Streetcar_Named_Desire

The importance of set design and sound effects in adding to the main ideas of the play. Set design and sound effects are important in adding to the main ideas of the play; especially representing Blanche’s decent into madness. These main ideas include sex and desire, control, power and the American dream or illusion versus reality. The dramatic polka music and cat screeches that can be heard help to show the audience the world as Blanche sees it. The play is set in one small apartment in New Orleans, which looks on to the streets where other ‘Stanley like’ characters can be seen. The design of the small apartment shows the lack of privacy, especially the flimsy curtain separating the bedroom from the living room. This emphasizes the sexuality, which is shown throughout the play. The small apartment also causes the conflicting realities of Stanley, who represents the new industrial man, Blanche, represents the old world and is refined and elegant, and Stella who has the ability to adapt and enjoy her life with Stanley. The small confined space also reveals, especially when Stanley and Blanche are arguing, the power reality has over fantasy. Light plays an important role in portraying the mood and the motive of the characters, adding to the idea of illusion versus reality. For example, Blanche always see Mitch in dim lighting, as she has lied about her age and so that she can hide her true personality from him. Blanche gets very anxious when her and Mitch get back to the apartment, so she puts a paper lantern over it, saying ‘I can’t stand naked light’. Therefore in the play light represents reality and shadow, the illusion that characters create to hide from the truth. Blanche is ashamed of her past, so is always shying from the light around Mitch. Light also plays another major role in Blanche’s life in reference to her dead husband, Allan Grey. There is irony when she describes that her love for Allan brought light to her life, in spite of his last name, and when she caught him with another man ‘the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again’. The paper lantern also hides the world from Blanche, as she doesn’t want to live with reality. Therefore, light revealing the truth and shadows representing the lies and dreams. Light and shadows could also represent the present and the past. Many characters, such as Stanley, Mitch and Stella all in the light as they are living in the present, whereas Blanche hides in the shadows as she yearns to be young again. Music and sound effects are of great importance in adding to the main ideas of a Streetcar Named Desire. Music is used as dramatic irony to establish the mood of scenes, however it is when the songs are repeated that they become more symbolic. For example, ‘Blue Piano’ is constantly playing in background, coming from the Four Deuces, one of the very few that is a diegetic sound however because of its placement in scenes it has the same effect as a non-diegetic sound. It is played in the first and last scenes, in which Blanche is not in Stanley or Stella’s lives, it can be seen to symbolize the spirit of life. The varsouviana polka, in contrast, emphasizes the theme of death. This is heard when she thinks about her husbands death, as her husband killed himself while it was playing. This music sets the mood of Blanche being unstable and getting deeper into madness. When she is explaining to Mitch the story of her husband’s death, she says she can’t escape the guilt that she may have caused his suicide; therefore she cannot escape the music. This event triggered her mental decline, and from then on hears the polka when she panics and loses grip on reality. Another significant song in the play is ‘paper moon’, that can be heard by Blanche while she is in the bath. This is a very revealing song of Blanche’s approach to life, as the lyrics describe that if two lovers believe in their imagined reality then it is no longer ‘make-believe’. Enforcing the idea that even though Blanche lies it is only to make life better and is therefore not harmful. However, once Mitch hears the truth about Blanche’s past he no longer believes any more of her ‘harmless’ lies. Set design and sound effects are an important factor in adding to the main ideas of the play. The importance of the small set to emphasize the sexuality and creating the idea of power, the huge significance of light revealing the theme if illusion versus reality and the music throughout also adds to the main ideas especially with the varsouviana polka.