Freudian Phallic Symbols
- Raw meat
- Bowling balls and pins
- Columns of Belle Reve plantation
- Poor boy’s sandwich
- Steve’s joke about choosing food over sex
- “I hope I never get that hungry” (Scene 3)
Cat
- Sense of panic, reflection of atmosphere
- Breaks the flow, takes focus away from tension
- Symbol of Blanche
- Avoids light, nocturnal nature of cats
- Blanche represents the nocturnal nature
- Blanche avoids direct light and daylight
- Blanche pretends to be a virgin
- No matter what Blanche does, she desires more. She wants more than she bargains for
- Silent, Blanche is a predator, Mitch is the prey. She wants to leave Stanley and Stella and move in with Mitch
- Blanche is like a cat, cats represent fertility
Blue Piano
- Reflection of sadness
- Disrupts flow, but maintains the general flow
- Reminder of diverse community in New Orleans
Light
- Symbolic of truth
- Red Lantern: Blanche asks Mitch to conceal the light with the lantern, disguising the truth behind the various lies she tells him (such as the reason behind why she came to be with Stella)
Soda
- Symbolizes a false front because Blanche uses soda to conceal her alcohol consumption
- Spilled coke on Blanche’s white dress shows that despite how pure she wants to appear, she is tainted
Silk Pajamas
- Stanley wears them to celebrate the birth of his child
- Symbolic of sex
- Stanley wore them on the night he married Stella, which is the night he consummated his marriage
- Wears them when he rapes Blanche