The play we read in class this year was A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tenessee Williams. There were a lot of interesting things about this play. The music was used to outline the mood of the scenes, using themes like the blue piano, or many of the songs Blanche sings to herself, as well as the Varsouvianna for when she remembers the day her husband died. The music is used to help the audience understand what is going in Blanche's mind. The lights help too: the last several scenes, Blanche's flashbacks and memories intensify, so whenever the Varsouvianna plays, there are ominous moving shadows through the set that only Blanche sees.
The play also comments on the role of women in that time. Blanche firmly believes the only way she can survive and live comfortably in this world is by marrying someone rich, or getting help from someone rich for herself and her sister. Despite the 'love' between Blanche's sister Stella and her husband, Blanche doesn't like Stanley and does what she can to make Stella see her way and leave the Kowalsky household.
Stanley controls the household's money, and therefore he controls Stella. But Blanche has no money of her own, no connections, and no friends, and therefore she is trapped in New Orleans until she marries so that she is 'no longer a burden to anyone'.
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