Introduction to Literary Analysis Erika Fauchre

Spring Semester edegodoy@unil.ch

Boris Vejdovsky 17.05.2017

The Power of Music

Representation of Feelings and Senses through Music in Tennessee Williams A Streetcar
Named Desire

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire is a play which contains a very detailed

stage direction and appeals to our senses and imagination. It is set in New Orleans,

considered to be a melting pot where different races mingle, in a time when black people and

white people are not expected to be seen together in other parts of America. It is also a place

where music, an important element throughout the play, is part of its history. It is the

birthplace of Jazz and Blues, most significant contribution of America to the world of art.

Through the use of different types of music such as jazz and polka, Williams represents the

main characters social class and feelings. By using music in stage direction of the play, he

foreshadows Blanches psychological state and Stanleys animal instinct. Therefore, it allows

the audience not only to feel the mood and atmosphere of the play, as well as to get to know

traits of the characters that are not expressed by words. The presence of music in the play also

underlies the heteronormative patterns which are performed by the main characters and their

struggle to fight realism.

The blue piano introduces the opening setting of the play and it is played by brown

fingers (1.1), in other words, by the Negro entertainers in New Orleans. The music

represents the social class in which the people living there belong to, as the blue piano

expresses the spirit of the life which goes on there (1.1). A warm and informal atmosphere

is introduced, in which people from different races intermingle, and the audience gets to hear
the music with the voices of people, described as coloured and white. An analogy can also be

made with the blue piano and the blue feeling. This music is always played in the background

when Blanche expresses her sadness and melancholy. Some of these moments are when she

talks about how she lost Belle Reve (1.11) and when she discovers that Mitch will not marry

her (9.89). In both scenes, the blue piano represents loss, and it immerses the audience in a

feeling of sympathy, reinforcing the idea of Blanche being a victim in her life. In scene 10,

the feeling of sadness is transformed into a feeling of fear, and is suffocated by stronger

sounds. The presence of inhuman voices like cries in a jungle (10.95) can be interpreted as

an animal feeling and instinct coming from Stanley, and Blanche feels something is about to

happen. When Stanley looks at her and we can hear the audible `blue piano` that begins to

drum up louder (10.95), and it can also be compared to Blanches heart beat increasing.

When the sound of the blue piano turns into the roar of an approaching locomotive (10.96),

it has a sexual connotation, and the audience can foresee what is about to happen. The

locomotive is an allusion to Stanley and the fact that his desire cannot be stopped. Even

before he rapes her, it is possible to know that his animal strength and instinct wins, as the

blue piano goes softly and the inhuman jungle voices rise up (10.96). Anca Vlasopolos in

Authorizing History: Victimization in A Streetcar Named Desire comments on the music

and sounds, and says that these stage effects evoke enough sympathetic identification with

Blanche to make us repudiate the little world of characters left behind (336). Blanches

world of magic is defeated by realism, and the blue piano is silenced by the hot trumpet and

drums, representing the rape that takes place in the end of the scene.

The Negro blue piano is contrasted with the European polka melody, which is played

by white people. Social class is also depicts with the choice of this kind of music. The mixed

race characters do not have access to that song, it can only be heard through Blanche, whose

name already suggests that she is a white woman. The song is only in her mind and it is also
heard by the audience, which reveals Blanches state of mental confusion. Yujin Jang

suggests in his article Phenomenological Understandings of Varsouviana Polka in Tennessee

Williams A Streetcar Named Desire that the fact that the polka tune cannot be heard by

other characters, however, implies that Blanches all psychological processes evoked by

Varsouviana cannot be shared with them, either (5). Blanche tells Mitch about what

happened to her husband (6.67), but she does not tell anyone about how she feels every time

she hears the polka in her head. The song is connected to a traumatic moment, as it was the

music played moments before her husband committed suicide. Consequently, she hears the

song every time something bad is about to happen to her. However, she does not share this

feeling to anyone, even with her sister Stella. It can be understood that this music does not

only represent her mental state, but also her fight against realism, as she does now want the

feelings of this emotional trauma to be brought to light. However, she cannot stop other

difficult events from happening in her life and her psychological state worsens. For instance,

she hears the polka (8.80) when Stanley gives her a ticket to Laurel, which means that he

wants her to leave his house and she has nowhere to go. The song is also heard in the last

scene, moments before she is sent to a mental institution (11.100). Blanche can feel tragedy is

awaiting her, and through the tunes of polka, the audience can have access to that fact too. .

The music is last heard when it is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by cries and

noises of the jungle (11.104). These noises represent Stanleys sexuality, force and power.

Stanley wins, and Blanches reality finally bites her.

Music can bring memories, feelings and senses even if they are not supposed to be

shared with anyone. Tennessee Williams play presents characters emotions not only through

their own performance, but also through the use of music in the stage direction. The blue

piano and the polka appeal to the audiences senses. It gives them not only the opportunity to

understand how Blanche feels, but to also feel the confusion, sadness and fear through music.
We can foresee the strong emotions that Blanche is about to go through even before they

happen, with the use of polka music. Williams also uses music to better illustrate the main

instincts of Stanley. He shows the audience that in the end, no matter how much Blanche

wants magic and escape from her suffering realism always wins.
References

Vlasopolos, A. (1986). Authorizing History: Victimization in A Streetcar Named Desire .

Theatre Journal, 38(3), 322-338. https://doi.org/10.2307/3208047

Jang, Y. (2014). Phenomenological Understandings Of Varsouviana Polka In Tennessee

Williamss A Streetcar Named Desire. International Journal of Humanities and Social

Science Invention, Volume 3 Issue 6 June. 2014. http://www.ijhssi.org/papers/v3(6)/Version-

4/A03640108.pdf