Since I love metaphors and drawing parallels in everything, one of the first things I did while watching Streetcar was look for the metaphors that the people represented. The most striking in my opinion being Stanley. Stanley to me represented Truth in its purest sense, that harsh looking glass that shows all of the flaws of the person looking into it. The image in the movie that reflected this was the naked light bulb in the apartment. The conflict was created by the naked light bulb lighting up the room, the room incidentally being Blanche. Stanley just wishes to impose truth on everything that he encounters so that he can control it and not be deceived. The problem then comes when he tries to expose Blanche for what she really was, as opposed to just accepting or even exposing the truth with a degree of grace. The grace that the truth should have been delivered with was the lamp shade that Blanche obsessed about.

This whole image in the movie made me think about the nature of Truth and how it should be treated. At first I want to believe that Truth should not be violated in any way and that it should be allowed to follow its due course. The problem then becomes that the Soul becomes uninhabitable and when a weaker person is exposed to that kind of harshness, they break. So this leads me to believe that Truth should be veiled to a certain extent and delivered with a kind of grace in order to soften it. But then again I tend to think that anything less than the whole is a violation of the whole. I'm still not really sure, I do think it should be delivered with love, but to what degree?

I don't know. It's somewhat ironic that Truth in this sense feels a lot more grey than I would like to think.

Seesaw Equilibrium

What is exciting is not for one person to be stronger than the other... but for two people to have met their match and yet they are equally as stubborn, as obstinate, as passionate, as crazy as the other.
--Barbra Streisand--

Yes, I realize the irony in having a New Yorker's quote start off a blog post about Southern Lit. It isn't a specifically Northern or Southern quote, though, and I have a newfound obsession with Barbra Streisand, so I have allowed myself the liberty of quoting her. Vivien Leigh is further from being Southern since her flag is different, anyway. Okay, no more of that disclaimer, it's becoming tiresome, right?
I agree with Barbra, of course. These two people meeting their match, we'll call...Blanche and Stanley. He, with his shoving reality and she with her obscure fantasy. He shoves, but she is not palpable enough to be shoved. One who does not fight directly or cannot be fought is often the most frustrating for someone like Stanley. They both destroy--she in the form of a vacuum and he in the form of a fire. There is tension throughout the movie between them. Both, as I said in class, want to conquer or overcome something. Both insist on a world that the other cannot or will not understand. Which one is overcome or conquered in the end of the movie? The reality, Stanley, still exists in the end. However, in Blanche's way, she wins. We still want to imagine her finding her way or her romance somewhere after the drama ends. We do not wonder at Stanley's continuing lifestyle, but we do wonder for Blanche. The lamp remains for Blanche, but the harsh glare of Stanley stays as well. So, they have met their match. Reality and mystery. They both linger.
When these opposites come in close proximity, they repel each other with great excitement. So, Blanche had to leave, but she is not destroyed completely. Losing her mind just drives her further into illusion. Raping Blanche makes Stanley even more brutal.
Yes, Ms. Streisand, it is exciting.