Personal Narrative: A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire is a play that tells the tale of a family in 1940’s New Orleans. It examines the issues of delusion, escapism, the pitfalls of desire, and the idea that people are reluctant to see the truth when it deviates from what their ‘perception’ or what they want from the world. This is all done from a variety of critical lenses. The aforementioned ‘critical lens’ is mostly simply defined as a specific way of looking at a text, by keeping certain questions and ideas in mind. This is important, as it allows the reader to understand a work beyond a mere two dimensional point of view- by analysis on another layer, with certain key factors in mind, a reader is able to further understand the work and the ‘subconscious meaning’ behind the choices of the author. While A Streetcar Named Desire is a novel about the chains of our own making, the reader’s experience and

There are nine types of heroes in this world, each of them with their own unique stories, plots, cliches etc. Among those is the classic tragic hero, one who is destined to fail no matter what. In a Streetcar Named Desire, the tragic hero is Blanche Dubois, an aging Southern Belle living in a state of perpetual panic about her fading beauty. In this essay it will be discussed what makes Blanche a tragic hero and how she compares to a typical tragic hero.

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 written by Tennessee 0portray a play center and revolving around characters and New Orleans. The two settings are completely different we are introduced to Elysian Field where the Kowalski live and then Blanche from Belle Reve a high class society. Stella has written to Blanche “She wasn’t expecting to find us in such a small place. You see I’d tried to gloss things over a little in my letters” (31). Blanche meanwhile travelled to stay with the Kowalski on two streetcars which will ultimately determine her faith she longs for desire but could not bear the sign of death.

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.

Tennessee Williams was born as Thomas Lanier Williams on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi. He is the son of Cornelius Coffin Williams and Edwina Dakin Williams. As he grew up, he heard stories about the volunteer work of his father as well as the forty-five men his mother dated before she finally decided to settle down (Forman 1). His parents separated in 1909 before his older sister Rose was born. The separation was caused by Cornelius’ problems with womanizing, drinking, and gambling (Forman 3). His mother went to live at her father’s rectory in Columbus. He grew very fond of his grandparents, Reverend Walter Dakin and Rose Otte Dakin. Soon, Williams started to dread the days that his father would

A streetcar named desire is known as a timeless play, due to its highly controversial nature, it has potential to be interpreted in a countless number of ways. A streetcar named desire allows members of its audience to bond with specific characters, due to its extremely relatable characters, depending on what your beliefs are. It was also a highly controversial play as many critics blamed the acting of Marlin Brando, as a cause for people sympmathizing with him. The play explores the two characters Blanche and Stanley, who symbolise the gender roles and the power of men over women in the 1940’s in New Orleans. This struggle for power, Stanley through assertion for authority, leads to Blanche’s eventual descent into madness.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a drama play by Tennessee Williams, the play takes place in the 1940s. The movie adaptation by Elia Kazan was published later in 1951. Both the movie and the film exposes the reality of the struggle between men and women for power in society during the time that the play took place. Williams emphasizes this struggle by using social attitudes that represented gender expectations and inequality as well. In a streetcar named desire, William uses spanking, violence, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, mental health, and emotions, to portray the woman’s lack of authority, weakness, and submissiveness. In the play and in the movie, Blanche Dubois is the flowery, ladylike vision of womanhood; but she challenges the symbol of manhood. Stella, Blanche’s sister, represents the infantilized, and ultimately submissive version of womanhood. While Stella and Blanche offer conflicting views of womanhood, their story along with Stanley’s represent the gender norms of their time as well as the growing conflict that came from challenging those norms.

The film A Streetcar Named Desire was an original play by Tennessee Williams then was later made in film form by Elia Kazan. I think A Streetcar Desire Named Desire could be seen as a narrative because it is based on one of the characters lives, it shares a story about this woman named Blanche DuBois who was a schoolteacher is now on a search for what comes next in her life, like where does she go from where she is now? Blanche is trying to find a place where she belongs and somewhere she can call her own.

When you go to work, do you love what you do? Equality knows that his invention will be a boon to all mankind, but that isn’t what fills him with pride and joy while experimenting. His primary motivation for administering his experiments is pure curiosity. When Equality was at the Home of Students he always learned much faster than the others. His brain works fast, and his intelligence is superior to that of his brothers. It is to the point that his intelligence often caused him to commit transgressions at the Home of Students. This specific one is called the Transgression of Preference. Equality commits this crime because before he was assigned to street sweeping, he would dream of the job he wanted.

Love makes sane people do insane things. Hate will drive people to complete madness. I was normal before, happy even. Now I’m haunted by my actions, ones that will follow me for the rest of my life. The question is, was it worth it?

Laurel realizes the malice behind her father’s actions and words in his interactions with the Mennonites. She realized her father had taken advantage of a humble people’s belief, in doing good to all people, with the sole purpose of seeing “a white man on his knees doing something for a black man for free,” (Packer 27)—without even a nice word of “thank you.” Here was a people (the Mennonites) who were able to overcome racial prejudice in their service to all men (any ethnicity) and a man who refused to see beyond it. This was also shown in Arnetta’s desire to hurt a scout troop of Caucasian girls. Unable to see anything beyond the color of their skin and a TV version of “ponytailed and full of energy, bubbling over with love and money,”

The best example fantasy is found in the protagonist of the story Blanche Dubois. Throughout the play it clears she is a troubled woman with a troubled past who lives her life in illusion. The story begins with Blanche visiting her sister, Stella, in New Orleans where she will be living with both Stella and her husband Stanley. Blanche came from a wealthy family just like her sister, but when her husband died and began losing other family members, she ended up using up all the money and lost their home. She later then gained a bad reputation sleeping around with many different men. She wanted to escape so she went to visit Stella, here she acted as if everything she did in the past actually never happened, and so began her fantasies. Blanche is constantly giving remarks to show that nothing has changed in her life “You know I haven’t put on one ounce in ten years, Stella? I weigh what I weighed the summer you left Belle Reve. The summer Dad died and you left us.”(15) For Blanche looking good is maintaining her youth thus giving the illusion that nothing has changed. “I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.”(60). When Blanche says this

The title of the play is significant as it links both the concrete with the abstract; the streetcar and desire.

The word “fired” fled through my mind like a recurring nightmare. The mindset of no more money had me driven crazy! Money was Money at the time, growing up in a orphanage wasn’t the easiest lifestyle to pertain too. Stealing and begging was my lifestyle and my job. One day my begging had became very known to a man in the works of opening up a dance club, more so how i liked to call it but to everyone it was known as where the dirty women dance and take their clothes off , I didn’t want to think of myself as dancing and perverted minds looking at me while i didn’t even know how to dance but i said yes anyway because i was hungry that day, and hungry for nothing more than food. I didn’t want these men knowing who i was, not like they knew me but i even dancing in the provocative way i was i wanted to believe that i still and morals and dignity to myself, so i asked the paul the security if i gave him some money to guy buy me a somewhat pretty mask.