Theme Of Superego In A Streetcar Named Desire

He is a very dominating: he overpowers his timid wife, Stella, constantly, to keep her from leaving him. He is very proud of his American heritage, several times referencing to his being in the United States Army and is enraged when Blanche calls him "common," or a "Polack." He seems incapable of refinement, and does everything whole-heartedly: he claims to love Stella thoroughly and hates Blanche vehemently. Stanley is honest to the point of brutality, and he does not care about offending others. Further, He even brags to Mitch about raping Blanche. He despises Blanche because they are opposites. His hatred of Blanche is so great that he rapes her, causing her final mental breakdown.

This essay will describe whether or not Blanches’ unfortunate eventual mental collapse was due to her being a victim of the society she went to seek comfort in, or if she was solely or at least partly responsible. The factors and issues that will be discussed include, Blanches’ deceitful behaviour and romantic delusions which may have lead to her eventual downfall, the role Stanley ended up playing with his relentless investigations of her past and the continuous revelations of it, the part society and ‘new America’ played in stifling her desires and throwing her into a world she could not relate to or abide by.

Although Stanley’s power works mainly to downgrade Blanche, his violent and aggressive nature also disempowers Stella. She is abused during poker night, a moment of masculine bonding. Following the poker night she is made powerful when she retreats to Eunice’s Flat. However, she returns to disempowerment when she leaves Eunice’s flat and Stanley ‘bears her into the dark flat’. Stella’s decision to stay with Stanley is not based on choice, but rather on the fact that she must. This enforces the dominant belief that women are unable to support themselves, emotionally and financially.

It was not just her self that put her in the lime light of being a victim; it is also her new change of environment and people. Stanley is Stella's husband; he is described to be very masculine and aware of his sexual magnetism. “Strongly, compactly built”. He is mostly at ease with people however, if they lack loyalty and affection to him, he will bully them. Especially women, as he believes them just to be easy conflict. It is seen in scene 3 that Stanley has little respect for women. “I said to hush up!” This is addressed to his wife who is seen emotionless and impassive in this play. As for Blanche how is fussy and at edge, she would be very effected by the crude attitude that Stanley presents and so tries to hysterical take Stella away from her husband. Stanley does not forget of this act of interference and makes him all the more determined to be rid of Stella’s “charity case”. The real reason for Stanley’s bulling is that Blanche immediately received all Stella’s attention. “How about my supper huh? I’m not going to no Galatorires’ for supper” This made Stella dominant in power over Stanley and Blanche, something Stanley was not used to. “I put you a cold plate on ice”.

Blanche is committed to a tradition and a way of life that have become anachronistic in the world of Stanley Kowalski. She is committed to a code of civilization that died with her ancestral home, Belle Reve. Stella recognizes this tradition and her sister's commitment to it, but she has chosen to relinquish it and to come to terms with a world that has no place for it. In a sense, Blanche is frantic in her refusal to relinquish her concept

He likes to possess and control everything around him, he almost ‘owns’ Stella, and he has changed from her days at Belle Reve, pulling her “down off them columns and how [she] loved it”. But the arrival of Blanche, and her aristocratic ways annoys Stanley, as Stella begins to revert to her old ways. Blanche encourages her to stand up to him, and continually stresses the difference in their levels, although Stanley is not ashamed that he “was common as dirt”. Therefore, the only way that he can overcome Blanche and restore his authority is to beat her and triumph over her physically, which he eventually does. Although ironically, it is the effect of Stanley and his actions on her mind that finally provokes her downfall.

It seems that Williams has made it seem that Stanley did not cause Blanches downfall to much extent that he only sped up Blanche’s decline as she was already on a decline, regardless of Stanley’s added affects. However it can be argued that although Blanche was on the verge of a downfall she would have recovered as she had the strength to go to her sister for help. Yet it can be said that Stanley stopped Blanche recovering and aided her downfall to continue. Williams shaped Stanley’s character as a dominant, prideful and somewhat possessive one... I believe that he is mainly sexually possessive as once Blanche questioned Stella on why she loves Stanley she admitted that it was because, he fulfils her sexual and sensual desires with a steady life. ‘Remember what Huey Long said-`Every Man is a King!' And I am the king around here, so don't forget it!’ Stanley was the dominant character between him and Stella however, with the arrival of Blanche Williams disrupts their simple life; Blanche criticizes his private life his character, his views and beliefs. Therefore Stanley turns against her this could be argued the cause for Stanley to start breaking her down, wanting

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.

Stanley is a character in this play, whose perspective is clearly reality based. Since Blanche’s outlook on life is fantasy based, there is a lot of hostility between the two characters. Stanley is the one that always exposes the lies that Blanche is always hiding behind. He is constantly trying to get her to accept his perspective. When she finally begins to understand him, it’s too late. With such a huge change, she loses her mental state. Her personal beliefs get interchanged between fantasy and reality, to such an extent, that it seems as if she no longer realizes what is true or what is malign.

Stanley’s and Blanche’s worlds are opposite to each other. Stanley and his peers live in a working-class world. Life is simple for them. They work and entertain themselves with beers and card games in their spare time. On the contrary, Blanche is from Old South of luxury, where white people are

The theme of reality vs. fantasy is one that the play centres around. Blanche dwells in illusion; fantasy is her primary means of self-defence, both against outside threats and against her own demons. Throughout the play, Blanche's dependence on illusion is contrasted with Stanley's steadfast realism, and in the end it is Stanley and his worldview that win. To survive, Stella must also resort to a kind of illusion, forcing herself to believe that Blanche's accusations against Stanley are false so that she can continue living with her husband.

Blanche’s unexpected arrival at the entrance of the play is what stirs an even bigger monster in Stanley. Upon her entrance, she immediately causes trouble due to her and Stanley’s differences. Blanche is a southern belle from a very wealthy background. She is very proud of being brought up in the upper class while Stanley is proud that he lead his own life through the working class. This makes him a very rude and animalistic man with a lower level of education. Even their first conversation

Blanche has gone against everything that Stanley has worked for; she thinks she can lie to the people in her life, she adds a style of personality that Stanley has been offended by, and she pushes his limits with music, lighting, and her clothes. Blanche manages to challenge him by doing all these things. Not only does Blanche challenge him, she has moved into his life unexpectedly, drank his liquor, and continues to destroy his way of life.

A very apparent character trait of Stanley is his love for his wife, Stella. In scene two, Stella and Stanley notice all the very nice things that Blanche has in her trunk. For Blanche being a poor girl, Stanley knows that she shouldn't have so many nice things. Stanley expresses his concern to Stella as he says, "It looks like you have been swindled, baby...". This shows that Stanley only wants for Stella what she deserves, and if Blanche is not sharing what money is also Stella's, then it upsets him.

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 of her young husband, a weak and perverted boy who committed suicide when she taunted him with her disgust at the discovery of his perversion. In retrospect, she knows that he was the only man she had ever loved, and from this early catastrophe