Lady beat me to it! I didn't read the play, but I could tell she symbolized either Blanche's ruin and ultimate death or reality. In a way, I felt that when she was about to leave the house and she saw the woman, it was like she was looking right into the face of reality and the cold, harshness of the world. She'd hit rock-bottom after her relatives died, and after all that, she finally felt a little safer being under Mitch and Stella's protection. She tried to leave the house ("protection") and saw the woman. Instead of leaving and accepting fate as it was handed to her, she turned back to Stanley.
Never misjudge the most faithful
heart of your beloved. Forever yours, forever mine, forever us.
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spqrclaudius
16 years ago
When I directed the play, I had the Mexican Woman also play The Nurse who takes Blanche away. I don't think she's a hallucination, but she is definitely a symbol of Blanche's inability to run from the Truth--the character reminds Blanche that she is an aging, faded woman whom the world has chewed up and spit out (this seems to be more the point than literal death, since Blanche did not die, and Williams himself said he envisioned her later getting things together and owning a flower shop).
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Loomis_Orange
16 years ago
What is an hallucination? A head-ghost, Right. Take it from someone who's had them. They are real to the person who's living the nightmare.
Blanche was having a nervous breakdown and they start with voices. The voices push you fully into nervous breakdown.
Blanche witnessed death all around her as her relatives died horrible sick deaths. The reason she left Belle Reeve was parcial due to the fact that it had to be sold to pay for the funerals. She had lived with death since the suicide of her young husband.
The thing about Blanche is that her entire fragile, clinging to sanity life was written on her face and in her body language. Very difficult character to pull off and Vivien Leigh done it without no method actin'!
Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? ~~ Jack Kerouac
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Avwillfan89
14 years ago
Personally, I was convinced that the "Flores para los muertos" lady was a hallucination, as Blanche was getting increasingly unstable and paranoid. And the lady represented death, that Blanche had to deal with her whole life, and is the reason why she went insane, so she would rather stay in and face Stanley than go outside, back in the world, or back to Auriol.
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Venus-25
13 years ago
When I directed the play, I had the Mexican Woman also play The Nurse who takes Blanche away. I don't think she's a hallucination, but she is definitely a symbol of Blanche's inability to run from the Truth--the character reminds Blanche that she is an aging, faded woman whom the world has chewed up and spit out (this seems to be more the point than literal death, since Blanche did not die, and Williams himself said he envisioned her later getting things together and owning a flower shop).
That was an excellent casting idea and a sound reason for it.
Blanche can't face the death of her youth. For many people that means the end of everything. This is still a psychological reality today. But...
...since Blanche is stony broke, where would she get the $$$ to open a flower shop?
The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.
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Geechee
13 years ago
In that era, in the Quarter, there were women who went around selling 'flowers for the dead'. She was real...in the play.
"If I don't suit chu, you kin cut mah thoat!"
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