A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams

"Desire, unrefined, leads to death”. To what extent Tennessee Williams's plays lend support to such a proposition? Speaking to a reporter in 1963 Tennessee Williams said," Death is my best theme, don't you think? The pain of dying is what worries me, not the act. After all, nobody gets out of life alive.” The themes of death and desire are central in the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”. When the play was released in 1948 it caused a storm, its sexual content was controversial to say the least, but also it was, virtually unique as a stage piece that is both personal and social and wholly a product of our life today. The play tells of the visit of the main character, Blanche DuBois, a supposedly typical Southern Belle, to her estranged sister Stella Kowalski, and her husband Stanley Kowalski who she finds living in modesty in New Orleans. Tensions between the educated, condescending Blanche and the cruel, overly masculine Stanley escalate, and though Stella sympathizes with her sister at the beginning, she's intoxicated by Stanley's sexuality and takes his side. Blanche briefly finds comfort in Stanley's friend Mitch, who's attracted to her and presents her with the possibility of a better life. He quickly loses interest in her, however, and she's left to face Stanley alone. During the climax, Stanley rapes Blanche in the heat of an argument. Blanche has a breakdown due to this and is taken to a mental institution in the final scene. The play and film include crucial

There is a wide range of conditions that affects the mood, the behavior and the thinking. In “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams, one of the main protagonists Blanche, who might be suffering from numerous mental illnesses. Events have occurred that may have caused Blanche to developed disorders such as bipolar disorder, histrionic personality disorder and etc. These disorders are consequence for her actions and how she copes.

The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who goes to live with her sister after she loses her home in Mississippi. Between the hardships of her previous life and the way she is treated now, she is not in a good way by the time the play ends. She basically has a mental breakdown. There are three stages of Blanche’s mental state. She lives in a fantasy, Mitch rejecting her, and Stanley raping her, Blanche is mentally unstable by the end of this ply.

Tennessee Williams is regarded as a pioneering playwright of American theatre. Through his plays, Williams addresses important issues that no other writers of his time were willing to discuss, including addiction, substance abuse, and mental illness. Recurring themes in William’s works include the dysfunctional family, obsessive and absent mothers and fathers, and emotionally damaged women. These characters were inspired by his experiences with his own family. These characters appear repeatedly in his works with their own recurring themes. Through The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams presents the similar thematic elements of illusion, escape, and fragility between the two plays, proving that although similar, the themes within these plays are not simply recycled, as the differences in their respective texts highlight the differences of the human condition.

Established as one of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th century, Tennessee Williams used his writing as a form of therapy. The author came from a troubled background consisting of alcoholism, mental breakdowns, and general unhappiness; Williams exploited these unfortunate events and allowed them to motivate his literature. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois’ struggles represent the reality of people’s lives, “an enduring concern of [Williams’] throughout his writing career (Henthorne 1). Blanche captures our focus with her seemingly sincere and fragile nature, but it is later revealed that this is just an illusion within her own mind. She resides in a world of fantasy to shield herself against the harsh threats of reality and her own fears. Blanche’s main objective in the play is to keep herself from falling apart in a world of cruelty through alcoholism and illusion. Through the characterization of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams depicts the coping mechanism of fantasy and its detrimental repercussions by exploring the specific experiences that eventually impede her happiness.

In his plays, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams uses different ways to show in the play of social realism. It show each of individual character and focusing on how particular way of viewpoint contrast with men, and the perspective of looking at women. The play explores struggle of two character Stanley and Blanche, between appearances and reality which made the play’s plot more affected reality. Throughout this play, it show the symbolize of the gender roles and the power of men over women in the 1940’s in New Orleans.

‘A Streetcar named Desire,’ is an interesting play, by Tennessee Williams. The character 'Blanche DuBois' is created to evoke sympathy, as the story follows her tragic deterioration in the months she lived with her sister Stella, and brother-in-law Stanley. After reading the play, I saw Blanche as the victim of Stanley's aggressive ways, and I also saw her as a hero in my eyes.

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is not only considered to be the best play written by Tennessee Williams but is also arguably one the greatest plays ever written. The play has a very Shakespearean sensibility with a southern twist while also having an original complexity woven throughout the entire body that became unique as William’s signature artistry. The most important attributes of the play is the construction and motivation of the characters, the juxtaposition of illusion and reality, as well as the relationship between the dialogue and stage directions. The play’s characters are ultimately defined and driven by their gender identity and sexuality, hence the title “A Streetcar Named Desire”. This is evident in the number of

"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most renowned 20th century American plays and films. The playwright is Tennessee Williams, a respected author whose works artistic and structural merit warrants their study into the 21st century. There are numerous aspects and points Williams makes with his works, including "A Streetcar Named Desire." Out of the richness this text offers, this paper will focus upon issues of mental illness and abuse in the play. No doubt an aspect that makes Williams' characters so vivid are their flaws, weaknesses, and desires. Where a person's character lacks weakness and what a person desires reveal a great deal about that person and provide insight into the choices they make. The paper will discuss aspects of abuse and mental instability in the characters and plot of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and will reference the play directly to underscore any points.

Tennessee Williams was a thriving playwriter with many of his ideas coming from actual events in his life. Growing up with a father that was an alcoholic and known for gambling led him down the same path (Parry 304). In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Blanche, who is trying to get away from her erroneous past goes to New Orleans to visit her sister Stella. Seeing that she is in a place where no one knows her, she hopes to make a new life for herself. During her visit, Blanche clashes with Stella’s husband Stanley and the biggest difference between them would be the way they were brought up. When Stanley starts to figure out that Blanche has a shady past, he is on a mission to uncover her past and expose her for who she really is. This makes things very hard for Stella because Stanley and Blanche see each other as enemies and they both are trying to get her away from the other. Throughout the play many disturbing issues will arise. Alcohol is brought up in the play approximately thirty-two times and violence around twenty-four (Williams). Tennessee Williams brings awareness of the characters through alcohol and violence to create a dynamic downfall into the mental state of Blanche.

     In Tennessee William’s masterful play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the reader meets a middle – aged woman by the name of Blanche DuBois. Blanche lives in her own faerie tale world, one of a young, beautiful debutante, surrounded by admirers, and loved by all whom she encounters. In reality, Blanche is an aging woman who cannot cope with the actualities of life. She makes up wild stories, and when Stanley Kowalski, her brother – in – law, rapes her, the realities of life cause her to drift into absolute lunacy.

Blanche deals with many issues the loss of loved ones, the loss of the family estate, the inability to deal with reality, rejection from others, and the rape by Stanley. Blanche has also become independent and assertive which is not the typical norm of a southern woman. She has been forced into a world she is not prepared for. Because of this Blanche begins to live in her own world, her own little fantasy. She also uses alcohol and sexual promiscuity to escape from the loneliness she has endured since her husband’s death. Williams shows us through the way Blanche speaks to the paper boy;

Social upheaval in many senses was explicit through the beginning of the twentieth century; two world wars had - for a short time - shifted the balance of power between men and women. Women were increasingly employed to fill positions which had previously been considered masculine. This was not to last however, and by the fifties men had reassumed their more dominant role in society. People were finding new voices at this time by taking pre-existing forms and pushing the boundaries to re-voice established literary forms. Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire around the time this reversal was occurring in American society. Williams was a homosexual from the deep south of America, and his play is about physical, emotional

Tennessee Williams was an American writer known for short stories and poems in the mid 1950’s. His more famous writing was A Streetcar Named Desire. His writings influenced many other writers such as August Strindberg and Hart Crane. His writings A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie was adopted to films and A Streetcar Named Desire earned him his first Pulitzer prize. In A Streetcar Named Desire there is many elements that build the plot and story line. The story is about a girl who is drove crazy by his sister’s husband and eventually sent to the mental hospital. The main plot is towards the end of the story when Blanche Dubois is blackmailed by her sister’s husband and raped by him. Everything takes its toll on her until she begins drinking heavily and is thought to have gone crazy and placed in a mental hospital. In this story, many things play affect in the contrast of the writing such as Blanche arriving at her sister’s house, seeing her sister’s husbands attitude, the poker game, Blanche getting raped. These events make Blanche an easy victim. In Tennessee Williams, a street car named desire, the start of kindness turns to tragedy and pain.

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.