Character Comparison

Tennessee William’s play A Street Car Named Desire offers a glimpse into the harsh reality faced by single southern woman in the 1940s. The 1940s was a time when females were viewed as delicate and fragile; therefore, it was understood that a male companion was a necessity to keep them safe and secure (Cook 84). The character of Blanche Dubois embodies the 1940s distressed female as she struggles with her environment. She is battling guilt, loneliness and financial insecurity when she arrives in Elysian Fields. Critics and audiences alike have mixed reactions to Blanche and her role as the tragic protagonist. In “The Space of Madness and Desire” Anne Fleche suggests Blanche is mad from the outset of the play. Others such as Leonard

In Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois unveils the theme of the story through her representation of the struggle to maintain innocence in a tragically guilty world. The main theme of the story is that the façade of performed perfection will always be unsuccessful; fantasy cannot overcome reality. As hard as Blanche tries to hide in her fantasy, eventually truth persists and, in the end, overtakes the delusions she holds. Blanche uses her appearance to suggest innocence and youth, yet with a closer look, readers see that, though she attempts very hard to be, she is neither. She also has a symbolic relationship with Mitch; the further they draw apart, the further into madness she descends. While it is clear that Blanche is not entirely innocent, the author creates her as a symbol of such. This way, as she slowly loses her mind—and Mitch—she symbolizes the loss of said innocence. Blanche can also be considered an embodiment of Williams’s older sister Rose, who is known to have been institutionalized for her erratic behavior. Rose Williams’s inability to overcome her mental instability is directly represented through Blanche, a character who also cannot maintain fantasy and ultimately succumbs to reality. Had Blanche been able to sustain her pretense of innocence, it is possible she could have avoided the harsh realities of life.

Comparing the play versus, the movie versions of A Streetcar Named Desire has been entertaining and enlightening. Originally written as a play, Tennessee Williams later adapted it into a screenplay for the film version. Consequently, both versions were extremely popular in their own right. Drama and social taboos create an emotionally charged viewing adventure. Williams characters are complex, exciting and just crazy enough to keep the audience spellbound. The DuBois sisters are complete opposites sharing only their love for each other as common ground. Blanche, the older sister, shows up for an impromptu visit with her sister Stella Kowalski. Stella and her husband Stanley live in New Orleans, in the French Quarter. Blanche has become destitute and has lost the family plantation. Stanley, incensed by the idea that Blanche has taken the plantation from him, sets out to destroy her by any and all means. The characters and performers provide a riveting and consequently soulful performance that is hauntingly unforgettable. Williams writing moves the audience to tears with dynamic characters, conflict and catastrophe of unimaginable depth.

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.

Sexual desires are a common interest several people tend to have and Blanche Dubois significantly portray and represents the theme of sexual intimacy in A Street Car Named Desire as Tennessee Williams uses allegory, allusion, symbolism, and foreshadow in order to demonstrate how do Blanche’s “trip” through several street cars correspond to the theme of sexual intensions. Each of the “street-car” or form of transportation Blanche rode in have a distinguishing name for each which provides a metaphorical ideology for the trains. Blanche riding in the

Both settings are up-to-date, reflecting the time period in which they were written. In each play, the setting for the characters’ homes symbolizes the imprisoned, powerless nature of its residents. Overwhelming features surrounds both homes: in The Glass Menagerie, frightening tenements and dark alleys; in Death of a Salesman, tall apartment buildings that block out the light. In each case, the message seems to be that as difficult and restrictive as life may be inside the home, the outside is terrifying and overwhelming. For both Amanda Wingfield and Willy Loman, the configurations that outshine their homes are like the fears that outshine their own lives. Amanda is worried that her son Tom will leave home, or even worse. She is also afraid that if Tom leaves, she cannot rely on her daughter Laura to support the household. When Amanda founds that Laura has dropped out of Business College, she feels petrified for her future. Willy is afraid of being unable to support his family after losing his job.

Similarly, Blanche Dubois has some of the same characteristics as Willy Lowman. She lies about the reason for her coming to visit her sister. Blanche said," I was so exhausted by all I'd been through my-nerves broke. [ nervously tampering cigarette] I was on the verge of-lunacy, almost! So Mr. Graves-Mr. Graves is the high school superintendent- he suggested I take a leave of absence. I couldn't put all those details into the wire . . . [She drinks quickly.] Oh, this buzzes right through me and feels so good!" (Tennessee Williams, page 1120). Later on the story, we discover that Blanche had a sexual altercation with a student and that was her cause for leaving town. Also, Blanche likes to keep up with her self-appearance. Therefore, she flaunts

Both Death of a Salesman, and The Glass Menagerie have many things in common. They are both great plays, and both concern dysfunctional families. But there is a deeper similarity to these great literary works. The similarity between the parents. Due to Willy Loman and Amanda Wingfield's lack of coping skills, as well as their inability to let go or accept their past, their children are ill-equipped to deal with the future.

     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.

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a play that takes place in New Orleans. Many events in this play show the illusion of gender roles and how society places different stereotypes on people based on their gender. The main characters’ roles in their relationships show the typical way society thinks men and women should behave. There are two relationships in the story that stand out: Blanche and Mitch and Stanley and Stella. Blanche and Stella are sister and very different.

Desire was the "rattle-trap streetcar" that brought her to her pitiful state in life.           Blanche is the most fascinating character in A Streetcar Named Desire.   One reason for this is that she has an absolutely brilliant way of making reality seem like fantasy, and making fantasy seem like reality. This element of Blanche's personality is what makes her character interest the audience and contribute to the excellence of the work.

The play A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around Blanche DuBois; therefore, the main theme of the drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the tragedy of an individual caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present. The final result is her destruction. This process began long before her clash with Stanley Kowalski. It started with the death of her young husband, a weak and perverted boy who committed suicide when she taunted him with her disgust at the discovery of his perversion. In retrospect, she knows that he was the only man she had ever loved, and from this early catastrophe

While, Willy is completely divided in to his own madness and pushes his family to carry his dream. This makes Willy less pf a tragic story, unlike Blanche who’s is aware of it and can not be placed in the victim

Though while Williams and Miller both identify these Illusions as a way of their characters protecting themselfs from their societys; Blanches male dominated patriarchal society and Willy’s failed american dream. Blanche lives in a dream world,

Willy wants to be well-liked and successful as he used in the past. As he says to his sons " bigger than uncle Charley! .Because Charley is not liked. He is liked, but not well liked". Also, he is searching to find the right path and the problem is that there is no right path. Moreover, he suffers from a mass of contradictions. This is so declared through his speech " I `m very well liked in Hatford, the trouble is, Linda, people don`t seem to talk to me" (I.45). Howard refuses to provide Willy with a job in New York, so he protests" you can`t eat the orange and throw the peel away a man is not a piece of fruit"