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

This paper will discuss the use of light in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams.Blanches relation to light is quite obvious because she tries toavoid bright light of any kind. Her reaction to light fuel beregarded as an tone-beginning to hide her true nature as well as hervanishing beauty and youth. 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 find 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 very stable, though, andit can easily be destroyed, just like her illusions. In scene six,she relegates Mitch home with her and says, Lets leave the lights off(Sc.6 p. 2309). Blanche thinks of Mitch as a future husband, and consequently she does not expect him to kat once her past or her true age, andthe best way to hide her age is to stay out of bright light where hecould possibly see her wrinkles and fading youth 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, muchtoo completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light onsomething that had always been half in shadow, thats how it strickenthe world for me (Sc. 6 p. 2113).In her past, light used to represent love, but now it representssomething destructive 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 try to give that to people. I misrepresent thingsto them. I dont tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth.