Looking deeper into the allusions in _A Streetcar Named Desire_

The many allusions Tennessee Williams uses in (Streetcar) are incredibly meaningful. In particular, I want to explore the following three in more detail: "My Rosenkavalier!", "la Dame aux Camellias!" and "Wien, nur du allein."



"My Rosenkavalier!"
At the end of Scene 5, after Blanche sends the newspaper boy away, Mitch "appears around the corner with a bunch of roses." Blanche calls him "My Rosenkavalier!" alluding to Richard Strauss's opera, Der Rosenkavalier.


In the first place, it's suitable because "rosenkavalier" means 'knight of roses' in German—Mitch is bringing her roses.

Photo by Terrence McCarthy, 2007, at San Francisco Opera performance of Der Rosenkavalier
= "Blanche: Bow to me first… now present them!" (Scene 5)

Then. Der Rosenkavalier is a tale of the married aristocratic Marschallin and her boy lover Count Octavian. 'Rosenkavalier' refers to Octavian acting as the person who presents the ceremonial silver rose to Sophie for Baron Ochs (Ochs and Sophie were intended to wed). Octavian and the younger Sophie fall in love. In the end, realising the impossibility of their love and the inevitability of losing him, the Marschallin chooses to set Octavian free. 


=The lady and her boy lover. Chooses to set him free; Blanche and the newspaper boy ("I've got to … keep my hands off children.") Clearly, Blanche only meant Mitch bringing her roses, but situational irony, damn.

Watch Der Rosenkavalier (Part 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKiR5KNZ0aI&list=PL6C75C1802B02E766&index=9

"Je suis la Dame aux Camellias! Vous êtes Armand!"
Again, this is something she says to Mitch, this time in Scene 6, at the end of their (obviously evening) date. She's referring to the 1848 novel La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas the younger, better known as the play Camille in the English-speaking world.


The lady of the camellias is Marguerite, a courtesan, who enters a relationship with a man called Armand. Armand convinces her to go live with him in the countryside. Armand's father, concerned that the relationship would damage Armand's sister's chances of marriage, interferes and persuades Marguerite to leave. Finally, Marguerite, abandoned by all, dies from tuberculosis with what is described as unending agony, regretting everything. 'Til the end, Armand believes Marguerite had left him for another man.


When Blanche playfully tells Mitch, "Je suis la Dame aux Camellias! Vous êtes Armand!" it is clearly a sign that she wants to tell Mitch everything about her promiscuous past, but can't yet bring herself to do so, thus using a French-language literary reference. Beyond that, however, we also see Stanley's interference with their relationship in Armand's father's actions. Like Marguerite, Blanche also descends into suffering, full of regret, as she is led off by the Doctor, abandoned even by her sister Stella. It's as if Blanche is predicting the future of her relationship with Mitch.


The most well-known version is Verdi's operatic adaptation of the play, La Traviata: 

Also check out Chopin's "La Dame aux Camélias": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYqJbAGb2HM&ab_channel=regentsever 

And trailer of another (2018) adaptation of the above https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDWdFuPqxCY&ab_channel=NationaleOpera%26Ballet 



"Wien, Wien, nur du allein."
The lyrics of the song "Wien, Du Stadt Meiner Träume" ("Vienna, City of My Dreams") are heard through the radio in Scene 3. 


Here's the chorus (source http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=23137):

Then I would hear an imaginary, faraway song,
 that sounds and sings, that entices and draws me.
 Vienna, Vienna you alone
 will always be the city of my dreams,
 there, where the cute old houses are,
 there, where the lovely girls walk.
 Vienna, Vienna you alone
 will always be the city of my dreams
 there, where I am happy and delirious
 is Vienna, is Vienna, my Vienna.

EVIDENTLY Blanche yearning for the Old South. "City of my dreams" = "Belle Rêve". "Cute old houses". C'mon, she even hears an imaginary song! (raucous laughter)


By the way, Stanley, representing the new industrialised American North, subsequently defenestrates the radio...


Listen to "Wien, Du Stadt Meiner Träume": 

some other cool allusions in Streetcar
"Ghoul-haunted ghostland of Weir", from Poe's "Ulalume".
Blanche singing in Scene 1, "From the land of the sky-blue water".
"The blind are leading the blind!" –Blanche to Stella. Refer to New Testament, Matthew.
Blanche singing "It's only a paper moon" in Scene 7.
"Paper doll" song sounding from the bar around the corner, Scene 3.


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