Music and Sound Used in A Streetcar Named Desire

Music and Sound Used in A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire-Music and Sound.

In A Street Car Named Desire Tennessee Williams uses music and sound

to help symbolise certain themes, help build on characters and create

different types of atmosphere. He uses things like the ’blue piano’

and the polka music to help do this.

Tennessee Williams uses the ’blue piano’ to symbolise the life in this

play, it shows the general atmosphere of the play. At the end of the

opening stage directions we are told this, it says,

‘This ’blue piano’ expresses the spirit of the life which goes on

here.’

This is saying as long as the ‘blue piano’ is playing life still goes

on. But when life is disrupted the music from the ’blue piano’

changes. This is shown when Blanche first arrives,

‘The ’blue piano’ gets louder.’

This shows that Blanches arrival is going to affect the life of the

characters in the play. This also helps to create tension.

The ‘blue piano’ can also be heard along side the trumpets. At the end

of scene two they are playing together, this shows that something is

building up. This also helps create a sense of tension and suspense

because it makes us want to know what it is building up to. Then at

the end of scene four the piano, trumpet and rums are all playing

together, it is building up to something big. This adds to the sense

of tension and suspense.

Then at the very end of the final scene, when Blanche has gone the

drums can not be heard and the trumpet is playing faintly along with

the ’blue piano’. This shows that everything has calmed down now that

Blanche has gone.

‘The luxurious sobbing, the sensual murmur fade away under the

swelling music of the ’blue piano’ and the mu...

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...A good example

of this in scene six when Blanche is telling Mitch about her young

husband. The stage

directions say,

‘A locomotive is heard approaching outside. She clasps her hands to

her hands to her ears and crouches over. The headlights of the

locomotive glares into the room as it thunders past.’

Blanche is hiding from the noise of the locomotive just like she is

hiding from the truth and her past. This builds on the character of

Blanche because it shows that she is hiding form the past and that she

must be ashamed of her past and therefore this builds atmosphere

because we want to know why she is hiding from her past.

In conclusion Tennesse Williams uses the music and sound in the novel

“A Streetcar Named Desire” very well as throughout the novel it

delivers a sense of atmosphere and helps give us a better

understanding of the characters.