Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire And A View From The Bridge

In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams explores the internal conflict of illusion versus reality through the characters. Humans often use illusion to save us pain and it allows us to enjoy pleasure instead. However, as illusion clashes with reality, one can forget the difference between the two. When people are caught up in their illusions, eventually they must face reality even if it is harsh. In the play, Blanche suffers from the struggle of what is real and what is fake because of the difficult events of her past. Blanche comes to her sister Stella seeking aid because she has lost her home, her job, and her family. To deal with this terrible part of her life, she uses fantasy to escape her dreadful reality. Blanche’s embracement of a fantasy world can be categorized by her attempts to revive her youth, her relationship struggles, and attempts to escape her past.

Throughout the final scene of “A Streetcar Named Desire” Tennessee Williams evokes a resounding feeling of sympathy within the audience, through allowing them to see Blanche’s fate before her which creates a conspiring atmosphere of mistrust and ambush. This is created by this scene directly following the most dramatic in which Blanche is raped by Stanley and Stella gives birth, creating a just as dramatic denouement.

All the characters are in conflict at one point or another in the course of action.  Some of the minor characters, like the couple upstairs, reflect a mirror situation of Stanley and Stella.  The play is not easy to understand on the psychological level for it is complex.  Blanche is a middle-aged former beauty who cannot tolerate the miserable condition of her present.  Everything she does, from hanging a paper lantern over a naked light bulb to pretending she is younger than Stella is an effort to dim the harsh facts of her reality.  Stella knows Stanley is abusive and not in control of his passions, but she cannot face the world alone and tolerates whatever she must to have him as a source of identity and stability in the harsh world.  Mitch is full of illusions about women and cannot bare the truth about Blanche, but he does have more empathy than Stanley.  Stanley is cold, insensitive and lives only for himself.  He could care less what others think, and, if anyone challenges what he does or how he feels he is ready

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.

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.

Stella predicts conflict to arise between Blanche and Stanley based on their differences. She foreshadows this when she tells her husband, (Stella: “You didn’t know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change”(68). It is indeed Stanley’s abuse that forces Blanche to continue her path of change – to retreat further from the reality, which clearly destroys

Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) critiques society’s idea of strictly categorizing men and women into roles based upon gender. Williams starkly highlights the vast difference between these assigned gender roles and the resulting consequences of placing these unobtainable expectations on people. The main difference between the two socially conceived genders correlates with the amount of power each gender holds and, therefore, how each gender reacts to the opposite. The female gender should submit all power to males resulting in men being in complete control over women. Masculinity becomes associated with manipulation and control, implying and encouraging female frailty and weakness. Williams exhibits this balance between masculinity and

Typically, in a relationship from the historical social construct, there is a stereotype amongst gender roles where the male is the dominant figure, and the female tends to be vulnerable and compliant with the male. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, this relationship is exemplified through the main characters Stanley Kowalski and Stella. Stanley possess the role of “Alpha Male,” and projects this onto Stella who assumes the role of “submissive wife”. She experiences mental and physical abuse, yet unconditionally loves him. In the setting of 1950’s New Orleans, this would be considered part of the norm, despite modern social beliefs. With current social standards, their relationship would push past the boundaries

Stella is innately cruel because of the claim that Stella’s sister Blanche made, saying that Stanley raped her in which she does not believe. While fantasy and illusions begin with Blanche, they do not end with her withdrawal in the play. As Blanche leaves with the doctor, Stella is still living in denial of Blanches claim “I couldn’t believe her story” she tells Eunice beforehand. The only way Stella could live with herself and still have Stanley was by telling herself a much greater lie one much greater than anything fashioned by her sister. Stella wants to be with Stanley because she in fear of becoming socially unnormal.

The role of women in the 1950 was seen to be repressive and constrictive in many ways. Society placed high importance and many expectations for these women on behavior at home as well as in public. Women were supposed to fulfil certain roles, such as a caring mother, a diligent homemaker, and an obedient wife. The perfect mother was supposed to stay home and nurture so society would accept them. In fact, even if a woman wanted to voice an opinion, her lack of education would not allow it . The play A Streetcar Named Desire is set during the late 1940’s and early 1950’s period where it describes the decline of a fading Southern belle named Blanche DuBois. The women in this play are represented to be dependent and submissive in nature and in addition they are also seen to be manipulative. However, Williams has also portrayed these women to be independent and taking control of the situation. This can be seen through the use of the main characters

Tennesse Williams was a man who had a unique and creative mind, with which he created many famous plays that still resonate with audiences today. The play “Street Car Named Desire” illustrates Williams’ harsh upbringings and complex relationships that symbolise the reality of the world we live in. This is evident through the themes of denial of reality, effects of brutality and human desire. These themes are conveyed through the relationships of Stella and Blanche’s sisterly relationship, Stanley’s brutality towards others and characters all in need for desire.

Overall, both Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Miller’s All My Sons inform their audiences about various social issues with similar and different devices in order to achieve their purpose. Both plays utilize outer dialogue in order to present the issues with the American Dream in Miller’s work and mental health with Williams. However, they also use different devices such as motifs or mood to raise other problems in society such as spousal abuse and social

Women are marginalised in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ through their economic status, their mental health and their place as a woman in the society of 1940s. They are held as possessions for admiration and housework. Neither of the men in the play treat them as they should be treated, and see them as nothing more than a housemaker and a child bearer. Also, it is made prominently clear by Williams that no woman would be able to survive without a man at that time. However, at some occasions, Williams portrays that women can prove to be challenging if undermined.

At the beginning of the play, there is an equilibrium, Stanley and Stella have been living happily together in Elysian Fields, however the arrival of Blanche acts as a catalyst and immediately she begins to challenge their way of life with her values.

The way this theme contributes to Stanley destroying Blanches’ mental health is that his necessity for reality intrudes on Blanches’ desperate attempt at surviving illusions. Stanley is ‘simple, straightforward and honest’ (S2:pg.137*) and incapable of understanding Blanches’ delicate