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Alexander Ortiz
Professor Jarrett
English 112: Literature & Composition
25 October 2014
Tragedy and the Blues:
Music as a Chorus in A Streetcar Named Desire
In ancient Greek drama, the chorus gave the audience a presence in the
totality of a production, bridged the gap between the stage and the theatron,
and commentated on the play itself (“Chorus, In Greek Drama”). The
dithyramb, a lyrical exchange between the leader of the chorus and the actors
is the source of the chorus (“Dithyramb”). The chorus eventually expired from
Greek drama, but lingering hymns of the chorus find their way into
contemporary works.
One prime example, and the focus of this paper, is the use of the blue
piano, as well as other styles of music, in Tennessee Williams’, A Streetcar
Named Desire. The blue piano interjects throughout the action of the play in
order to accentuate the ongoing drama. However, music as a whole
contributes far more to the production. The intonations of the blue piano
communicate with the audience. According to Williams, the blue piano
“expresses the spirit of the life [in his work]” (1.1). The effect of the music is
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powerful and it drives the audience’s emotions. It also indicates incoming
action, and foreshadows the drama for the audience. “[Blanche] stares
fearfully at Stella, who pretends to be busy at the table. The distant piano goes
into a hectic breakdown” (1.7). The music functions as a chorus by
representing the concerns of the audience throughout the tragedy. For
example, the tone of a polka fades in a particularly sentimental scene between
Mitch and Blanche as “He kisses her forehead and her eyes and finally her lips.
The Polka tune fades out. Her breath is drawn and released in long, grateful
sobs” (1.6). The connection with the audience is unmistakable because the
audience is surely holding its breath alongside Blanche in those tense
moments. In this way, the music authenticates the experience of watching the
play.
The connection to Greek drama in Streetcar is as mechanical as it is
abstract. According to X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, “the action [of Greek
plays] was enacted in episodes… separated by danced choral songs or odes”
(943). We see very clearly in Streetcar the separation of acts by the perpetual
blue piano. Scene four ends “as the lights fade away… [and] the music of the
‘blue piano’ and trumpet and drums is heard” (1.4). Taken as a whole, the
chorus, and the use of music in Streetcar have spanned the ages to rekindle
this aspect of Greek drama.
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An important aspect of Greek tragedy and tragedy in general is the
downfall of the tragic hero. Blanche DuBois’ downfall is tragic and blue.
Williams ensures the audience beyond a shadow of doubt that Blanche is
tormented by her surroundings and her own inflated ego. The music throbs in
Blanche’s mind as a twisted reminder of her past: “[Polka music sounds, in a
minor key faint with distance]” (1.6). As the action crescendos, the musical
chorus, hectic and blue, reinforces the tragedy for the audience while mocking
Blanche and spurring on the action onstage.
The chorus in Greek drama had a vested interest in forming connections
with the audience. To this end, Streetcar admits of no flaw. Streetcar spoke to
its post-World War II audience of men and women expertly. “Like Blanche
DuBois, American men and women alike were returning to homes they barely
understood or remembered” (Welsch & Camille-Yvette). In this context, the
blues hit all the right notes when it came to authenticating the audience’s
experience. For example, following a scene in which Stanley hits Stella, the
blue piano interjects, and “Dissonant brass and piano sounds as the rooms
dim out to darkness and the outer walls appear in the night light” (1.3). The
suave blue piano eases the transition for the fantasy onstage and retains the
realism of the action. This union of audience and actors on stage with music
has been a commonplace theme since the Greeks. The music inoculates the
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audience and assembles the masses in pathos, especially during emotionally
powerfully scenes like the aforementioned interaction between Stanley and
Stella.
Hard emotions and optimism shine through the cracks in Blanche’s
shallow exterior. According to Arthur Miller, tragedy is inherently optimistic
(“Tragedy and the Common Man”). The tragic flaw of the tragic hero calls out
for action. At the end of every blind alley, Blanche has only herself to face in
the light of her former husband’s suicide. There is nothing that calms Blanche
down, save for the sound of that fateful gunshot ringing out in her memory. “A
distant revolver shot is heard. Blanche seems relieved” (1.9). Her hope for a
better life with her sister is what Arthur Miller would describe as the source of
optimism in Streetcar. Like tragedy, the blues are inherently optimistic. The
blues are a cry for reparations, and in Streetcar, they accentuate Blanche’s
perceived injustice: her tragic flaw as a self-destructive mess. “Blanche is
seated in a tense hunched position… The rapid, feverish polka tune, the
‘Varsouviana,’ is heard” (1.9). The music reinforces Blanche’s stress.
As far as the input of the author in the theatrical work goes, Greek
authors used choruses of varying sizes (“Chorus, In Greek Drama”). Williams’
use of music, and the blues in particular, is as much a contribution to his own
work as it is a creative device. Williams is simultaneously exploring the
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emotions of the audience and commentating on the times in which the play
was written. In his essay on expressionism in Streetcar, Henry Schvey asserts
that, “What expressionist art seeks to render… in music, is the human being’s
inner life.” The principal expression in Streetcar that Williams hopes to convey
is apparently that life after the war was not easy for the baby boomers, and on
the contrary, some just had to settle in with the blues in order to cope. For
example, consider the scene in which Blanche sits in a tub offstage singing “It’s
Only a Paper Moon.” Blanche is singing, “Say it’s only a paper moon, Sailing
over a cardboard sea—But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me!”
(1.7). The song is an escape for Blanche from her own problems, and her
struggle with reality and fantasy in particular. The song is as much an escape
for the post-war audience as it is for Blanche.
The life of the characters is entirely dependent on the reactions of the
audience. Without the theatron, the characters onstage have no audience, and
thus it is essential that the work be constructed in the light of what influences
the audience. In Greek drama, this relationship between the audience and the
actors was tantamount to other aspects of the tragedy. What makes the
audience react is the personal relationship that the members of the audience
have with the soulful music inspired by the blues, or the jarring rhythm of the
Varsouviana polka as it exists in Blanche’s mind. These melodies play a part in
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the action of the play, but their principal role is to connect the stage and the
theatron like the chorus did in Greek theatre. In this respect, the musical
chorus holds the starring role by ensuring that the actors are transformed
beyond mere actors into real characters like Blanche DuBois and Stanley
Kowalski, and that, in short, the play is authentic to the audience and to the
times.
The chorus began in ancient Greek theatre as a lyrical hymn,
incorporated into the bones of drama until it expired altogether. In A Streetcar
Named Desire, the mechanical and evolved chorus resurges as the blues to
perform the delicate balancing act that is the mediator between the audience
and the actors. The choice of the blues is not arbitrary, and Williams’ post-war
audiences were as prone to the tear-jerking effect of the “tinny piano… played
with the infatuated fluency of brown fingers” (1.1), as they were to Blanche’s
heartrending story.
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Works Cited
"Chorus, In Greek Drama." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition
(2013): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
"Dithyramb." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2013): 1.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New Directions,
2004. 128. Print.
Kennedy, J. X., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry,
Drama, and Writing (7e). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.,
2013. 943. Print.
Welsch, Camille-Yvette. "CRITICAL CONTEXTS: World War II, Sex, And
Displacement In A Streetcar Named Desire." Critical Insights: A
Streetcar Named Desire (2010): 21-40. Literary Reference Center. Web.
4 Nov. 2014.
Miller, Arthur. “Tragedy and the Common Man.” The Theatre Essays of Arthur
Miller. Viking Press. New York: 1977. Print.
Schvey, Henry I. "Getting The Colored Lights Going": Expressionism In
Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire." Critical Insights:
Tennessee Williams. 58-79. n.p.: Salem Press, 2010. Literary Reference
Center. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.