Alcohol is used many ways in A Streetcar Named Desire. Main Character Blanche DuBois uses booze to distract herself from reality and to retreat further into a world of fantasy and cleverly contrived artifice. Habitual drinking isn’t ideal for woman’s reputation back in the 1940s, so the habit is often hidden or disguised. For the male gender, alcohol is very much tied to physical aggression and plays a part in the plays worst violence. All throughout the play the use of alcohol continues to been seen as a key contributor to the abuse, lies, and deceit. Blanche DuBois is delicate, refined, and sensitive. She is cultured and intelligent. She can't stand a vulgar remark or a vulgar action. Prior to her coming to visit her sister Stella, Blanche …show more content…
It is in this setting that Stanley is shown to be the alpha male amongst his group. Throughout the scene, Stanley is in control, telling his friends what particular game they are to play, when to drink and what to do. The drinks of Stanley’s choice include beer and whiskey, these are also symbols of masculinity and desire to consume alcohol as part of the social order. The combination of this alcohol indulgence and the game of poker create an atmosphere intended to establish male bonding and social order while at the same time excluding all aspects of the feminine. The shattering of this exclusion by Stella and Blanche’s return helps to expose Stanley’s desire for order. Without alcohol, Stanley would be more inclined to take a quieter stance on the disruption of his male order. It’s not until after Stella returns that there is a moment where she defies Stanley and we see the effects of alcohol take him over as he goes to beat Stella but his friends restrain him. His aggression shows again when Blanche turns on the radio but Stanley doesn’t want to radio on so he turns it off although all the other men are enjoying the
Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire is a overly dramatic play that concludes in a remarkable manner. The play takes off by introducing Stanley and Stella, a married couple whom live in New Orleans. They have a two-sided relationship, very loving but abusive. Then suddenly Blanche shows up, Stella’s sister, and informs Stella that their home in Belle Reve was lost. A few days later, Blanche meets and becomes attracted to Mitch, a friend of Stanley. Blanche sees Stanley as an abusive husband and contrasts him to Mitch. Blanche immediately begins to develop deep emotions for Mitch because he is very romantic and a gentleman. Blanche begins to talk to Stella because she does not want her sister to be abused.
Blanche DuBois represents the delicacy of the vulnerable mind that Tennessee Williams aimed to portray in his plays, but also his own fear of going insane. Blanche
The character Stanley represents the theme of reality. Stanley Kowalski is the simple blue-collar husband of Stella. His actions, reactions, and words show reality in its harshest most purist form. His actions are similar to a primitive human. For example he doesn’t close the door when he uses the restroom. This rudeness represents the harsh reality that Blanche refuses to accept. Moreover, when he was drunk he hit Stella. This attack on Blanches sister could be a symbolic “wake up” slap to the face of Blanche.
The essential conflict of the story is between Blanche, and her brother in-law Stanley. Stanley investigates Blanche’s life to find the truth of her promiscuity, ruining her relationships with Stella, and her possible future husband Mitch, which successfully obtain his goal of getting Blanche out of his house. Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she should leave Stanley because she witnessed a fight between the two. Despite these instances, there is an essence of sexual tension between the two, leading to a suspected rape scene in which one of their arguments ends with Stanley leading Blanche to the bed. Branching from that, Stella has an inner conflict because she does not know whether to side with her husband or her sister in each situation. Blanche and Mitch ha...
The drama is basically about a married couple -Stella and Stanley Kowalski- who are visited by Stella's older sister, Blanche. The drama shows the caustic feelings of these people putting Blance DuBois in the center. The drama tells the story of the pathetic mental and emotional demise of a determined, yet fragile, repressed and delicate Southern lady born to a once-wealthy family of Mississippi planters.3 No doubt that the character of Blanche is the most complex one in the drama. She is truly a tragic heroine.
However, there are also many instances where Stanley, a common working-class man, reveals his desire to be powerful and manly in his relationship with Stella, a woman who is of high class. Stanley is a man from a poor background and is married to a woman with a rich family history. Logically, Stanley may feel intimidated by Stella’s upbringing and feels that it is crucial to oppress her; it is hinted many times throughout the play as Stanley clearly demonstrates he is the one that holds the power by the way he treats Stella. Right from the start of the play, with Stanley’s introduction, he comes “around the corner… [with] a red-stained package from a butcher’s” (4), much like how an animal would bring its kill back home. With this, it is an analogy to a leader, Stanley, of a pack that brings back the food for the others to eat. The reliance of Stanley to bring back home the food broadcasts his will as the almighty alpha male that holds more importance than Stella. Furthermore, Stanley “heaves the meat at her (Stella),” (4) treating her as like a servant and also making a sexual innuendo. This action is one of disrespect and lets Stella know that she is under Stanley. This is an example of Stanley seeing Stella as a slave, a sexual object, under his control. Control is a large factor to Stanley as a husband and as a person. This is apparent when Stella explains that “Stanley doesn’t
Stanley (Stella's husband) represents a theme of realism in the play; he is shown as a primitive, masculine character that is irresistible to Stella and on some levels even to his "opponent" Stella's sister Blanche.
The institution is a society or organization founded for a religious education, social, or similar purpose. A Streetcar Named Desire is about family and friends who lives in New Orleans. With the main character Blanche DuBois an insecure, dislocated individual that’s just desires happiness. But guilt, depression, and lying broke Blanche away from her friends and family. By the end of the play everyone was against her and wanted her to go away into an asylum.
The themes of A streetcar Named Desire are mainly built on conflict, the conflicts between men and women, the conflicts of race, class and attitude to life, and these are especially embodied in Stanley and Blanche. Even in Blanche’s own mind there are conflicts of truth and lies, reality and illusion, and by the end of the play, most of these conflicts have been resolved.
In scene three Stanley is having his poker party (pg. 57). At this point he is very drunk. Blanche distracting Stanley by listening to the radio instigates him to grab it off the table and toss it out the window. Stella in a state of panic tells everyone to go home which angers Stanley so he chases after her and hits her. This type of behavior is not normal of any human being involved in any relationship. Stanley repeatedly gets what he wants by use of any means possible. In addition the person whoever threatens the existence of his poker game receives a beating, in this case his wife. This scene demonstrates Stanley’s viscous animal like traits with such violence. If what happened here was repeated in today’s society he would find himself in a jail cell with a pending divorce.
From the first moment the Williams introduces Blanche, it is evident that she believes herself to be of a higher class, and this is shown with how uncomfortable she is around those of a lower class. When Blanche is shown an act of kindness from Eunice, “Why don’t you set down?” her response to this person of a lower class than herself is dismissive, “…I’d like to be left alone.” She instantly expects too much from a place called ‘Elysian Fields’. Blanche feels uneasy about being around those that are of a lower class, especially of those who she does not know, which is clear when she is reunited with her sister. She immediately becomes ostentatious in her actions, and begins to speak with “feverish vivacity”, “Stella, Oh Stella, Stella! Stella for Star!” Perhaps she is relieved to be with her sister once again, or it could be that she feels she now has someone to be dominant over, since she has little control over her own life. Blanche comes across as being very motherly towards Stella, “You messy child” in spite of the fact that Stella is soon to beco...
Stella Dubois is unconcerned about her survival and is more concerned about her life with Stanley. The plot is introduced when Stella’s sister Blanche moves in with Stella and her husband. Blanche is a dynamic character and that causes conflict with other characters, revealing the other character’s true nature, including Stella’s. Blanche consistently comments to Stella about Stanley’s character stating that “he’s common… He’s like an animal…Yes, something- ape-like about him”(Williams, 82-83). Despite Blanche and Stella’s wealthy and privileged upbringing, she’s head over heels in love with Stanley, who even described himself as unrefined. In Scene three, Blanche stirs trouble with Stanley by turning on the radio when he told her to turn it off.
Tennessee Williams wrote about Blanche DuBois: 'She was a demonic character; the The size of her feelings was too great for her to contain without the escape of the madness. Williams uses Blanche DuBois as a vehicle to explore several themes. that interested him, one of these being madness. His own sister, Rose,.
Blanche Dubois, a refined and delicate woman plagued by bad nerves, makes her first appearance in scene one of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. She unexpectedly arrives in New Orleans to visit her sister Stella Kowalski who ran away after their father’s death. Upon their reunion, Blanche is sharp-tongued and quick to state her shock over the unsavory status of the apartment in comparison to the luxurious plantation where the two sisters were raised. Though dissatisfied by the living conditions, Blanche quickly explains that she had been given leave of absence from her teaching position due to bad nerves and could not stand being left alone—her excuse to invite herself to stay with Stella for an undetermined period of time. It
In A Street Car Named Desire, the whimsical dialogues that Blanche Dubois embarks on throughout conversations with characters such as Stella and Stanley, work in tandem to leave the victims distraught by verbal lashes and painstakingly ardent dissertations of there personal motives for continuing to travel down the various dissipate inroads of there life. The often-demoralizing manner in which Blanche convolutes the actions of these characters, seemingly labels her with the nominal reputation as the two-faced, conflicted observer. There is the depiction of a critically honest blanche who will speak her mind in a manner that is oblivious to the thoughts and feelings of her recipients, vs. the caricature of an innocent, delirious blanche, whose deliberations delude and shroud her ability to maintain a unaltered, open-minded consciousness when engaging in conversations with characters. However, amidst Blanches barrage of demoralizing criticism that leaves her victims in a dumbfounded manner, she presents her critiques with painstakingly well-acclimated spurs of unrepressed honesty that brandishes her assertions and accompanies them with an intrinsically meaningful compassion that at times is mistaken by other characters to be uncultivated regressions of disenchanting rancor, vehemence, and indignation expressed towards the welfare and manifestos of the characters she is persistent upon contending with.