A Streetcar Named Desire Music Analysis

In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” the author Tennessee William gives music a very significant role in setting the mood for certain scenes. Two specific types of music the author uses are “Varsouviana Polka” and “Blue Piano.” Both types of music are presented by William in different ways with different symbolic representations. The “Blue Piano” music is played in scenes where the mood needs to be set to a warm, lustful, or loving environment. For example in the opening of the play it states “In this part of New Orleans you are practically always just around the corner, or a few doors down the street, from a tinny piano being played with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers. This "Blue Piano" expresses the spirit of the life which goes

A few moments later--a shot! [The polka stops abruptly.]” This convey how the author wanted the starting of the Polka music to symbolize the start of something evil/ a gunshot and once a dirty deed or the gun is shot the music goes away. Another example in the text is when it states “The rapid, feverish polka tune, the "Varsouviana," is heard. The music is in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster closing in on her, and she seems to whisper the words of the song… Blanche is startled.” This conveys how Blanche is having a battle with her conscience about the death of her husband and whether she’s at fault. The author similarly presents both types of music to get a mood across which he can’t do directly with the use of sound so William made the music symbolize something and whenever you hear the music in the stage directions you know something is going to happen. Thus, William brilliantly presents the music of “Varsouviana Polka” and “Blue Piano” throughout the text through the use of certain symbolic representations like the “Blue Piano” represents lust and warmth, while the “Varsouviana Polka” guilt and