Comparison Of A Street Car Name Desire And The Women Of Brewster Place

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Tennessee Williams and Gloria Naylor are both successful American novelists. Their respected works such as, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Women of Brewster Place are classic stories in part because of the authors abilities to instill their personal experiences and views to their fictional characters. Besides having in common being great writers; Williams and Naylor share the proficiency of using symbolism to increase the way the audience feels about their stories and the message they are trying to express. Williams relies heavily on symbolism throughout, A Street Named Desire; one of the most prominent symbols is the use of music in his play. The Varsouviana tune and Blanche’s rendition of “It Only a Paper Moon”, are the most important songs in the entire play. The Varsouviana is the last song Blanche and her late husband Allen Grey were dancing to before he died. Blanche explains to Mitch: We danced the Varsouviana! Suddenly in the middle of the dance the boy I had married broke away from me and ran out of the casino. A few moments later--a shot! (p. 96) The man Blanche had married had killed himself because of her. Throughout the rest of the play the “Varsouviana” is symbolic because whenever it is playing, something bad is either happening or is going to happen to Blanche. Whenever the Varsouviana starts playing, it generates a sense of anxiety. The “Varsouviana” plays when Blanche runs into the bathroom crying because Stanley hands her ticket back to Laurel for her birthday. The song is playing when Mitch says to Blanche that he does not think he wants to marry her anymore. Even at the end of the play when Blanche is taken to a mental institution, the “Varsouviana” is playing in the distance. Additionally, in Scene 7 Stanley is telling Stella how Blanche has been lying to them from the time she arrived, Blanche is in the bathtub singing a song. The song

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