from notes

• Events; Blanche arrives in Elysian Fields, Stella discovers Belle Reve is lost, Stanley reveals Stella's pregnancy to Blanche, Poker night, Blanche + the paper boy, Blanche and Mitch's relationship develops, Birthday scene, Mitch attempts to rape Blanche, Stanley rapes Blanche and she is institutionalised
• Blanche arrived in Elysian fields dressed in "white" and is described as a "moth" in the stage directions and she is "incongruent" to the environment; this is an example of plastic theatre which feeds into Williams' use of expressionism
• One name that was originally considered for the play was "the moth"
• Belle Reve means beautiful dream in French
• Blanche losing Belle Reve is representative of the loss of the American Dream showing Williams' use of the American Gothic genre
• During poker night, Blanche meets Mitch, and Stanley hits stella as the audience hears "the sound of a blow"
• The paper boy's youth is symbolised by him looking like a "young Arabian Prince" and the "Cherry soda"
• During the birthday scene, Blanche sings paper moon in the bath, and Stanley gives her the tickets home
• the 1951 Kazan adaptation of the play sees Stella leave Stanley at the end
• In scene 5 during Blanche's interaction with the Paperboy the "blue piano" can be heard which often plays into they play's motif of sexual desire / passion as Williams uses plastic theatre to convey symbolism to the audience
• The paperboy is symbolic of Blanche's desperation to cling to her youth and her image of the Southern Belle
• Blanche describes the Paperboy with zoomorphic language calling him a "honey lamb" displaying him as meek and helpless to her seduction
• The motif of childlike language within scene 5 such as "run along now" and "like a bashful kid" causes the audience to feel uncomfortable by accentuating the age gap between them
• The trunk is a reoccurring symbol of what Blanche has left of Belle Reve