Gothic Elements In A Streetcar Named Desire

As the reader reaches the end of the story, the need for a completion of the characters and who they are is imperative to the final understanding of A Streetcar Named Desire. Despite Blanche’s desperate attempts to sell her story, the qualities that she described herself as having that appealed to mean—“beauty of the mind and richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart”—remained largly unconfirmed due to her unreliable narrative and Stanley’s interferience (source). As Blanche’s attempt at a story of herself fails, the story of Stanley prevails and reaches a frightening conclusion. No matter how offensive and repugnant it is, the inevitability of the rape is the inescapable end to Stanley’s story. While Stanley has managed to blow holes

Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire, is a story of people who try to live their lives despite their constant issues that interrupt their lives. Blanche DuBois is a repressed and sexually warped southern woman who seeks satisfaction and comfort. She wants someone to help lift the burden of the guilt she has from her twisted sexuality. Simultaneously, Stanley Kowalski, a terrifyingly abusive yet gentle “common man”, seems to be crying out for help in a post World War II world where all he has to offer is his rough love and sub-human like nature. The obvious troubled flaws in these two characters tend to hide the more troubled Stella Kowalski, the spectator who has to witness her husband ruin her sister’s life. Based on the reading

In A Streetcar Named Desire, the form of a Southern Gothic gives the readers its distinct build – up of tension in the play’s scenes. Throughout the play, the structure closely follows the confrontation between Stanley and Blanche and the tension starts to build up. As the

In Elia Kazan’s 1951 film, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” many intense elements are incorporated, including those of a heartless antagonist, a whimsical protagonist, and several supporting characters who help to portray the principle themes and advance the plot. In this film, the genre of Southern gothic, the setting in a miserable, cramped apartment building in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the overall plot contribute to the main underlying themes of human cruelty and kindness.

Born in Columbus, Mississippi, Thomas “Tennessee” Lanier Williams, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose work includes A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. During his childhood Williams’ family took a turn in life when they moved to St. Louis, Missouri. There on, Williams grew up in a destructive home where his father was a violent alcoholic; his mother was ill; and his sister, Rose, suffered from several mental illnesses. This resulted in Williams turning inward and start his writing. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire (Norton, 2012) Williams dramatizes the protagonist Blanche DuBois from Belle Reeve as a tragic figure who is not in touch with reality. In this essay I will show how Williams uses Blanche as a metaphor

Women are marginalised in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ through their economic status, their mental health and their place as a woman in the society of 1940s. They are held as possessions for admiration and housework. Neither of the men in the play treat them as they should be treated, and see them as nothing more than a housemaker and a child bearer. Also, it is made prominently clear by Williams that no woman would be able to survive without a man at that time. However, at some occasions, Williams portrays that women can prove to be challenging if undermined.

One such theme is violence, historically ingrained into the Southern culture by the brutality of slavery. In the play, violence is mainly portrayed as an aspect of aggressively expressed masculinity, illustrated almost exclusively by Stanley’s nature and behavior. Since characters react differently to his aggressive charisma, Stella being attracted to it while the sensitive, fading Southern Belle type Blanche both disdains it and fears it, the theme of violence serves the purpose of characterizing not only the single character, but those he exerts dominance upon, too. Another crucial theme in both Southern Gothic fiction and A Streetcar Named Desire is decay, historically illustrating how the loss of Civil War lead to the decay of the whole Southern society. In the play this theme is depicted on multiple levels: firstly, the gradual decay and eventual loss of Belle Reve, the DuBois family plantation, symbolically shows the steady extinction of the Southern lifestyle and values that Blanche was raised to uphold. Secondly, Blanche’s morality is described to be decaying as her feelings of abandonment, directed towards Stella as well as the general society, drive her to immoral actions of both body and mind. Finally, the audience is shown the unravelling

Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire portrays a dog-eat-dog world, in which the winner takes it all: a person not just watches out closely for his/her own interest but also preys on the weak. This portrayal is mostly embodied in the confrontation between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski, the two major characters in the play. The confrontation partly arises from difference in class, Blanche from high society while Stanley from low one. But most noteworthy is that the element that contributes the most to this confrontation is their desires for sex, money, revenge, and even survival of life. Over time, the tension between Blanche and Stanley grows to a climax and eventually goes down with Blanche, the weak, losing the battle while Stanley, the strong, standing out as the victor and taking away Blanche’s soul and body. Given this, in this dog-eat-dog showdown there exists ambiguous moments: Is the physical contact between Blanche and Stanley a rape, a date, or a rape-date? A look into this issue is in order.

The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams is a story of taboos from the 1950’s. The story begins with the arrival of a young southern belle named Blanche DuBois at her sister’s house in New Orleans. Blanche is forced to relocate there as her father and grandfather squandered what money they had left, to the point of losing of their home estate Belle Reve. As the play continues Blanche develops a relationship with Stanley’s friend Mitch. The addition of Stella’s husband Stanley, Tennessee Williams creates a catalyst to the taboos he desires for his story. As the play continues the stress of the new people and locations force Stella and Stanley to commit Blanche into a mental ward. In the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennessee

  A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a classical play about Blanche Dubois’s visit to Elysian Fields and her encounters with her sister’s barbaric husband, Stanley Kowalski. Stanley Kowalski is a very brutal person who always has to feel that he is better than everyone else. His brutish actions during the play leave the readers with a bad taste in their mouths. Stanley Kowalski’s brutality is clearly exemplified in several places during the course of the play: first, with the radio episode on poker night; next, when he beats his wife, Stella, and lastly, when he rapes Blanche.

Williams? ?A Streetcar Named Desire? is set in a poor section of the French Quarter in New Orleans. The reader is immediately introduced to the main character, Blanche DuBois, who is daintily dressed in white, a color associated with innocence and chastity. Literary critic, John Gassner, states, ?Like other southern heroines of Williams, who invariably suggest Picasso?s dehydrated ?Demoiselles d?Avignon?, Blanche DuBois is not only a recognizable

Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire presents a cascade of emotions focusing on Blanche DuBois, who tries to start fresh in New Orleans after losing Belle Reve. Throughout the play, audiences often feel conflicted with Blanche’s role, torn between sympathy for her losses and apathy of her strong sexual urges. One may argue that Blanche is the villain of the story, barging into Stella’s and Stanley’s lives and attempting to convince Stella to leave her husband. However, it is Blanche’s perspective whom Williams chooses to tell the story from. We ride along with Blanche as she makes the trip to visit her sister, resists change from the New South, and lets the tension build up around her. Our sympathies lie around Blanche as she struggles to fit into her sister’s life, tries to withhold some form dignity through mistakes from her past, but ultimately loses all connections around her as she tries to preserve her opinions about the Old South.

What do you think about when you hear A Streetcar Named Desire? When Tennessee Williams was 28, he moved to New Orleans, where he changed his name and revamped his lifestyle, soaking up the city life that would inspire his work, most notably the later play, A Streetcar Named Desire. ("Tennessee Williams Biography"). William won his first Pulitzer Prize for this play. The play takes place in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 1940s. This tragic play revolves around the lives of Stanley Kowalski, his wife, Stella Kowalski, and Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois. Williams relies greatly on symbolism and themes, throughout his play. In literature, symbols represent ideas or qualities that the author has manipulated into their

In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams’ heroine, Blanche Du Bois, plays a leading role in which we see her many sides and how she refuses to accept the modern age. The reader will constantly notice her struggle to keep up a certain appearance, that being a character of pure and delicate femininity. Because of specific examples that Williams gives us, like how Blanche acts when she is alone and then her behavior around men. We see her refusal to be seen in bright light or daylight. These examples give us the range of her character and open us up to the contradictions.

The role of women in modern society is a contentious topic. Presently, the female gender has become more respected and important in the workplace, with as much women as men achieving successful, admirable lives. But this was not always the case. During the early 20th century, women were severely oppressed, with their identity confined to the likes of a housewife. In wartime, the role of the female gender expanded slightly, with more women being employed into jobs that were previously considered masculine while the men were at war. However, after the war was over and then men returned home, many of these women fell pregnant and resumed the life of the subservient housewife, whilst the men once again dominated. Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire is a dramatic play written during this time that follows the journey of a distressed young woman- Blanche visiting her sister Stella in New Orleans, who is subsequently tormented by her brutish new brother-in-law Stanley. The play presents the reader with physical, emotional and sexual conflict, and harshly critiques the attitudes and ideologies present in 1950’s American society in relation to the heavy restrictions that were placed on the lives of its women. Through substantial characterization, symbolism and language, Williams creates a representation of 1950’s American society, where the women are oppressed and the men dominate.