What do light and shadow symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?

Light and shadow are a part of Williams's theme of reality versus fantasy in A Streetcar Named Desire. He highlights the difference between them, using their contrast theatrically and thematically.

Light represents truth and the reality of Blanche's past. She tries to hide from the light, such as by hanging the paper lantern over the light bulb in Stella and Stanley's house. She uses shadow to hide her appearance from Mitch, choosing only to go out with him at night and in locations that are not so well-lit. Blanche prefers to stay in the shadows. She says,

I like it dark. The dark is comforting to me.

She also refers to light when talking about her first love, her husband Allen:

He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I was sixteen, I made the discovery—love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me. But I was unlucky. Deluded .... And then the searchlight which had been turned on the world was turned off again and never for one moment since has there been any light that's stronger than this—kitchen—candle …

The reference to light and darkness represents Blanche's emotions.

When Stanley overtakes Blanche, Williams gives us this stage direction:

He crosses to dressing table and seizes the paper lantern, tearing it off the light bulb, and extends it towards her. She cries out as if the lantern was herself.

This represents his overpowering of her, and that he has won in their emotional struggle (in addition to the obvious physical one).

Additionally, Stella talks about darkness when discussing Stanley. Blanche can't understand why her sister would go back to a man that has hit her, but Stella explains,

But there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant.

Characters are able to hide in the shadows.

What does light symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?

Light represents reality, the very thing Blanche Dubois dreads most. She says to Mitch right up front, "I don't want realism. I want magic!" Blanche is a romantic who detests ugliness and brutality. She also detests how the beautiful society world she grew up in is fast vanishing, and she detests how she is no longer a beautiful, young southern belle. When Mitch tosses aside the paper lanterns and forces Blanche into the light, he is seeing her for the first time, stripped of her illusions about who she is.

To disguise her aging, Blanche puts paper lanterns on the bare light bulbs in her room and she avoids being seen in direct light. She wants to retain the illusion that she is a southern belle and not a sad, desperate woman determined to forget she's no longer sixteen and virginal with the hopes of a dashing gentleman as a husband.

What does light symbolize in A Streetcar Named Desire?

Light, in Tennessee Williams' play, "A Streetcar Named Desire," represents a few different things.

First, light, for Blanche, symbolizes her inability to face the truth in life. Blanche is aging. (Although she would like to make others, like Mitch, believe that she is younger than Stella, she is in fact older (about five years)). For Blanche, the light represents the truth behind her aging. In order to hide from the truth, Blanche uses colored paper to cover the lights in the room. These lanterns allow Blanche to hide from the truth by shading her physical appearance. Later, when confronted by Mitch, the lantern is ripped from the light so Mitch can really see her.

Second, light symbolizes the lack of reality in the play overall. Stanley's abuse of Stella, Balnche's rape, and the fantasy world both Stella and Blanche live in are all shown as not being as bad as it really is by keeping things hidden (represented by the covering of the light and lack of light in the flat).

In A Streetcar Named Desire, what does Stanley's bare light bulb symbolize?

Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, contains important light and dark symbolism. Most important in this symbolism is the light bulb in Stanley's apartment.

Prior to Blanche arriving in Elysian Fields, the bare light bulb in Stanley's flat represented his desire to keep life real. He is described as a man's man (poker playing, bowling, working man). He has nothing to hide from. Stella, his wife, accepts him as he is (brutish, violent, and loving). The bare light bulb allows each of them to see the other for what they are. The light bulb also shows how they both accept their lives together.

Once Blanche comes to Elysian Fields the bulb must be covered. Blanche, an aging Southern Belle, fails to accept reality. She refuses to live in the present (as seen through the multiple flashbacks). For her, the stark light represents the truth she is not wiling to face. Therefore, the naked bulb must be covered-- to hide reality.

Over the course of the play, the naked bulb represents the truth of what has happened. Stanley has driven Blanche to completely breakdown. Through this, Stanley is able to convince Stella to commit her sister and get her out of her home. Stanley is able to retake the power in his home--the light bulb has been uncovered.

What does the use of light indicate in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire?

 As an Expressionistic playwright, Tennesse Williams has made use of lighting in his play A Streetcar Named Desire as well as in other plays such as The Glass Menagerie.  Lighting is a reflection of the inner character of one or more personages in his plays.  Regarding Blanche DuBois, the lighting represents reality; the bare light bulbs that reveal the harshness of reality are too much for Blanche to bear.  She must soften reality by placing paper lanterns or scarves upon the light.  This softened light creates an illusion of youthfulness for her in two ways:  First of all, she appears younger, and secondly, the illusive quality of her surroundings reflect the illusions about herself that she seeks to create.

Blanche describes her love for Allen Grey in words that explain much about her:

When I was sixteen, I made the discovery--love. All at once and much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me.

For Blanche, who has met with failure and disappointment, it is, indeed, as though a "blinding light" has been cast upon her life, but she must keep it in shadow, for she cannot deal with the harsh, "blinding light" of reality.

When Stanley confronts Blanche with her stories of beaus and the life she once led at Belle Reve, he tears off the paper cover from the light, and exposes Blanche to the "blinding light" of reality, cruelly stripping her of any delusions, angrily taking from her any illusions.  After she is bereft in this light, Blanche is destroyed.