Plaster statuette of Mae West
The plaster statuette of Mae West is a small, kitschy object that appears in the hands of Harold Mitchell (Mitch) at the end of his evening out with Blanche DuBois. It is a prize won at a shooting-gallery or carnival game of chance at the amusement park on Lake Pontchartrain, and Mitch carries it upside down as he and Blanche return to the Kowalski apartment around two in the morning. The statuette is a cheap, mass-produced souvenir, a plaster replica of the famously voluptuous and wisecracking film star Mae West, and its presence in the scene immediately establishes the tone of the date: an attempt at lighthearted entertainment that has fallen flat, leaving both participants exhausted and depressed.
The Object as a Token of Failed Romance
The statuette is the only tangible product of Blanche and Mitch's evening together, and its nature as a carnival prize underscores the artificial and ultimately hollow quality of their courtship. Mitch, a shy and awkward man, has tried to provide amusement for Blanche, but the outing has been a dismal failure. Blanche admits, "I simply couldn't rise to the occasion. That was all. I don't think I've ever tried so hard to be gay and made such a dismal mess of it." The statuette, a garish and impersonal trinket, becomes a physical emblem of their inability to connect genuinely. It is a prize won through a game of skill or chance, not a gift chosen with care or understanding, and it mirrors the performative nature of their relationship, which is built on Blanche's carefully constructed illusions and Mitch's desperate hope for companionship.
The Statuette and the Theme of Illusion
The choice of Mae West as the subject of the statuette is deeply ironic. Mae West was a cultural icon known for her unapologetic sexuality, double entendres, and confident, bawdy humor. She represented a kind of raw, earthy, and openly acknowledged female desire. This stands in stark contrast to Blanche's carefully cultivated persona of a delicate, refined, and old-fashioned Southern lady. Blanche has been feeding Mitch a line about her "old-fashioned ideals" and has presented herself as a prim and proper schoolteacher who has "never been more than kissed by a fellow." The statuette, a symbol of a very different kind of womanhood, is a silent, mocking counterpoint to Blanche's performance. It foreshadows the revelation of her true past, which Stanley will soon expose, and it highlights the fundamental incompatibility between the world of illusion Blanche inhabits and the crude reality that surrounds her.
The Object's Fate and Narrative Significance
The statuette itself does not reappear after Scene Six, but its symbolic weight carries through the rest of the play. It is a relic of the brief, doomed hope that Blanche and Mitch might find a future together. Mitch, who is deeply attached to his dying mother and yearns for a settled life, is initially drawn to Blanche's apparent fragility and refinement. The statuette, however, is a reminder that their connection was forged in a space of make-believe—a carnival, a game, a prize won by chance. When Mitch later confronts Blanche with the truth about her past, he tears the paper lantern off the light bulb, demanding to see her "good and plain." The destruction of the lantern, another object of illusion, echoes the meaninglessness of the carnival prize. Both objects represent the fragile, decorative surfaces that Blanche uses to shield herself from a harsh world, and both are ultimately discarded when reality breaks through. The statuette, therefore, is not merely a prop but a concentrated symbol of the play's central conflict between the desire for magic and the brutal imposition of realism.
