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A Streetcar Named Desire Sympathy Essay

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A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is the chronicle of the tragic deterioration of Blanche Dubois. The play begins as Blanche enters the home of her sister after struggling to uphold herself and the family property, known as Belle Reve. Her sister, Stella, is “all [she has] in the world (Williams 13),” because all of her other known relatives had died. She is presented as a broken woman, therefore most of the audience sympathy lies with her. However, once Stanley – Stella’s husband – begins to question Blanche’s past, sympathy begins to waver. Ultimately, it is Blanche that receives a majority of the sympathy because she is the most visibly emotionally vulnerable throughout the play. In scene one, there is a monologue in which …show more content…

As a whole, Streetcar is an illustration of man versus woman conflict and is meant to be an exploration of a woman’s psyche as a result of said conflict. Since the age of sixteen (Williams 114), Blanche has been unlucky in love and even unluckier in life. She has lost every man she has ever cared for, and while she lives alone she yearns for the attention of the opposite sex. The strengths and weaknesses of Blanche and Stanley embody the effects of the alpha-beta relationship between a man and a woman. As the alpha, Stanley finds strength in binding women to him so that they depend on him. Blanche’s craving for male attention is her primary weakness. This weakness and Stanley’s strength fuel each other, creating a harmful cycle of which the effects can be seen in Blanche, who is left empty and warped by the end of the play. The recipient of audience sympathy may vary for personal-belief reasons or due to variances on stage, but it is undeniable that Blanche is the most visibly damaged character in Streetcar. Tennessee Williams’ use of subtlety and symbolism creates a rich, realistic tragedy that resonates with audiences because it explores humanity in a raw, poignant

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