The Varsouviana Polka
The Varsouviana is the polka tune to which Blanche and her
young husband, Allen Grey, were dancing when she last saw him alive. Earlier
that day, she had walked in on him in bed with an older male friend. The three
of them then went out dancing together, pretending that nothing had happened.
In the middle of the Varsouviana, Blanche turned to Allen and told him that he
“disgusted” her. He ran away and shot himself in the head.
The polka music plays at various points in A Streetcar
Named Desire,when Blanche is feeling remorse for Allen’s death. The first
time we hear it is in Scene One, when Stanley meets Blanche and asks her about
her husband. Its second appearance occurs when Blanche tells Mitch the story of
Allen Grey. From this point on, the polka plays increasingly often, and it
always drives Blanche to distraction. She tells Mitch that it ends only after
she hears the sound of a gunshot in her head.
The polka and the moment it evokes represent Blanche’s loss of
innocence. The suicide of the young husband Blanche loved dearly was the event
that triggered her mental decline. Since then, Blanche hears the Varsouviana whenever
she panics and loses her grip on reality.
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