The "Blue Piano" in A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennesse Williams

Tennesse Williams uses a very important element in his stage directions: music. The music in the play comes from the "Blue Piano" in the Four Deuces, a bar close to the apartment building in which the Kowalskis live.

The first question one may ask about this "Blue Piano" is "what does it do?"

The author practically gives us the answer in page 3: "It expresses the spirit of the life which goes on here."

From the start, this statement gives us the clue that the music from the Blue Piano will highlight the mood for certain scenes. An example can be observed in Scene 2 when Stanley reveals to Blanche that Stella is having a baby (page 43). At that moment, the music from the Blue Piano rises in volume.

Just like the Blue Piano expresses the spirit of life, the Varsouviana music expresses death. Blanche was dancing the Varsouviana at the moment when she told her husband he "disgusted" her, and then he ran away and shot himself. Throughout the play, when Blanche remembers or tells the story of her dead husband, the Varsouviana can be heard. Curiously, there are moments where the only one that can hear this music is Blanche, like in Scene 9, page 114. Mitch even states that Blanche is "Boxed out of her mind."

Tennesse Williams employs the Blue Piano as part of his stage directions to highlight moments in the play that contain references to life and emotion, as well as death. He also uses music to set the mood for certain scenes, making music in the play a very important motif.

By Juan David Bonilla & Mauricio Castillo

Scene 2

A Streetcar Named Desire
Scene 2

In scene two we can see a difference from scene one. During the first scene emphasizes the sexual attraction that Stella and Stanley moved to each other despite differences of class, as the second scene shows lack of respect between Stanley and Stella with the arrival of her sister.
Invoking the Napoleonic Code allows Stanley to justify their feelings toward the right of inheritance of Stella. In doing so, demonstrates that it is ignorant of legal excuses, Belle Reve, located in Laurel, Mississippi, outside the jurisdiction of New Orleans. However, the repeated references to Stanley on the Napoleonic Code to highlight the fact that his conflict with Blanche is also a test of strength between sexes

During this scene there can be seen the difference between Stanley's and Blanche's view of money, Blanche comes from a way of living in which she only knows how to spend and Stanley knows how to make things cheaper and win money

Javier Ayala

Jorge Lince

A Streetcar named Desire (Scene 5)

Scene five shows several devices such as violence, lies , vanity, loneliness and jealousy among others.
Eunice and Steve are the clearer examples of violence as they start a nonsense fight because Steve peeks at a blondie who was passing by the Elysian Fileds. Eunice's jealousy became uncontrolable and struggled with his husband until the police has to be called to stop them. Blanche DuBois exemplifies vividly how lies and loneliness merge in one causing terrible consequences. The novel's protagonist is so vane that she even gets to invent a ficticious rich man to whon she srites letters saying she was staying in Dallas in a millionaire's mile representing the loneliness she felt inside.

A Streetcar Named Desire - Scene 1

Blanche, hoping to remake her life, looks for Stella’s help; but what she found wasn’t what she was expected, because Stella’s new way of life wasn’t similar to the one she had before. "Blanche: I'm looking for my sister, Stella DuBois. I mean - Mrs. Stanley Kowalski" pg 15. But not only Stella´s life have changed; Stanley was now part of it. This new character had the unique objective of discovering Blanche`s secrets and avoiding her happiness, they are completely incompatible.

Blanche wasn’t very happy because Stella left the house and went to a poor family. However, even though Blanche was mad because of Stella`s decision, she was sorry of what she said to Stella before she left. "Blanche: ... I thought you would never come back to this horrible place" pg 19.

Stanley and Blanche’s way of being is totally different; it is evident when they spoke. Stanley is serious, humble and he doesn’t pay attention to Blanche. Blanche is vain; she always needs attention, mostly from men. So this may be a reason of what Stanley feel disgusted about Blanche’s personality. "Staley: ... How long you have for, Blanche? / Blanche: I-don't know yet. / Stanley: You going to shack up here?" pg. 31

Luis José Espejo Serna
Diego Tavera Concha
Juan Diego Lahidalga
Juan Francisco Luna Lasso

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

Joanna & Jose

I study at Cooper Union…
(Cooper Union: The Great Hall of The Cooper Union has stood for more than a century as a bastion of free speech and a witness to the flow of American History and ideas… in Cooper's famous auditorium that the politics and legislation necessary to build a humane city took shape.)
But I left.
-Jose

It's nice how he try to talk in Spanish. Its funny cuz sometimes we sound like that… talking english.
Jose looks like Luis, you know, all disoriented and stuff, but, he has a lot of talent. Luis got it too, but he doesn’t want us to know.
Jose, congrats, your pieces are very interesting and authentic. I love the skateboard, I can’t imagine someone who has that tenacity.
http://www.myspace.com/sipestar/photos/22177319#%7B%22ImageId%22%3A33541031%7D

Joanna shows us her site. It contains lots of interesting pictures. If you want you can see it here:
http://www.joannanovelli.com/
There’s a lot of interesting stuff.

Teacher Evaluation and Final Gatsby Charts

My favorite students,

How are you? It's been a while since we've been able to have real class. And next week you'll be in Leadership Workshops on Monday and Tuesday. That means we won't have class until next Thursday, December 2.
There are two assignments due on Thursday, December 2, 12:00am:

1. Final Gatsby Charts for Chapters 7-9. There will be a small quiz on information related to the charts. If you do the charts, you can use them for the quiz. If not, vaya con dios!

2. Please post the answers to your English A2 - Teacher Evaluation.  Your responses are very important for the progress and improvement of the class.  The 3 questions were:

• What did I learn in Term 1?
• How was my teacher's performance in Term 1?
• What do my teacher and I need to do to achieve high grades in next year's English A2 - DP Exams?

Be well and get to work.  Remember that blog participation is important for your final grades.
Luis 

As All You

Follow the next link and you'll find a song made for yourselves..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9ndJUCoFJc