Mental Illiness in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire

“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.”

Unlike character, characterization can be defined as methods an author uses to create the characters. Two examples an author can use are direct characterization where a character is directly described by the author, and indirect characterization where the character is revealed by their actions, reactions of other characters, thought, and speech. There are a few scenes in the play where the author directly describes a character. One example of major direct characterization comes from scene one in which Stanley is first introduced and described. Tennessee Williams writes, “Branching out from this complete and satisfying center are all the auxiliary channels of his life, such as his heartiness with men, his appreciation of rough humor, his love of good drink and food and games, his car, his radio, everything that is his emblem of the gaudy seed-bearer.” (Williams 84). His description of Stanley gives the reader a picture of how he acts and how he will act throughout the rest of the story. Much of the indirect characterization of the play can also be centered around the heated topic of sensuality. Blanche is an important character whose characterization heavily relies on her actions related to sensuality, and other’s reactions to her actions. “Blanche waltzes to the music with romantic gestures. Mitch is delighted and moves in awkward imitation like a dancing bear.” (Williams 97). This quote shows the relationship between Blanche and Mitch, a potential love interest, after she

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.

Many playwrights agree with this school of thought, seeing a person’s madness as reasonable or sensible. Tennessee Williams presents this idea that madness is reasonable when viewed with a discerning eye in his play A Streetcar Named Desire. In the play, the character Blanche DuBois is mad, when madness is defined as “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it”(Prompt). Throughout the play she displays erratic behavior and appears to be delusional, but one could argue her madness can be rationalized or justified. Her madness impacts the direction of the plot, the plot wouldn’t be there without it.

Stella isn’t as happy as it may seem to be. Even in scene 2, Stanley’s

"A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most renowned 20th century American plays and films. The playwright is Tennessee Williams, a respected author whose works artistic and structural merit warrants their study into the 21st century. There are numerous aspects and points Williams makes with his works, including "A Streetcar Named Desire." Out of the richness this text offers, this paper will focus upon issues of mental illness and abuse in the play. No doubt an aspect that makes Williams' characters so vivid are their flaws, weaknesses, and desires. Where a person's character lacks weakness and what a person desires reveal a great deal about that person and provide insight into the choices they make. The paper will discuss aspects of abuse and mental instability in the characters and plot of "A Streetcar Named Desire," and will reference the play directly to underscore any points.

450 million. “That is the current number of people in the world who suffer from or are affected by mental illness”(World Health Organization). Mental illness is quite obviously an issue that affects many people and families around the world. Many writers take a social issue, such as mental illness, and use it to inspire their work and portray it in a new and creative fashion. They take an issue that nearly everyone is familiar with and will recognize and build upon it, creating characters that many readers will connect with and relate to. In this particular play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams clearly portrays the issue of mental illness, and its impact on society is shown in statistics, expert analysis, and expert testimony.

Firstly, in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the writer presents disconcerting behaviour throughout the text. Tennessee Williams uses Stanley to display different types of disturbing behaviour, and the events that occur due to his attitude. Stanley is presented having a masculine, animalistic nature, which includes his open violent behaviour. His animalistic nature is displayed when he ‘charges after Stella’, in scene three of the play, and when there is the ‘sound of a blow’ in the household, indicating that Stanley had physically hurt Stella so much causing her to cry. Critic, Michael Coveney explains that in the

Any human consideration regarding a mental or physical state lies in a relational context, as measured against a normative criterion established by a majority or the powerful. Considering the value of mental illness or instability in a vacuum, it is arguably impossible to remove any evaluation from the context in which it is situated. Thus to identify mental instability is to comparatively grade it against a series of premises that uphold a system of normative mental health. Foucault and Laing, for example, examine the concept of insanity as being something deviant, and that which transgresses ethical norms in relation to human behaviour and cognitions of reality. In a sense, mental illness is bound up with the oft-examined concept of ‘othering’,

In Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” madness continues to get progressively worse in the lives of the main characters Stanly, Stella, and Blanche. Because of low self esteem and her delusional thought process Blanche is most affected by the madness. Blanche’s delusional life style leads her to compulsively lie, live a promiscuous life style, and alcoholism. Blanche tries constantly to deal with her own madness, but her delusional mental state is constantly effect by the people around her. Although she causes most of the problems in her life some of her madness is justifiable. By the end of the play Blanche can no longer fight off the madness and is sent to an insane asylum. Even though most of the madness that occurs

“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.

According to Sigmund Freud, there are three different systems in the human brain, all developing at different times. The id, ego and superego are the three different systems that determine your personality. Stanley Kowalski is one of the main characters in A Streetcar Named Desire and Stella’s husband. The id is the impulsive part of the personality and develops when children are infants. The id has no control over decisions and does not understand the effects afterwards.

When looking at the conflict between Miss. Dubois and Mr. Kowalski we the see it is sexual and being from different social classes. They are from different classes because of the way they were raised. Mr. Kowalski was born in to a poor or middle class family whereas Miss. Dubois was born in to a family with money because her and her families owning Belle Reve and many acres, but after all the deaths she lost her family home and money. Which is one of the reasons she goes to visit her sister. Which is when the conflicts start’s. I believe another reason for the conflict is because of their world views Miss. Dubois believes she should be viewed as royalty where as Mr. Kowalski knows he’s polack and common as dirt. Mr. Kowaslski does not believe Miss. Dubois is as fragile as moth and not so different from him which is why he treats her the way he does. Miss. Dubois believes this is an insult to her and her appearance even though she hides her appearance because she does not want Mitch to see her for what she is an old women and a liar. This is another reason Mr. Kowalski has so much conflict with Miss Dubois. If Miss. Dubois would have just told the truth about why she was visiting and why she had to leave Laurel. Then most of the conflict could have been avoid. The only thing Miss. Dubois does not lie about is that she was an English teacher I believe she does not lie about it because it is the one thing in her life that she had complete control of. I also believe her

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.

Tennessee Williams' Use of Imagery and Symbolism in A Streetcar Named Desire Throughout the play symbolism is used to capture attention and to appeal to viewers' emotions. It is expressed through music, colour and imagery all of which help to heighten tension and reflect the atmosphere created by an impending force.