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Streetcar Named Desire

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A Streetcar Named Desire is focused almost completely on the three protagonists: Blanche, Stella, and Stanley. It could be suggested that this play was influenced by Williams’ own upbringing: his sister Rose was mentally ill, and Williams’ was a doting older brother. It could then be said that Blanche was inspired by Rose and that this play uses his unique perspective to comment on the treatment of the mentally ill. Williams may be using Stella’s conflict to highlight this. Through form, duologues specifically, Williams’ could be presenting the fragmented relationships between the three characters. Felicia Hardison Londré suggests Scene Two is ‘comprised of two sequences, both ‘duets’, one between Stella and Stanley, followed by one between …show more content…

This is particularly utilised during Scene 10, where Williams establishes the lighting use through stage directions: 'lurid reflections appear on the walls around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form'. This lighting choice suggests expressionist influences in the play, as they enable a visual representation of what may be Blanche's state of mind. These reflections, that are described as moving ‘sinuously as flames’, may be suggesting Blanche feels trapped in a 'grotesque and menacing' world that she has no control in. The appearance of flames may have been used to represent how one event (the death of her Husband) has caused a ripple effect across Blanche's entire life, she is her life has been almost entirely destroyed. This lack of control is then reinforced through her rape by Stanley, this is commonly inferred as the last tragedy that consequents in her complete mental breakdown. All this goes to reinforce the aforementioned idea that this play is not primarily about a struggle for power but about Blanche's struggle in her own …show more content…

This is made clear through even the first time the audience meets each character. The first time we see Stanley speak to Stella he ‘bellows’: a sound evocative of someone/thing with strength and confidence. This confidence is reinforced when Blanche enters, where she speaks ‘with faintly hysterical humour’ and is described by Williams as like a ‘moth’. Immediately in it clear that Stanley is a ‘strong’ character, and Blanche a ‘weak’ character. This may go to suggest that there could never be a battle between the two characters, it is clear from the offset the Blanche doesn’t have the constitution for such a fight. Blanche being described as a ‘moth’ may have symbolic significance, as moths are attracted to light, however, when they land on a light source, they die. This could then be foreshadowing the end of the play: whilst Blanche clearly is more in need of Stella’s support, Stanley’s strength and confidence will always win over. Through this Williams may be commenting on society as a whole, and how in his view, the ‘new society’ Stanley represents shuns, exploits and mistreats ‘moth-like’ people such as Blanche. Whilst it may be true that Stanley does not require Stella’s support, arguably, he still deeply desires her attention, so the battle between Blanche

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