley.
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I thought the light issue with Blanch was also really intresting. It made the character seem more indepth, it gave her sides, secrets and illusion. I think it was clever to pair these two together. everytime you see her vulnerable, lieing, or being questioned she is always in the dark, covering a lamp or pushing it away. she brings special things from home to cover the light up. i also liked that once her age and her lies were brought to the table light was also turned onto her. reality was taking over with each lie that was shed and each new beam of light.
I agree that the light seems to represent the truth. One part in the story that comes to mind is when Stanley rips the paper cover off of the light bulb. I think this represented him uncovering the truth behind Blanches lies. The time of the story when this happened worked perfectly since Stanley now knew all of the background information involving Blanche and her past lifestyles. From this point on Stanley knew enough not to trust anything Blanche had to say, and this led to Blanche losing her sanity.
I agree that light was a very important theme in this play. Light always represents the truth, and since Blance never goes in the light, we know that she doesn't tell the truth, and nothing she says (for the most part) is real. That's good point, that once Mitch put the light on her- her whole story unravels.
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