A Streetcar Named Desire and Twelfth Night: Comparative task

Blanche is Stella’s eccentric sister, she comes to Elysian Fields for help because she has gone through a traumatic period and is struggling with who she is. Malvolio is is a typical brown nose, he will do anything to gain favor of Countess Olivia. However those opposite characters explore the same themes.Through their roles in Twelfth Night and A Streetcar named Desire, Malvolio and Blanche both undergo unrequited love and downfall but because sympathy is created for Blanche both characters have an opposite effect on the audience.

Blanche’s downfall in A Streetcar Named Desire is immensely dramatic because during the play, tension is build up and the audience understands she is a victim of circumstance.

Throughout the play Blanche repeatedly hears Varsouviana Polka in her head, nobody else can hear it. The Varsouviana Polka symbolizes Blanche’s paranoia and guilt, the death of her husband was the instigator of her troubled path. However Banche may also feel guilty for the death of her husband because the tune of the Varsouviana Polka suddenly increases when Blanche tells, she told her husband that he disgusted her. The audience understands that she is still struggling with her past and sees this as a justification for her selfish behaviour.

When Blanche was younger, she lost her husband to suicide and she lost Belle Reve because several relatives died. This all had a significant effect on Blanche as a person. She tried to be someone, she is not to cover the truth. The paper lantern perfectly symbolizes Blanche because Blanche -just like the paper around the lantern- tries to dim the truth, she does not want anybody to find out about her past.

If you take Blanche’s past in account, you can conclude that Blanche is a victim o...

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...tands that Blanche needs a shoulder to cry on. With other words the audience thinks that Blanche deserves someone and that makes Blanche's unrequited love for both her sister and Mitch abysmally dramatic.

Through their roles in Twelfth Night and A Streetcar named Desire, Malvolio and Blanche both undergo unrequited love and downfall but because in A Streetcar named Desire sympathy is created for Blanche both characters have an opposite effect on the audience. In conclusion Malvolio's role is Twelfth Night is set-up to show the audience how your behaviour influences the way people might think about you as a person. For Blanche's role in Streetcar named Desire, the audience knows more context so we feel sympathy for her and it justifies her behaviour. However both roles show how your behaviour can influence the way people think about you.