Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

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.

Based on Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan creates an award winning movie that helps readers visualize Stanley’s primal masculinity, the inner torments of the Kowalski women and the clash of the other characters’ problems which create a chaotic mess. Using stage directions in the play, William hints that Blanche is not who she appears to be while the movie subtly sheds light on Blanche’s strange little habits that suggests a bigger issue. The movie also censors many of the main themes in Williams’ play but makes up for it by having its actors flawlessly portray the characters’ emotions, allowing the readers to see the

Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.

Tennessee Williams is regarded as a pioneering playwright of American theatre. Through his plays, Williams addresses important issues that no other writers of his time were willing to discuss, including addiction, substance abuse, and mental illness. Recurring themes in William’s works include the dysfunctional family, obsessive and absent mothers and fathers, and emotionally damaged women. These characters were inspired by his experiences with his own family. These characters appear repeatedly in his works with their own recurring themes. Through The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams presents the similar thematic elements of illusion, escape, and fragility between the two plays, proving that although similar, the themes within these plays are not simply recycled, as the differences in their respective texts highlight the differences of the human condition.

In his plays, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams uses different ways to show in the play of social realism. It show each of individual character and focusing on how particular way of viewpoint contrast with men, and the perspective of looking at women. The play explores struggle of two character Stanley and Blanche, between appearances and reality which made the play’s plot more affected reality. Throughout this play, it show the symbolize of the gender roles and the power of men over women in the 1940’s in New Orleans.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a play of multifaceted themes and diverse characters with the main antagonists of the play, Blanche and Stanley infused by their polarized attitudes towards reality and society ‘structured on the basis of the oppositions past/present and paradise lost/present chaos’(*1). The effect of these conflicting views is the mental deterioration of Blanche’s cerebral health that, it has been said; Stanley an insensitive brute destroyed Blanche with cruel relish and is the architect of her tragic end. However, due to various events in the play this statement is open to question, for instance, the word ‘insensitive’ is debatable, ‘insensitive’ can be defined as not thinking of other people’s feelings but Stanley is aware of

‘A Streetcar named Desire,’ is an interesting play, by Tennessee Williams. The character 'Blanche DuBois' is created to evoke sympathy, as the story follows her tragic deterioration in the months she lived with her sister Stella, and brother-in-law Stanley. After reading the play, I saw Blanche as the victim of Stanley's aggressive ways, and I also saw her as a hero in my eyes.

Williams uses a different type of savagery in Blanche's character. Blanche is more deceptive and exaggerated than Stanley, trying to hide the effects of her hard life from others through constant bathing, avoiding bright lights and by lying, and from herself, by drinking.

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.

Both Gatsby and Blanche are vulnerable because of the illusions they create that form part of their identities. In the beginning of their respective novels, The Great Gatsby and A Streetcar Named Desire, they are cunning, calculating, and self-aware of their illusions. They try to escape from their barren pasts and create entirely new, magical lives for themselves, ones that they are able to control. Gatsby exudes power, status, and confidence, “picking his words with great care” at his party so that he can attain Daisy. Blanche is equally careful, telling herself to “ keep hold of [my]self” and restraining the amount of alcohol she drinks. But as the novel progresses and they unravel their true selves, they forget where they stem from and begin to believe in the magical world they are creating. Gatsby becomes so infatuated with Daisy that he completely forgets about the impracticality of their relationship as Daisy is already married to Tom; he thinks that he can “fix everything just the way it was before” with the power of his persona. Similarly, Blanche begins to believe that she can marry Mitch and achieve her dreams of being wealthy, being respected, and having an ideal relationship but without telling anybody about her past. But once they are close to achieving their dreams, their illusions are shattered by more powerful characters in the novel. Daisy openly admits her love for Gatsby, and they begin to regain the love they once shared, but Tom shatters both Gatsby’s

A Streetcar Named Desire 's original drafts were started in the early 1940s by playwright Tennessee Williams, who prepared and tested numerous titles for the work. Eventually, the completed play opened on December 3, 1947 in New York City staring Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and directed by Elia Kazan. This run of Streetcar lasted 855 performances until 1949 and won Williams a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics ' Circle Award. Later, in 1951, the film version was adapted and stared Brando along side Vivien Leigh as Blanche with Kazan holding the seat as director once again. Both the play and film adaptations of A Streetcar Named Desire have received critical acclaim and much success, so much so that Williams work is both

Like many people in the world, the characters in Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, are troubled by anxiety and insecurities. Life in New Orleans during the 1940s was characterized by the incredible variety of music, lively and bright atmosphere, and diverse population, while in the midst of the ongoing World War II. Culture was rich and fruitful because the city developed into a “melting pot” of people from all over the world. Due to the wide-range in population, the people of New Orleans adopted an identity like no other. Instead of their identity being entirely pieced together, almost like a puzzle, the people took on one that was shared by the entire community. However, with this being said, people had the ability to use this to their advantage and mask their true selves. This idea translates well into the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and is exhibited through the character Blanche. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses the theme of vanity to reveal the importance of appearance, and the insecurities of Blanche and how they influence her actions.

When she arrives on her sister’s doorstep, the tragic hero of Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois, is blatantly out of place. However, with no where else to go, the former aristocrat arrives at the home of Stella and her husband Stanley in downtown New Orleans. Once there, Blanche seeks refuge from reality through the acceptance of men. However, Stanley, sees through Blanche’s compulsive lies and investigates her suspicions past. After being confronted and sexually abused Blache’s increasingly disillusioned mental state compels Stella to put her sister in a mental hospital. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s play Death of A Salesman, experiences a similar mental deterioration. After an unsuccessful business