1. What changes do you see in Stella with Blanche's arrival and presence? (Cite specific instances/examples) Why are these changes significant, and how do they impact the ending? After Blanche comes Stella is torn between Blanche and her husband, Stanley. Stella ends up being in the middle between the two and constantly trying to make peace. She takes Blanche’s side and tells Stanly, “You didn’t know Blanche as a girl” (140). The conflict between Blanche and Stanely is over Stella’s attention. In Scene Four, after Blanche goes on about how Stanley “acts like an animal” (121) and Stanley is listening, but the women do not know it. When Stanley comes in, Stella “embraces him with both arms, fiercely, and full in view of Blanch” (122) to I think Blanche is relating the streetcar as a symbol for Stanley and both are common and trash. Another meaning is when stella asks Blanche if she has ridden on the streetcar named desire, she is asking her if she has experienced that raw brutal desire like Stella has with Stanley. this scene also has Blanche telling Stella that she has experienced that kind of desire and “It brought me her” (121). She is talking about her marriage to the yound husband that took his own life or about the affair with the seventeen-year-old student because both contributed to forcing her to come there. Both caused her to be broke with no job and no husband. 3. What do you make of the scene with the newspaper boy? Is Blanche deteriorating, or was she this way when we first met her just better camouflaged? She was that way from the beginning of the story, but she did camouflage it. She had been drinking before the newspaper boy arrived. The drinking contributed to her poor thinking and she acted inappropriately. After she kissed him, she says “It would be nice to keep you, but I’ve got to be good—and keep my hands off of children” ((127) because she knew it was wrong. She was also talking about the seventeen-year-old boy who she had a relationship with that caused her to lose her job
He wants her to be truthful and "lay her cards on the table" but simultaneously would "get ideas" about Blanche if she wasn't Stella's sister (Williams, Street 40-41). Their relationship overflows with sexual tension as they battle for Stella. Stanley, the new south, defeated Blanche, the old south. After destroying her chance for security, his sexual assault erases her last traces of sanity. Similarly opposites are found in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
In 'A Streetcar Named Desire' we focus on three main characters. One of these characters is a lady called Blanche. As the play progresses, we gradually get to know more about Blanche and the type of person she really is in contrast to the type of person that she would like everybody else to think she is. Using four main mediums, symbolism and imagery, Blanche's action when by herself, Blanche's past and her dialogue with others such as Mitch, Stanley and the paperboy, we can draw a number of conclusions about Blanche until the end of Scene Five. Using the fore mentioned mediums we can deter that Blanche is deceptive, egotistical and seductive.
After Alan’s death, she was plagued by the death of her relatives. Stella moved away and did not have to deal with the agony Blanche faced each day. Blanche was the one who stuck out with her family at Belle Reve, where she had to watch as each of her remaining family members passed away. “I took the blows in my face and my body! All of those deaths are a shame!
She struggles with Stanley’s ideals and shields her past. 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.
During scene one, the audience is introduced to Blanche as Stella's sister, who is going to stay with her for a while. Blanch tries her best to act normal and hide her emotion from her sister, but breaks down at the end of scene one explaining to Stella how their old home, the Belle Reve, was "lost." It is inferred that the home had to be sold to cover the massive funeral expenses due to the many deaths of members of the Dubois family. As Blanche whines to her sister, "All of those deaths! The parade to the graveyard! Father, mother! Margaret, that dreadful way!" (21). The audience sees this poor aging woman, who has lost so many close to her, and now her home where she grew up. How could anyone look at her, and not feel the pain and suffering that she has to deal with by herself? Williams wants the audience to see what this woman has been through and why she is acting the way she is. Blanche's first love was also taken from her. It seems that everyone she loves is dead except for her sister. Death plays a crucial role in Blanche's depression and other mental irregularities. While these circumstances are probably enough for the audience to feel sympathy for Blanche, Williams takes it a step further when we see Blanche's...
The underlying theme of the play is desire, and the way that Stanley and Blanche deal with their desires is one of the biggest differences between them. Stanley embraces all of his desires in a somewhat animalistic way. When he eats, he gets food all over himself. He has many vices, including drinking, smoking, and gambling. He has a very bad temper, and when he wants something he will take it. He is not shy about his sex life, and does not even try and act modest around Blanche or his friends. All of these qualities come together and are best exemplified in scene 3 of the play, when Stanley is with his friends, drinking, smoking, and playing poker. The stage directions say “STANLEY gives a loud whack of his hand on her thigh” (Williams 110). From that, it is clear to see that Stanley believes that he controls Stella and has little regard for her feelings, because after he smacks her, stella says “Thats not fun, Stanley…It makes me so mad when he does that in front of people” (Williams 110). Blanche, on the other hand, tries her very best to mask her desire. She cares a great deal about her outer appearance, and makes sure that she is always presentable. She is constantly lying about how much she drinks, trying to hide the fact that she might have a problem. She often pretends she has no idea where the liquor is hidden, even though the reader (or the audience watching the play) knows that she found it soon after arriving in New
The conflict between Stanley and Stella climaxes in scene ten. In this scene Stanley openly takes Blanche apart piece by piece he begins with unenthusiastic comments such as "Swine huh?
She passionately raves at length about the horrible deaths and her experience of loved ones dying around her; “all of those deaths… Father, Mother, Margaret, that dreadful way!” The horrific visions of bloated bodies and “the struggle for breath and breathing” have clearly cast a permanent effect on Blanche’s mind. She talks of the quiet funerals and the “gorgeous boxes” that were the coffins, with bitter, black humour. The deaths of Blanche and Stella’s family are important to the play as they highlight the desperation of Blanche’s situation through the fact that she has no other relative to turn to. This makes Stella’s decision at the end of the play seem even harsher than if Blanche had just simply shown up on her doorstep instead of going elsewhere.
To conclude, the author portrays Blanche’s deteriorating mental state throughout the play and by the end it has disappeared, she is in such a mental state that doctors take her away. Even at this stage she is still completely un-aware of her surroundings and the state she is in herself.
...d that a majority of blanches stories were a lie. Stanley and blanches relationship mimicked that of Napoleon and snowball in which napoleon felt threatened by snowballs presence and found the only way to maintain control was to exile him. Blanches inability to accept Stanley’s superiority is what leads Stanley to taking irrational measures and raping her. Stanley’s act mixed with the guilt of her lost love ultimately leads up to her mental breakdown which renders her in a state in which she must be institutionalized. In the end it would be Stanley’s behavior that would destroy Blanche and leave Stella questioning her love for him. Stanley had turned Stella against her own sister, abandoning blood in seek a better life with Stanley. In my opinion that is far more detrimental to there well beings than simply doing hard labour on a farm regardless of who’s running it.
Firstly, the reader may initially feel Blanche is completely responsible or at least somewhat to blame, for what becomes of her. She is very deceitful and behaves in this way throughout the play, particularly to Mitch, saying, ‘Stella is my precious little sister’ and continuously attempting to deceive Stanley, saying she ‘received a telegram from an old admirer of mine’. These are just two examples of Blanches’ trickery and lying ways. In some ways though, the reader will sense that Blanche rather than knowingly being deceitful, actually begins to believe what she says is true, and that she lives in her own dream reality, telling people ‘what ought to be the truth’ probably due to the unforgiving nature of her true life. This will make the reader begin to pity Blanche and consider whether these lies and deceits are just what she uses to comfort and protect herself. Blanche has many romantic delusions which have been plaguing her mind since the death of her husband. Though his death was not entirely her fault, her flirtatious manner is a major contributor to her downfall. She came to New Orleans as she was fired from...
Blanche is the main character of the play, she is Stella’s older sister, and comes to stay with Stella while Stella is pregnant. Blanche, after being reunited with Stella, meets Stanley and Mitch. Stella is torn between her sister and Stanley because of Stanley’s dislike of Blanche. Stanley is a lower class citizen who is devoted to his friends and adores his wife, but he is cruel to Blanche. Mitch is Stanley’s friend and poker buddy.
She proceeds to break up the poker game that Stanley had going in the kitchen and he becomes enraged and beats Stella. She yells, “I want to go away, I want to go away!” (63). Blanche and Stella retreat to the upstairs apartment, however when Stanley cries for Stella to come back to him, she succumbs to his cries. The climax of tension between Stanley and Blanche is when he sexually assaults her. Stella refuses to believe Blanche’s accusations against Stanley stating, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (165). The play ends with Stanley and Stella admitting Blanche to a mental institution and Stella staying with Stanley. Throughout the play, Stella is presented with many opportunities to leave Stanley, however, she never considers leaving him. In scene one, Stella tells Blanche, “I can hardly stand it hen he is away for a night…When he’s away for a week I nearly go wild!...And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby…” (19). Blanche disapproves of Stanley and in scene four she states, “You can get out”
which, as Williams suggests, "was too great for her to contain". As to whether her escape was "madness" can be debatable - although Blanche is clearly unstable at many points, some believe that Blanche is not. actually insane, suggested by Stella's comment in Scene 11 - "I. couldn't believe her story and go on living with Stanley. " From her first appearance on stage, Blanche is presented as being.
Blanche uses her dilutions and tries to sway Stella away from Stanley, yet Stella takes all these slanders and belittles them. Stella does this because she loves Stanley and since she is pregnant with his baby.