Blanches Game Face example essay topic

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE by Tennessee Williams Topic - 'Life as a Game of Chance' Originally, Tennessee Williams had intended to name his play 'The Poker Game'. With the constant theme of the contest throughout the story, it is not hard to see why. Poker is one of few things that can easily be translated into a metaphor for life. The elements of luck, competition, consequence, deception and the general idea of gaining from another's loss can be interpreted as trademarks of the human existence. Tennessee Williams knew this when he wrote 'Streetcar', and he moulded all of his characters around a subconscious game of poker with one another. Some characters deliberately play the game, others try not to.

Stella is one of the characters that is honest with the others, and who does not 'play' the game of life. She chooses to have faith, and believe that things are, in fact, what they seem. Perhaps this is a result of Stanley Kowalski's household, as Stanley says he prefers a woman who would "Lay... her cards on the table" (p. 137). The rules and the lifestyle enforced by Mr. Kowalski upon Stella are the factors which separate Stella and Blanche, making them both completely different 'game players'.

Blanche DuBois is definitely a 'player'. If life is a poker game, Blanche is a veteran of the competition. She wears expressions that do not truly convey her feelings: a 'poker face'. Blanche has an uncanny amount of skill in playing 'the game'. So much skill, in fact, she manages to manipulate and deceive trusting people, who choose not to play the game - but to live it - quite easily. Characters such as Stella and Mitch are quickly fooled by the mask Blanche wears at the beginning of the play.

Stanley, who is quite an experienced 'man of the cards' himself, is not fooled by Blanches game face. Stanley realizes almost instantly what Blanche is trying to do. In Scene Two, when Stanley and Stella are going through Blanche's trunk of clothing, Stan knows of her tricks and lies. He tries to get Stella to understand, yet as she is a trusting character wanting to accept it all, she is disbelieving.

(From Page 133) STANLEY: Open your eyes to this stuff! You think she got them out of a teacher's pay? STELLA: Hush! STANLEY: Look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in!

What's this here? A solid-gold dress, I believe! And this one! What is these here? Fox-pieces? Genuine fox fur-pieces, a half a mile long!

Where are your fox-piece, Stella? Bushy snow-white ones, no less! Where are your white fox pieces? STELLA: Those are inexpensive summer furs that Blanche has had a long time... STANLEY: And what do we have here? The treasure chest of a pirate!

... STELLA: You have no idea how stupid and horrid you " re being! Stanley is not being 'stupid and horrid', a little paranoid, maybe, but he is just aware of when other people are playing the game, as he is a practiced player himself. This is not because Stanley is a man of lies, who chooses to play the game and to manipulate others, but actually the complete opposite. Stanley has been forced into 'playing' the poker match from past experiences and the knowledge of people that he has.

It has made him suspicious of people like Blanche. When others would merely accept Blanche's lies and stories, and choose to believe them, Stanley is immediately weary of her. Stanley Kowalski is nobodies fool, and although he may not be the most educated man in the world, he knows the ways in which people work. Stella is too trusting a character to believe what Stanley is attempting to tell her, which sets up one of the most clever scenes in the play. Although Stella wont wake up to Blanches lies, he is still very aware of it. (From Scene 5, Page 167) STANLEY: Say, do you happen to know somebody named Shaw?

BLANCHE: Why, everybody knows somebody named Shaw! STANLEY: Well, this somebody named Shaw is under the impression he met you in Laurel, but I figure he must have got you mixed up with some other party because this other party is someone he met at a hotel called the Flamingo. BLANCHE: I'm afraid he does have me mixed up with this 'other party'. The Hotel Flamingo is not the sort of establishment I would dare been seen in!

STANLEY: You know of it? BLANCHE: Yes, I've seen it and I've smelled it. STANLEY: You must " ve got pretty close if you could smell it. BLANCHE: The odour of cheap perfume is penetrating. STANLEY: That stuff you use expensive? BLANCHE: Twenty-five dollars an ounce!

I'm nearly out. That's just a hint if you want to remember my birthday! [She speaks lightly but her voice has a not of fear] This scene has a level of subtle intensity that is portrayed perfectly in the 1995 version of 'Streetcar's tarring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. This is the scene where the 'game players' are truly in their domain. Baldwin's glare and Lange's frailty, nervousness and guilt are brought to life by excellent acting. Each of these characters know, at this point, that the other is playing the same game.

Behind every word in this exchange there is an anterior motive. Both are wearing intense, and focused (Stanley is more focused than Blanche, as he holds 'the better hand') 'Poker Faces'. Blanche jumps at the first opportunity to change the subject (i.e. the Birthday remark). The '95 film version uses other elements to hold up the constant theme of a game of chance, or poker.

The sign for 'The Four Deuces' bar is constantly visible, with the cards above it... More so than the original play mentions. The musical buildup of the carnage after the first poker game, and with the clear reference to Poker by John Goodman's Mitch - "Poker shouldn't be played in a house with women". . This statement is extremely emphasized by the director, especially the second time he utters the sentence. The eerie, deceptive music used in the film make it noticed that Blanche and Stanley are in a constant competition with each other.

The innocent, naive portrayals of Mitch and Stella let it be known that Stanley and Blanche are the only two characters knowingly playing the game of life, the game of chance, the game of poker. The others just become dragged into the war. Through all of the lies, tricks, and poker-face techniques, all of the characters manage to get wound up within this unspoken game of poker. And "when men are drinking and playing poker, anything can happen.".