Though Tennessee Williams uses his play, A Streetcar Named Desire, to open the eyes of the reader to the working-class lifestyle, his characters all struggle to see and accept the actuality of actions in the play. Desire, the reality for many characters, drives their agendas, but this theme does not encapsulate the entirety of the novels purpose. Williams uses his play to depict human negligence when faced with reality. Stella neglects to confront the violent underlying problems in her seemingly content relationship with Stanley, and she sweeps aside reality to keep their marriage intact. Minimizing the magnitude of Stanley’s brutish actions, Stella repeatedly excuses his heathen behavior, and blurs her vision to the animal that is her husband.
In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, gender roles were reflected on gender roles in the American Society in the 50’s. The male gender was predominant while the female gender was considered less powerful. Williams really emphasizes this stereotype, yet he focuses on the females in the play the whole time.
Since than everything changes for the married couple. There is a sign of controversy between Stanleys and Blanches characters. We can see that there are signs of hate shown as well as jealousy between them. Blanche calls Stanley an animal and she tries continuously to separate her sister Stella from her uneducated husband at the scene when Stanley was at work and Blanche was trying to convince Stella that he is not what she deserved, whereas Stanley behaves in a really aggressive and impolite way with Blanche since she first came in the house, and that is very noticeable when he is searching her luggage for clothes that he believed that were made of solid gold or diamonds and when he mentions the Napoleon code. Stella, who is mainly described as the neutral person in this situation, feels embarrassed when Stanley looks through Blanches stuff and nervous when Blanche talks to her about Stanleys behaviours etc.
Never abuse anyone is another moral and ethical lesson that I discovered in this play. Stanley is very abusive towards Stella. Stella forgives Stanley and she feels as if nothing is wrong with going back to an abusive man. During one of Stanley’s poker nights, he is so drunk that when he becomes mad, he charges after Stella. She makes excuses for this act by saying, “He didn’t know what he was doing… He was as good as a lamb when I came back and he’s really very, very ashamed of himself” (Williams 72). By Stella going back to Stanley every time he abuses her, she will never grow as a person. We learn that this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened when Eunice, their neighbor yells to Stanley, “I hope they do haul you in and turn the fire hose on you, same as the last time” (Williams 66). Stanley is also abusive towards Blanche when he rapes her. Stanley’s abusiveness and alcoholism is a major problem, yet it is never cured. Blanche tries to talk to Stella about it the night after he beats her by saying “You’re married to a madman”, but she just brushes it off (Williams 73). Stella tells Blanche, “I am not in anything that I have a desire to get out of” (Williams 74). The fact that nobody wants to
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores the internal conflict of illusion versus reality through the characters. Humans often use illusion to save us pain and it allows us to enjoy pleasure instead. However, as illusion clashes with reality, one can forget the difference between the two. When people are caught up in their illusions, eventually they must face reality even if it is harsh. In the play, Blanche suffers from the struggle of what is real and what is fake because of the difficult events of her past. Blanche comes to her sister Stella seeking aid because she has lost her home, her job, and her family. To deal with this terrible part of her life, she uses fantasy to escape her dreadful reality. Blanche’s embracement of a fantasy world can be categorized by her attempts to revive her youth, her relationship struggles, and attempts to escape her past.
In the classic fairytale of Cinderella, the main character is trapped in an abusive household. However, Cinderella’s self-perception of optimism and hope, enables her to believe that ultimately, her life will naturally improve with these attributes. True to her convictions, Cinderella gets her happily ever after by going to the ball where the prince falls in love with her. Cinderella is saved from her evil. On the other hand, Cinderella can be viewed as a victim who does nothing to enable herself to escape her abusive reality, insteads helplessly waits for fate to intervene. She does not confront the situation nor independently strive to improve her circumstances. Correspondingly, how individuals act when faced with conflict is strongly influenced by their self-perception. It is possible to become confused between reality and illusion, which is determined by their level of self-awareness. In Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the character of Stella struggles between the control of her husband and sister. Throughout the play, this conflict is demonstrated as she struggles with becoming aware of her abusive household and the contrast to the fairytale illusion she desperately clings to. Ultimately, Stella’s choice to maintain her illusion, rather than confronting her reality, is due to the self-perception of her need to depend on others and desire for idealism, which overall controls her fate.
2016. Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character’s dishonesty may be intended to help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone’s feelings, or to carry out a crime. Choose a novel or play in which a character deceives others. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the motives for that character’s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
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
The author, Tennessee Williams, does a phenomenal job of portraying Blanche Dubois as a deceiving, manipulative, arrogant person in his book “A Streetcar named Desire”. Williams first showcases these characteristics during the arrival of Blanche. This introduction not only sets a mood and tone but it gives us our first impression of Blanche. Overall this impression leaves the audience with a sour taste in their mouths and ill feelings towards the new girl. However, don’t be so quick to jump the gun. What if I said Blanche isn’t the villain she’s depicted as in this story?
The play A Streetcar Named Desire, was remade into a movie that was filmed in New Orleans. The film takes place in the 1950s with Blanche who moves in with her sister, Stella, and her brother in law, Stanley. The movie is about Blanche’s experience and eventually demise all in New Orleans.
A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee 0portray a play center and revolving around characters and New Orleans. The two settings are completely different we are introduced to Elysian Field where the Kowalski live and then Blanche from Belle Reve a high class society. Stella has written to Blanche “She wasn’t expecting to find us in such a small place. You see I’d tried to gloss things over a little in my letters” (31). Blanche meanwhile travelled to stay with the Kowalski on two streetcars which will ultimately determine her faith she longs for desire but could not bear the sign of death.
From the very title of the novel and beginning poem Levi implores us to consider the essence of what it is to be human, presenting to us the thought-provoking question, if this is a man? Levi this way allows us to engage on an emotional level with the events of the holocaust and examine our own consciences, and as he details in his preface ‘furnish documentation for a quite study of certain aspects of the human mind’, and accuses society of subconscious reasoning that ‘every stranger is an enemy’. In explicit stripping the prisoners depicted in the text of their humanity, making this uncomfortably apparent to us as we are consistently encourage to draw comparisons, or rather contrast, with our own lives and hence are perhaps
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.
It is Williams's brilliant and intriguing characters that make the reader truly understand the play's meaning. He also presents a continuous flow of raw, realistic moods and events in the play which keeps the reader fascinated in the realistic fantasy Williams has created in A Streetcar Named Desire. The
Mitch shows to have a caring nature by taking care of and worrying about his ill mother and comforting Blanche. Mitch has an awkward, shy, but gentlemanly feel to him as shown when near Blanche and regularly asking for Blanche’s permission before kissing her to make such she feels comfortable with it, as well as wanting to bring home a nice girl to meet his mother before she passes. Mitch has a trusting heart as shown when Blanche easily deceive him and did not believe Stanley, at first, when he told the truth about blanche. Even though she lied to him, Mitch still tried to help Blanche when the doctors proceeded to take Blanche away and cried when unable to. Mitch has a massive bone-structure, a muscular physique as he enjoys excising, and
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.