MovieChat Forums > A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Discussion > Any significance of the baby being born ...

Any significance of the baby being born on Blanche's birthday?

posted 9 years ago by DelovelyX
10 replies | jump to latest

Unintentional alliteration. Anyway, on Blanche's birthday she got stood up and called the 1948 equivalent of 'whore' by her boyfriend, told to move out the house by her bullying brother-in-law who would later rape her and left by herself whilst her sister gave birth. Eventful.
Was the birth specifically on her own birthday representative of something, like Blanche was symbolically 'dying' and a new life had arrived?

'All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.'

[–] Venus-25 9 years ago

I think there is.

Blanche represents a remnant of the Old South of multiple generations of inbreeding, xenophobia, old-money entitlement, faux gentility, and outdated notions about women. Stanley puts the first nail in the coffin by being "new" in the sense of being from a different ethnicity, born in a different part of the US after only a short genealogy within it (He could be 1st gen US), working class, willing to associate with people from outside his ethnicity, and not impressed by anything Blanche represents. The second nail was claiming Stella by first marrying then impregnating her, and the third was his final destruction of Blanche with the rape.

One hopes that Stella can eventually overcome some of his worse traits in the raising of her child.

The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.

[–] DelovelyX 9 years ago

Thanks for the insightful answer. So you think it represents the end of a traditional Southern generation and the beginning of an urban and modern one?

'All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players.'

[–] Venus-25 9 years ago

Probably, with all the growing pains of a culture that springs up from within one that has lots of "traditions" that keep it from progress.

Blanche herself even talks about this in Scene 2:

Oh, I guess he's just not the type that goes for jasmine perfume, but maybe he's what we need to mix with our blood now that we've lost Belle Reve. We thrashed it out. I feel a bit shaky, but I think I handled it nicely, I laughed and treated it all as a joke.

The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

DelovelyX says > Was the birth specifically on her own birthday representative of something, like Blanche was symbolically 'dying' and a new life had arrived?

These are interesting observations but I'm pretty sure the baby was born the day after Blanche's birthday. Stella goes to the hospital that night but when Blanche asks about the baby Stanley says the baby won't come until tomorrow so they told him to go home and get some sleep.

To see Blanche as symbolizing the past and stagnation is one thing but to say Stanley represents the future and progress doesn't work for me. A lot of people fear progress so they may see it as a bad thing; maybe those people can link progress with Stanley but I cannot.

Blanche has her issues but many of them; getting old, losing the ability to attract men, feeling irrelevant, feeling trapped; being desperate are experienced a lot of people have. In fact, I'd say Blanche's way of seeing things the way she wants to see them is also very much a 'modern' way of looking at things. Today we seem ready, even eager, to embrace illusion over reality; image over substance; which by the way describes Stanley. Stella was attracted to his looks; overlooking the fact he has no substance.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

[–] DelovelyX 9 years ago

Oh yeah that's true, the baby was born the day after. Perhaps the nervous breakdown she has, prompted by the rape, occurred at the same time as the birth. And so as she fully loses contact with reality and finally lives in her fantasy world, she essentially experiences a lobotomy. And as she represents the traditional Deep South with its hypocritical immorality which has finally come to an end, to be replaced with the post-WWII future of an industrialised South, represented by the newborn baby.

In fact, I'd say Blanche's way of seeing things the way she wants to see them is also very much a 'modern' way of looking at things. Today we seem ready, even eager, to embrace illusion over reality; image over substance; which by the way describes Stanley.

Interesting points, but how do you think Stanley embraces illusion over reality? That reminds me of the quote

I once went out with a doll who said to me, "I am the glamorous type, I am the glamorous type!" I said. "So what?"

He seemed to pride himself on seemingly not being taken with the luxury stuff. Also, that quote pretty much defines Blanche and Stanley's relationship.

https://goo.gl/PfVg91

[–] Katiedidd 9 years ago

I love alliteration. :)

Also, I agree with the theory that the baby being born so close to Blanche's birthday and her breakdown symbolizes the shift with the "fading Dubois" and their lifestyle, while Stanley attempts to fully takeover. (And of course, with the original ending with Stella staying really represents this.)

[–] Venus-25 9 years ago

Very true.

To a previous poster's point, the fact that Stanley probably improved on his parents' life for himself leads to the near-certainty that his and Stella's baby will do better. The "progress" is that they can.

In the world Blanche and Stella grew up in you couldn't improve on what you were born with: If your parents were White Trash, that's what you would always be. In the world they are now in you could improve your place in the social order, but you have to work at it. Stanley can be interpreted by an actor as someone who has a light-bulb moment in becoming a father and improves himself to be a good example for the child (esp. since Stella stays with him).

The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.

[–] yusef-ghanima 9 years ago

yeah, he'll grow up to fock his brother just like she focked her sister.

i mostly will not be able to answer your reply, since marissa mayer hacked my email, no notification

[–] blanche-2 8 years ago

Stella Adler always taught that this play was the old versus the new south.

[–] mike_NY 8 years ago

i think the birth is only a plot device of Williams to get Stella out of the house and the timing is unimportant.