Williams makes Blanche's entrance striking in three key ways: 1) He uses vivid description of her appearance with concrete nouns like "pearl earrings" that imply she is of higher class, which is incongruous with the setting, foreshadowing her outsider status. 2) Adjectives like "daintily dressed" and references to her "delicate beauty" present her as fragile like a doll or fairy. 3) Adverbs and her "faintly hysterical" behavior hint at instability, emphasized through words like "uncertain" that establish this as a theme from the start.

1. A Streetcar Named Desire – Scene One
Extract 1:
She continues to laugh. BLANCHE comes around the corner, carrying a valise. She looks at a slip of
paper, then at the building, then again at the slip of paper and again at the building. Her expression
is one of shocked disbelief. Her appearance is incongruous to this setting. She is daintly dressed in a
white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she
were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district. She is above five years older
than STELLA. Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light. There is something about her uncertain
manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggest a moth.
Eunice: (finally) What’s the matter honey? Are you lost?
Blanche: (with faintly hysterical humour) They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then
transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields.
Eunice: That’s where you are now.
How does Williams make Blanche’s entrance in “streetcar” so striking in extract 1?
Word classes:
In this extract, particularly in the stage directions Williams uses lots of concrete nouns to
really give Blanche’s entrance a sense of realism.
E.g. Williams throughly describes Blanche’s appearance and clothing using concrete nouns,
such as “earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat”. The fact Williams uses lots of concrete
nouns to describe Blanche could be to suggest that her appearance becomes significant later
in the play and also to make her entrance in the beginning of the play more realistic for the
audience, so they really get an idea of just what Blanche is like, right from the beginning of
the play.
Williams also uses an abstract noun when talking about Blanche’s “delicate beauty”. I think
this presents her as someone who is very pretty yet fragile at the same time, very much like
a doll or a fairy. She may look beautiful from the outside but there could be something
deeper inside of her that makes her a delicate person.
Throughout the stage directions Williams uses adjectives the modify the concrete nouns
describing Blanche’s appearance. Again I feel these adjectives such as “a fluffy bodice” help
to create a really vivid image of Blanche and her entrance.
Williams also uses many adverbs to describe Blanche’s behaviour and actions more
effectively. For example, “with faintly hysterical humour” gives a sense of something not
being quite with her humour and I think the two words “faintly and hysterical” almost
contradict each other and the two words together don’t quite make sense which could
actually be a reflection of Blanche’s behaviour being not quite right. As traditionally acting in
a hysterical way would mean being affected by an extreme uncontrollable emotion and as a
result means you become very loud and draw attention to yourself, whereas here Blanche
does this subtly. Another way of viewing this word is looking at in the context of the play

2. Other Notes:
The fact that Williams establishes from such a early stage in the play that Blanche’s
“appearance is incongruous to the setting” suggests that this idea of her appearance being
very odd may become significant later in the play. Following on, the quote also shows that
right from the beginning of the play Blanche is percieved as an outsider to the New Orleans
setting and in this instance the sense of her not fitting her is reflected through her
appearance and the fact she is dressed as if she were to go to a “cocktail party”. The pearl
earrings and white gloves connote a person of a higher class and instantly produce a
representation of Blanche being somewhat “more posh” than her current surroundings of
New Orleans.
In this extract there is an example of alliteration as the stage directions indicate Blanche is
“daintly dressed”. The repeated use of the soft constonant “d” suggests Blanche as a
delicate and almost fragile person. This idea is later supported by the quote her “delicate
beauty”. Again this idea of her being daintly dressed links back to my earlier point of her
almost being seen as “doll-like” with beauty on the outside dressed in pretty clothing, yet
underneath her clothes she is a fragile person.
Throughout the stage directions there is a semantic field highlighting Blanche’s instability
and Williams uses words such as “delicate”, “uncertain manner”, “incongruous”, “hysterical
humour.”
Essay Question – How does Williams make Blanche’s entrance so striking in this extract?
“Her appearance is incongruous”. The use of the adjective “incongruous” instantly suggests an idea
of Blanche’s appearance being very odd and as this idea is established very early on in the play, it
could suggest that this idea becomes significant later on in the play. Following on, this quotation also
shows that Blanche is perceived as an outsider in comparison to the New Orleans setting and in this
instance the sense of Blanche not fitting in is represented through her appearance. For example
Williams describes Blanche’s appearance in a lot of detail using many concrete nouns such as the
“earrings of pearl” and “white gloves”. The fact Williams uses lots of concrete nouns to describe
Blanche could be to suggest the importance of Blanche’s appearance later on in the play and also to
make her entrance more realistic for the audience, so they really gain a vivid idea of just what
Blanche is like, right from the beginning of the play.For example, This is effective as the audience can
already begin to build up opinions and attitudes towards Blanche and her behaviour. Williams
modifies the concrete nouns by using adjectives which work to create a vivid image of Blanche, for
instance, “a fluffy bodice”. Here the lexis, “earrings of pearl” and “white gloves” are also significant
as these concrete nouns connote a person of a higher class and instantly produce a representation
of Blanche being somewhat “more posh” than her current New Orleans settings and fits the idea of
her appearance being “incongruous” to the setting.
As well as using concrete nouns to describe Blanche, Williams also uses abstract nouns to describe
Blanche’s appearance. For example, he describes Blanche’s “delicate beauty”. I think this presents
Blanche as someone who is very attractive yet fragile at the same time, very much like a doll or fairy.
She may look beautiful from the outside but there could be something deeper inside of her that
makes her a vulnerable person. The idea of her being beautiful could also be represented through

3. her “white gloves” as the use of the adjective “white” could connote the idea of purity and being
very innocent, again like a doll or a fairy. Within the stage directions there is an example of
alliteration as Williams’ indicate Blanche is “daintily dressed”. The repeated use of the soft
consonant “d” suggests Blanche as a delicate and almost fragile person. This idea is supported by the
quote recognising Blanche’s “delicate beauty”. Again this idea of her being “daintily dressed” links
back to the earlier point of Blanche almost being seen as “doll-like” with beauty on the outside
dressed in pretty clothing, yet being a vulnerable, fragile person inside.
Williams uses many adverbs to describe Blanche’s behaviour and actions more effectively, in more
detail. For example, “with faintly hysterical humour” gives a sense of something not being quite right
with Blanche and the adverb “faintly” and the verb “hysterical” almost contradict each other and the
two words don’t quite make sense when reading it in today’s context which could actually be a
reflection of Blanche’s strange progression of behaviour throughout the play. As traditionally, acting
in a hysterical way would mean being affected by an extreme uncontrollable emotion and as a result
you become very loud and draw attention to yourself, whereas here Blanche does this subtly which
could show her trying to hide her behaviour from others.
Throughout the stage directions there is a semantic field highlighting Blanche’s instability and
Williams uses lexis such as “uncertain manner” and “incongruous” to describe Blanche’s appearance
and behaviour. The fact that Williams establishes Blanche’s instability and uncertainty from very
early on in the play could be to suggest its importance later on in the play. Blanche’s uncertain
behaviour is also recognised by some of the characters very quickly as Eunice uses an interrogative,
“What’s the matter honey? Are you lost?” This shows that Eunice has already recognised Blanche’s
uncertainty within these new surroundings and this idea of Blanche’s instability is established very
early on in the play and its significance carries on as a theme as the play progresses.