Such a Beautiful Play: A Streetcar Named Desire Journal Entry

Janet Ng Professor Faunce WRT 102 7 March 2012 Textual Analysis of A Streetcar Named Desire Based on Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Elia Kazan creates an award winning movie that helps readers visualize Stanley’s primal masculinity, the inner torments of the Kowalski women and the clash of the other characters’ problems which create a chaotic mess. Using stage directions in the play, William hints that Blanche is not who she appears to be while the movie subtly sheds light on…

Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire is a pessimistic work that is the “culmination of a view of life in which evil, or at least undiminished insensitivity, conquers throughout no matter what the protagonistic forces do”(Szeliski 69). In other words, sensitive individuals all meet a similar fate-crushed under the heels of those who lack sensitivity. This play is about Blanche DuBois; therefore, the main themes of the drama concern her directly. In Blanche is seen…

Is the play “A Streetcar Named Desire” a tragedy for Blanche or Stella? Aristotle stated “the structure of the best tragedy should…be… complex” representing” incidents arousing pity and fear “. It’s understood that the focus of tragedy is human suffering and a tragedy must be accessible to audiences, creating a shared catharsis. Although Aristotle refers to classical tragedies, a domestic tragedy like “A Streetcar Named Desire” ensures a greater understanding as it is realistic. Blanche, as the…

they do not want face their fears. Stella and Blanche both desire to make their past non-existent and live in a perfect world, rather than accept the truth and move forward. Stanley does not let his fantasies take over his life as much as the two women. In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar name Desire the three protagonists Blanche, Stella, and Stanley exist in a fool’s paradise by using denial and fantasy to display a public facade in desire to obscure the truth; however, the characters want to escape…

The drama A Streetcar Named Desire is one of Tennessee Williams most well-known plays. Blanche DuBois seeks refuge in her sister’s home after the loss of their ancestral home, the Belle Reve plantation. Her little sister, no more than a year younger than she, shares her home with her husband. During Blanche’s stay, she attempts to escape her past, start afresh, and attract a new suitor to settle down. However, she is tormented by her aggressive, unrelenting, and honest brother-in-law who eventually…

Quote Analysis Literary Features “They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!” (Scene 1, Page 6) Sexual desires are a common interest several people tend to have and Blanche Dubois significantly portray and represents the theme of sexual intimacy in A Street Car Named Desire as Tennessee Williams uses allegory, allusion, symbolism, and foreshadow in order to demonstrate how do Blanche’s “trip” through…

Illusions in A Streetcar Named Desire In Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, there are many examples where the characters are using illusions in an attempt to escape reality. The best example is found by looking to the main character. Blanche Dubois was a troubled woman who throughout the play lives her life in illusions. The story begins with Blanche going to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella, and her husband Stanley for a while.…

Dramas of the twentieth century defied the norm of dull plays and exchanged them for conflicted characters, racy scenes, and curse words. Eugene O’Neill is seen as the innovator of the exciting and fresh new themes, who began the way deep plays were written in 1924. But, perhaps one of the most controversial plays—and maybe the greatest known of the era—is Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, a tale of one woman’s destruction due to Southern society’s changing moral values. The destruction…

The play A Streetcar Named Desire revolves around Blanche DuBois; therefore, the main theme of the drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the tragedy of an individual caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present. The final result is her destruction. This process began long before her clash with Stanley Kowalski. It started with the death…

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…