A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis

In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois is thrust into a series of unfortunate events and undergoes drastic changes in an effort to come to terms with her completely changed life. Through these events, Blanche happens to be the only remaining individual left to take care of the once valuable and prestigious family belongings, and her psychological mind spirals out of control in her attempts to restore the family’s honor. In addition to experiencing loneliness and feeling isolation from humans, Blanche faced many new challenges in stressful situations, which contributed to her poor decision making skills and inevitable negative outcomes in most of those situations. Through the characterization of Blanche DuBois, Williams’ intends to display the power of significant experiences in one’s life, which serves as a warning of how the effects of significant experiences on individuals should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, in Blanche’s case, abandonment by her sister was the perfect example of an individual underestimating the result of their actions, as this action was the initiation point of the events that would eventually lead to her unfortunate fate. Specifically, Williams’ focuses on portraying the disastrous effects of human isolation, which is often the result of an individual’s mindless actions. Human isolation plays an important role in the outcome of the play, as Blanche is known to have been abandoned at a young age, and her

This is brought forth by her death and deterioration as a character and its contribution to declining relationships. It becomes quite evident to the audience that Blanche “wasn't so good the last two years or so”, alluding to her promiscuous behaviour before her sudden arrival at her sister’s doorstep. The motifs employed by Williams to convey Blanche’s regret are those of bathing and alcohol. Blanche bathes many a time through the course of A Streetcar Named Desire in attempt to feel “…like a brand new human being” and cleanse herself of her past in order to try find kindness and love, particularly in Mitch, “I want to deceive him enough to make him – want me”. The irony of Blanche’s costuming at the start of the play further emphasises what she is “Putting on”. In Scene I Blanche is described as being “daintily dressed in a white suit…earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat”. Traditionally, white is the colour of purity and of “…the Virgin”, both of these “virtues” taken away from Blanche due to her tragic past. The illusion she creates for both Mitch and Stanley again, was brought forth by her own deterioration and want of creating a fantasy that “wouldn’t be make – believe if you believed in me”. Lastly, Blanche’s attempt to legitimise her fantasy is through the symbolic paper lantern. Blanche “…can’t stand a naked lightbulb” in fear of her past and her true age being exposed. In Blanche’s mind putting “…a paper lantern over the light” provides an alternative form of escape from the truth about her past. It is hence, evident that Blanche’s constant deception of those around her through her costuming, fear of the light, which is symbolic of the truth and her relentless attempts to cleanse herself are what contribute to her deterioration and hence to the decline of any possibility of having a relationship with Mitch and her rapid

A Streetcar Named Desire Analytical Essay Michael Song Kleiber, 10F Drama 2016 The play A Streetcar Named Desire is a creation by Tennessee Williams. And in this play, Williams formed a complex web of conflicting emotions, which caused a great amount of tension between the characters. The play takes place right after World War II in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.

A streetcar named desire is a play that follows Blanche Dubois in her further descent to madness. From the first time Blanche is introduced the reader knows that there’s something off about her. She doesn’t quite fit in with all the other characters in a streetcar named desire Blanche comes into Stella and Stanley’s home with expectations of a grand house most likely expecting something that resembles the lost Belle Reve. “I thought you would never come back to this horrible place!” (Williams 11). It’s clear that she’s used to high class things where the rest of the characters are thankful to have jobs

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams’ heroine, Blanche Du Bois, plays a leading role in which we see her many sides and how she refuses to accept the modern age. The reader will constantly notice her struggle to keep up a certain appearance, that being a character of pure and delicate femininity. Because of specific examples that Williams gives us, like how Blanche acts when she is alone and then her behavior around men. We see her refusal to be seen in bright light or daylight. These examples give us the range of her character and open us up to the contradictions.

“Stella has embraced him with both arms, fiercely, and full in the view of Blanche. He laughs and clasps her head to him. Over her head he grins through the curtains at Blanche.” (Williams 73) A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams exemplifies the theme of a struggle to attain happiness. The play not only portrays this theme in its characters and setting, but through the literary devices of Foil, Imagery, and Intertextuality. Williams took great care in applying each of these literary device techniques to the theme as he presents an intriguing contrast between Blanche and Stanley, vivid images both animalistic and broken, and imploring the use of the Odyssey to further

Tennessee Williams's legendary play A Streetcar Named Desire presents the audience with a multitude of diverse characters and complex, intertwined relationship between those characters. The character that stands out as being the most essential and complex, however, is Blanche DuBois. Blanche looms as the sole character to look past the simplicity of life and long for something beyond her daily mundanity, and all other characters in Streetcar are contrasted against her to help illuminate some quirk of their humanity. In addition to these contrasts, Blanche also provides an interesting character study due to her inability to accept reality and her semi-anachronistic nature.

This 1950's theatrical presentation was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Tennessee Williams. It is about a southern bell by the name of Blanche Dubois who loses her father's plantation to a mortgage and travels to live in her sister's home in New Orleans by means of a streetcar called Desire. There she finds her sister living in a mess with a drunken bully husband, and the events that follow cause Blanche to step over the line of insanity and fall victim to life's harsh lessons.

Like many people in the world, the characters in Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, are troubled by anxiety and insecurities. Life in New Orleans during the 1940s was characterized by the incredible variety of music, lively and bright atmosphere, and diverse population, while in the midst of the ongoing World War II. Culture was rich and fruitful because the city developed into a “melting pot” of people from all over the world. Due to the wide-range in population, the people of New Orleans adopted an identity like no other. Instead of their identity being entirely pieced together, almost like a puzzle, the people took on one that was shared by the entire community. However, with this being said, people had the ability to use this to their advantage and mask their true selves. This idea translates well into the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and is exhibited through the character Blanche. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses the theme of vanity to reveal the importance of appearance, and the insecurities of Blanche and how they influence her actions.

Fantasy and reality are explored in the play A Streetcar Named Desire. Prior to scene IX, a birthday party was being held for Blanche. Stanley gifted Blanche a one-way ticket back to Laurel, he disapproves of her constant bathing to calm her nerves, and Mitch doesn’t visit as he had promised. These events emphasize just how undesirable Blanche is; her unwelcomed presence is her reality. It severely contrasts with how desirable she aches to be; her fantasy.

First of all, Blanche is a profound liar. It seems as though nothing that leaves her mouth is truth. She even lies to get out of other lies. This fantasy life that Blanche creates, poses a real threat to her sanity as viewed by people around her. Her thoughts run wild as she frolics around in her fancy attire and fantasizes about a cruise in the Caribbean. Stanley’s encounter with Blanche near the end of the play only worsens matters. Even though Blanche falls victim to Stanley, she stills feels the guilt of the event. In the end, her build-up of guilt finally overwhelms her to the point where she literally goes

I wonder if the foreclosure of Belle Reve, in Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, causes Blanche to create the illusion that surrounds her and her relationships. Blanche's sought-after relations with men could be a coping mechanism she uses to help with the loss of her beloved home. On the other hand, after the loss of Belle Reve Blanche seeks to find a suitor to save her from living a poverty stricken and uncertain existence. However, the problems that arise from the painstaking reality of her fading beauty cause her to create a false reality in which she uses lies to deceive her future suitors. Evidence suggests that the latter suits Blanche’s intentions the best. Therefore, Blanche purses relationships with men to satisfy her needs.

Blanche is the story’s protagonist, the story is centred her and how she perceives the world. Blanche mentions to Mitch that she lies as she refuses to accept the life she was given. The only person she is lying to is herself as she wants to seem higher status than she is. She is very insecure about who she is as a person which is a another contributing factor to why she lives. Blanch lives in her own world where she thinks that she can save Stella from a long miserable life with Stanley. As she struggles to see the good in Stanley because they are both different characters who come from different social class. She believes that a husband will save her from a life of tragedy and that she will run away with Shep (millionaire).

A tragic protagonist is a character in literary work that faces internal and external conflicts which eventually lead to their downfall. A tragic protagonist from A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is Blanche. She struggles with multiple internal and external problems that lead to her falling apart. Blanche struggles with deception, lying, living in a fantasy, denial, guilt, promiscuity, and drinking. Outside of her reach she struggles with ex husband’s death and betrayal, and Stanley. Blanche DuBois is a perfect example of a tragic protagonist because all her internal and external conflicts overwhelms her to the point of her destruction by the end of the play.