Character Analysis Of A Streetcar Named By Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams uses setting to illustrate various themes and messages as they pertain to the events of the play. The setting plays a crucial role in the story line and the outcome of the play.

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.

The most obvious symbol used in A Streetcar Named Desire is its title and the actual reference, in the play, to the streetcars named Desire and Cemeteries. They are the means by which Blanche was brought to the home of Stanley and Stella and, as the play unfolds, we realize the names of the streetcars have a greater significance. Blanche's instructions were to “take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries." When Blanche first arrives she is possessed by a desire for love and understanding, but always in the background lurks the fear of death and destruction. If the one cannot be obtained, a transfer to the other will be the inevitable alternative. Blanche indicates this in her speech to Mitch in scene

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.

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesee Williams In this piece of coursework i will assess how effectively the director understands the play and how she translates this knowledge when making the film starring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh and I will be weighing up the similarities/differences between the first scene of the film and the first scene of the play. The director of the film A Streetcar Named Desire represents the first stage direction of the play very well. The description given in the first stage direction is very similar to the first shots that we get of the film which is of Elysian Fields and it runs between the L&N tracks of the river.

In the summer of post World War II in New Orleans, Louisiana lives hard working, hardheaded Stanley and twenty-five year old pregnant, timid Stella Kowalski in a charming two-bedroom apartment on Elysian Fields. Stella’s older sister Blanche Dubois appears in the first scene unexpectedly from Laurel, Mississippi carrying everything she owns. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, despite Blanche’s desire to start fresh in New Orleans, her snobbish nature, inability to act appropriately on her desires, and denial of reality all lead to her downfall. Blanche believes that her upper class roots puts her above everyone else including her sister Stella. The two sisters have a heartwarming reunion, but Blanche has resentment towards her sister for leaving her to care for their dying family. While Stella left to start a new life for herself, Blanche’s life went downhill. The deaths were slow and tortuous and lead her to the desire of destruction in her life. Blanche breaks the news to her younger sister that their childhood home Belle Reve has been lost, but fails to explain how.

In the play written by Tennessee Williams, "A Streetcar Named Desire", the use of his remarkable writing tactics and motifs are used to develop the main character Blanche throughout the play. As the play progresses, we gradually gain knowledge pertaining to Blanche and the type of individual she actually is in juxtapose to the facade she puts on. With clever usage of motifs such as lighting and flirtation, we can draw countless conclusions about Blanche throughout the play. Using the fore mentioned motifs we can contemplate that Blanche is developed into a deceiving, narcissistic and seductive being because of the use of motifs Williams amalgamated throughout the play.

Corroborating desire’s consequences and virulent ramifications, authors in American literature express how individuals in society are blindly driven by deep yearnings and desires. American society provides a thriving environment for greed and desire to flourish. Directly alluding to this is the character Blanche in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. She ends up on an actual streetcar called “Desire” ultimately forcing her to face the destructive path her desires have led her down. As soon as Blanche gets to her sister’s house she indulges in alcohol, soon after becoming embarrassed and attempting to hide her indulgence (Williams, 8). Blanche's character is dismally plagued by her desires, sex and alcohol. They control her. As the play develops, her principle of one drink being her limit, spirals out of control as her intake of alcohol increases with the progression of the story. Analyzing when exactly Blanche is seen drinking, the occurrence is during times of most conflict, whether between other characters or herself. For Blanche, alcohol becomes an escape from reality and a crutch for her to lean on during times of conflict. Alcohol is an all too common form of coping in American society. Its properties allow individuals to escape form their realities and experience an improvement in mood; however, alcohol can also become a crutch and some people become highly addicted to its effects. For this reason, many writers use alcohol to illustrate how individuals

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.

“Symbols are nothing but the natural speech of drama…the purest language of plays.” Once, quoted as having said this, Tennessee Williams has certainly used symbolism and colour extremely effectively in his play, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. A moving story about fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois and her lapse into insanity, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ contains much symbolism and clever use of colour. This helps the audience to link certain scenes and events to the themes and issues that Williams presents within the play, such as desire and death, and the conflict between the old America and the new.

wants of the characters as well as the characters opposite views. Blanche and Stanley portray

Life is like a rollercoaster; there are ups, downs and sudden movements. However, sometimes it seems like Stella Kowalski's life is the scariest roller coaster that anyone could ride. Between the abusive relationship that she has been struggling with, and the appearance of her sister whose life is certainly not perfect, Stella’s life is in no way easy, but her personality doesn’t make her situation any easier. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Stella is in denial when it comes to Stanley’s aggression and Blanche’s condition, and is so naive and impressionable that she fails to understand the severity of her situation and gives in to others much too easily.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a widely celebrated play that was written by Tennessee Williams. Throughout this play, Williams uses a significant amount of references to light in order to make an assertion about reality. In A Streetcar Named Desire, light represents the harsh reality that exists in the world, particularly with Blanche. With the huge emphasis that was placed on light, Williams asserts that Blanche’s avoidance of light demonstrates an avoidance of her reality. The author illuminates the harsh realities that exist in the world by using vivid imagery, purposeful foreshadowing, and characterizing metaphors. In this instance, it was Blanche’s desire to stay out of the light in order to hide her age. This desire is quite evident because of her assertive tone when regarding the subject of light. While trying to avoid light, Blanche initiated her own demise by being forced to divulge her true age and appearance to Mitch. Because of this event, Blanche was forced to face the harsh reality that she wished to evade for so long. Williams uses brilliant literary and figurative elements in order to lead up to the inevitable event. Thus, the significance of light in A Streetcar Named Desire is astronomical when placing it in context.

And so it was I entered the broken world To trace the visionary company of love, its voice An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled) But not for long to hold each desperate choice "The Broken Tower" by Hart Crane. The play starts with this quote describing a lot about the play its theme ‘the search of true love’ and as the title of the play itself says ‘desire’.

Some novels and plays seem to advocate changes in social or political attitudes or in traditions. Choose such a novel or play and note briefly the particular attitudes or traditions that the author apparently wishes to modify. Then analyze the techniques the author uses to influence the reader or audience’s views. Avoid plot summary.