Psychoanalytical Study of "A Streetcar Named Desire"

Though Blanche doesn’t necessarily want Stanley, she still feeds off the attention given to her. Though what Blanche does may be immoral, there is evidence of her wanting to be clean and virtuous. Almost anytime Blanche’s clothes are described, they are white, an innocent color. The reader can see that Blanche wants to be the virtuous person she often pretends to be.

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.

Blanche’s fear of becoming undesirable has caused her to create an illusion in an attempt to revive her youth. Throughout the entirety of the play, Blanche is constantly worried about her appearance and looks for compliments from others. When she is first introduced, “her appearance is incongruous to this setting. She is daintily dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl, white gloves and hat, looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district”

Another indication of Stella’s dependence in Stanley is when she claimed that she “can’t stand when he (Stanley) is away for a night … I cry on his lap like a baby.” Although this highlights that Stella is highly dependent on Stanley, we cannot ignore the fact that she loves him too.

The contrasts in character emphasised here show that Blanche’s flirtatious attempts to manipulate Stanley are marked out to end in tragedy. Furthering this point Blanche herself recognises what is expected of her as a woman “It was the other little – familiarity – that I – felt obliged to – discourage”[9]. But the disjointed nature of this utterance, by use of hyphens, suggests that she is uncomfortable with these conventions; which is further suggested by her “affection of demureness”.[10]

Stanley overhears these comments as they are ‘unaware of his presence’ (S4:pg.164*; and wants to dispose of Blanche to protect his marriage as Blanche has a hysterical determination to urge Stella to leave Stanley. Stanley refuses to accept Blanches’ conduct as she had no right to intervene and arbitrate as a guest in Stanley’s home supporting the idea that Stanley was preparing her downfall all along.

The play A Streetcar Named Desire, was remade into a movie that was filmed in New Orleans. The film takes place in the 1950s with Blanche who moves in with her sister, Stella, and her brother in law, Stanley. The movie is about Blanche’s experience and eventually demise all in New Orleans.

"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.

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.

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

Tennessee Williams was an American writer known for short stories and poems in the mid 1950’s. His more famous writing was A Streetcar Named Desire. His writings influenced many other writers such as August Strindberg and Hart Crane. His writings A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie was adopted to films and A Streetcar Named Desire earned him his first Pulitzer prize. In A Streetcar Named Desire there is many elements that build the plot and story line. The story is about a girl who is drove crazy by his sister’s husband and eventually sent to the mental hospital. The main plot is towards the end of the story when Blanche Dubois is blackmailed by her sister’s husband and raped by him. Everything takes its toll on her until she begins drinking heavily and is thought to have gone crazy and placed in a mental hospital. In this story, many things play affect in the contrast of the writing such as Blanche arriving at her sister’s house, seeing her sister’s husbands attitude, the poker game, Blanche getting raped. These events make Blanche an easy victim. In Tennessee Williams, a street car named desire, the start of kindness turns to tragedy and pain.

She had many ways to gussy up, Blanche always needed compliments and admiration to get throughout the day. Stella exclaims “and admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche” (Williams 33). In the dimness preferred “she smells sweet and appears on the outside” (Clough n.p.). Blanche owned pieces of clothing that seem to be expensive but really were just cheap pieces of clothing. Not so promising to Stanley, “look at these furs that she comes here to preen herself in! Whats this here? A solid gold dress, I believe! And this one! What is these here? Fox pieces! Genuine fox fur-pieces, a half a mile long” (Williams 35). Blanche also had what was assumed to be expensive jewelry collection but was just simple costume jewelry. “And diamonds! A crown for an impress!” (Williams 36). “She perceives herself as a beautiful object which has to be properly decorated in order to sell well” (Oklopcic n.p.). Even with a great outer appearance Blanche was still ugly on the inside and she knew this. She hated looking at herself in the mirror or being in front of Mitch without being properly dressed. Blanche portrayed herself as having manners, she expected men to stand at her appearance and grant her with

From a societal standpoint, in the 1950’s, abuse might have been common in a typical family home. The only insight of Stella and Stanley’s relationship is when Blanche comes to visit. The outside looking in, the family seems wholesome and normal with

The character Stanley was said to be modelled on his own father. The story of Streetcar is also very much affected by the time in which it is set. Because the story takes place two years following the end of World War II, there is a sense of newfound modernity and resistance to the old ways.

From the time that the streetcar first rattles through town, it is clear that the theme of desire is a prominent feature in A Streetcar Named Desire. The themes of lust and sexuality are present mainly in three major characters: Stanley, Stella, and Blanche. Blanche’s interactions with men and her views of herself revolve around her value as a sexual object; while Stella allows Stanley’s violence and animalistic nature because of their sex life.