A Streetcar Named Desire By Tennessee Williams

It was not just her self that put her in the lime light of being a victim; it is also her new change of environment and people. Stanley is Stella's husband; he is described to be very masculine and aware of his sexual magnetism. “Strongly, compactly built”. He is mostly at ease with people however, if they lack loyalty and affection to him, he will bully them. Especially women, as he believes them just to be easy conflict. It is seen in scene 3 that Stanley has little respect for women. “I said to hush up!” This is addressed to his wife who is seen emotionless and impassive in this play. As for Blanche how is fussy and at edge, she would be very effected by the crude attitude that Stanley presents and so tries to hysterical take Stella away from her husband. Stanley does not forget of this act of interference and makes him all the more determined to be rid of Stella’s “charity case”. The real reason for Stanley’s bulling is that Blanche immediately received all Stella’s attention. “How about my supper huh? I’m not going to no Galatorires’ for supper” This made Stella dominant in power over Stanley and Blanche, something Stanley was not used to. “I put you a cold plate on ice”.

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.

Another way in which desire is presented as a tragic flaw in scene six is through the “nervous gesture” [11]which Blanche makes upon Mitch asking “How old are you?”[12], revealing to us her desire for youth and the fact she is trying to combat an un-evadable higher power. This relates again to the idea of inevitability and the symbol of the street car, as the streetcar is bound to its tracks and has one eventual end. In the same way Blanche is bound to her fate that lead to her unavoidable end. Her desire for youth is directly juxtaposed to Mitch’s dying mother, who shows us the inevitable link between age and death which foreshadows Blanche’s demise.

creates a dilemma for Blanche; she has never been rejected before, and I think this creates sexual tension between Stella and Stanley. It creates an atmosphere between them which comes to its climax towards the end of the play (scene ten), where Stanley says “we’ve had this date with each other from the beginning”.

Desire is prominent in Stella and Stanley’s relationship; Stella is drawn to Stanley because he has a strong male sexuality and he is drawn to her because of her traditional feminine sexuality. Stanley abuses Stella, and when Blanche finds out she is perplexed. Stella explains that, “there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark—that sort of make everything else seem—unimportant.”(1.4). Stella and Stanley stay together because they use sex to smooth out their disputes. Stanley views sex as an important aspect in marriage (Panda ). He views women as sexual objects; Williams gives an insight on Stanley, he says, “[Stanley] sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications, crude images flashing through his mind”(1.1). Stanley ends up raping Blanche at the end of the play; thus causing Blanche to lose her sanity. Although Blanche’s husband is only mentioned a few times in the play, the audience is able to see that his own sexual desire leads to his

“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

Stanley first name is “stone-clearing” while his last name in Polish means “blacksmith”. He appears to be a gentleman in front of Stella until Blanche arrives “I pulled you down off them columns and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going! And wasn’t we happy together, wasn’t it all okay till she showed here!” (137). This belief maybe related to the meaning he has the power to consume others. Stella was mistakenly fallen for his charm and manner.

Furthermore Stanley can suggest that his animalistic behaviour is down to Blanche Dubois. She is Stanley’s sister-in-law and lived at ‘belle reve’ which means beautiful dream, nevertheless it also ironic as she has had to mortgage the house and most of her family has died whilst living there. Her name means white one from the woods and the connotations of her name is innocence, which is an exemplar of dramatic irony as she displays many acts in the play that contrast to that of innocence and purity. An example of Blanche not being pure is when she says “I’ve got to keep hold of myself” this statement from Blanche shows she has mental flaws and is addicted to the drink. She also shows she is not innocent and dependable “your sister hasn’t turned into a drunkard” this shows she is prepared to lie to her sister and it could also foreshadow future tragedy as comparable behaviour towards Stanley could result in enemies being created “liquor goes fast in hot conditions” this shows she is also prepared to deceive Stanley as well. As Stanley believes he is a misogynistic as he feels men are far superior to women as did most men in the 1940’s. So if he has any suspicions about being deceived by a woman then he would want to get revenge because Stanley doesn’t like to be manipulated,

In the opening two scenes of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams, the audience has its first and generally most important impressions formulated on characters, the plot and the mood and tone of the play overall.

This quote from Blanche’s sister, Stella, shows how she feels about her marriage with Stanley. Despite being abused by her husband, Stella always takes him back because of the love they’ve created through sexual attraction. Although Blanche hates him for putting his hands on her, Stella continues to make excuses for him, like it’s acceptable to hit her if he’s drunk, angry, or stressed. Of course Stella gets upset with Stanley, but she forgets about all their problems when they have sex.

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.

Tennessee Williams was a well known Modern English playwright. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi and moved to St. Louis, then to Memphis, and later graduated from the University of Iowa in 1983. Williams began to turn his short stories into plays and later on into films. His wildest audiences were in contemporary dramatic literature. Williams’s plays have been produced in England, France, Hally, Germany, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Poland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Cuba and Mexico. One of William’s most intriguing plays is Streetcar named Desire. Streetcar was produced around 1947. The “setting of Streetcar” is a combination of raw realism and deliberate fantasy” (Riddel 16). The main character of the play is Ms.

Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire around 1947. Williams based the play off of the moral values of his time period. Growing up in the forties, Williams identified with the traditional relationship between a man and woman. However, the relationship between two main characters, Stella and Stanley, push traditional boundaries. Williams represents the post-structuralism theory in the characters’ relationships.

Tennessee Williams' Use of Dramatic Devices To Create Contrast And Conflict In "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Summary: An analysis of some of the many symbols found in "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams, with the help of psychoanalytical theory. Williams' expert use of these symbols helped him to convey the meaning of many characteristics of the protagonists in the play. It is very debatable nowadays how much psychology can influence an author or how much the author's psychological features can influence his work.