The play includes many stage directions referring to music. What music and songs are present in the first three scenes (e.g. "the blue piano")? What is the significance of that music? In what ways is it symbolic? How does the music relate to the characters?
The significance of the music that Tennessee Williams uses in the stage directions and throughout the play are to establish the mood in the scenes. For example, the "Varsouviana", the polka tune, sets the mood of what is happening with Blanche. The more that we encounter the polka tune the more we are aware of how unstable and driven mad Blanche is becoming. It is symbolic in the case that she first heard it when her husband committed suicide. The repeated tune reminds her of her guilt; she feels that she is the reason he committed suicide and that it is her fault he is dead. She can't escape the suicide and she can't escape the haunting polka tune. The other example of music lies in Scene Seven, Blanche is in the bathtub singing "Paper Moon". This is symbolic because the whole song is about fantasy and make believe. Blanche surrounds herself in this fantasy driven life because the real world is too harsh and realistic. The blue piano is symbolic to lust and involved with scenes of intense passion, for example, like in Scene Three where Stella, after getting hit by Stanley, goes back to him and they embrace with intense passion. Or, in Scene 10, when Blanche gets raped by Stanley, the blue piano is playing in the background as she is being assaulted.
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