Themes in A Streetcar Named Desire
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.
This play is about Blanche DuBois; therefore, the main themes of the drama concern her directly. In Blanche is seen the tragedy of an individual caught between two worlds-the past world of the Southern gentlewoman and the present world of crudeness and decay-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present (Falk 94). 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 evolved her promiscuity. She is lonely and frightened, and she attempts to fight this condition with sex. Desire fills the emptiness when there is no love and desire blocks the inexorable movement of death, which has already wasted and decayed Blanche's ancestral home Belle Reve.
For Blanche, Belle Reve was the remaining symbol of a life and tradition that she knows in her heart have vanished, yet to which she clings with a desperate tenacity. In doing so, she is “both an individual and a representative of her society, an emblem of a lost tradition” (Krutch 39). She is dated. Her speech, manners and habi...
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Adler, Thomas. A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth and the Lantern. New York: Twayne, 1990.
Baym, Nina et al, eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1995.
Falk, Signi. Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. “The Southern Gentlewoman”. Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Krutch, Joseph Wood. Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. “Review of Streetcar Named Desire”. Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Szeliski, John T. von. Twentieth Century Interpretations of A Streetcar Named Desire. “Tennessee Williams and the Tragedy of Sensitivity”. Ed. Jordan Y. Miller. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Williams, Tennessee. The Theater of Tennessee Williams. “A Streetcar Named Desire”. New York: Laughlin, 1971.
The disadvantages for a limited partner are no different. Let’s begin with illiquidity, because it could take months to sell the limited partnership shares. Second, while real estate tends to maintain or increase in value, there are also times of declining property values as well. Third disadvantage is management problems. The decisions made by management can affect the investors who are blissfully unaware of the happenings because they are not involved; meaning an limited partner, while not involved in the paperwork, still needs to be aware of the actions taking place. Another disadvantage is lack of tax shelter, while the limited partnership provides a tax advantage with regards to business tax, the income still is included as personal income. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 limits the ability to use losses on real estate investments from income dividends and interest, basically dissolving the tax shelter aspect of real
Identity in Contemporary American Drama – Between Reality and Illusion Tennessee Williams was one of the most important playwrights in the American literature. He is famous for works such as “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)”. As John S. Bak claims: “Streetcar remains the most intriguing and the most frequently analyzed of Williams’ plays.” In the lines that follow I am going to analyze how the identity of Blanche DuBois, the female character of his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, is shaped. Firstly, we learn from an interview he gave, that the character of Blanche has been inspired from a member of his family.
Williams, Tennessee. "A Streetcar Named Desire." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. 2337-2398.
In Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, its form of a Southern Gothic enables the playwright to base the play on sexual identity and judgement and the female characters all experience their struggle to liberate from their current position. For example, Blanche is notably known for her situation – The ‘polka dot’ which recurs throughout the play as a testimony to Blanche’s past. The playwright presents these situations using the play’s structure of a recurring cycle of a daily life of the characters. Unlike Alfieri in A View from the Bridge, A Streetcar Named Desire has no narrator and mostly focuses on the characters to establish Williams’ point of view. Perhaps, t...
Human conflict is ever-present in sex and desire. But, not until the streetcar named Desire was first shown in 1947 had the corporeal act of sex been so openly depicted on stage as a basis of dominance and power. The streetcar in the New Orleans Street, Elysian Fields, is an urban harsh world, where the laws of nature are the enduring rules of engagement. As the wild sex and violence are intimately connected, Intercourse is a product of aggressive dominance, competition and submission to a certain extent than romance. Although Williams repeatedly claimed that his piece cautioned against the world where brutes were permitted to reign, the play 's end, shows the sexually imposing dominance placed upon Blanche by Stanley, whom demolished her illusions
The characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, most notably Blanche, demonstrates the quality of “being misplaced” and “being torn away from out chosen image of what and who we are” throughout the entirety of the play.
... reconsider the position when we have cases of patients who developed Aids and the treatment is so severe that their lives become unbearable. Those patients should not be forced to take treatments that will end their lives in the worst way. Death is seen sooner or later, it should be respected if the patient prefers death as opposed to suffering. Suffering without any mean to stop it, is such cruel act humans can imposed on one another. God sent us to learn and live the life he showed us, but also he demonstrates compassion and forgiveness during these times.
In Stephen Chapman’s essay, “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”, he questions whether the Western world’s idea of punishment for criminals is as humane as its citizens would like to believe or would Westerners be better off adopting the Eastern Islamic laws for crime and punishment. The author believes that the current prison systems in the Western world are not working for many reasons and introduces the idea of following the Koranic laws. Chapman’s “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” is persuasive because of his supporting evidence on the negative inhumane impact from the Western form of criminal punishment and his strong influential testament to the actions used by Eastern Islamic societies for crimes committed.
A Streetcar Named Desire is an intricate web of complex themes and conflicted characters. Set in the pivotal years immediately following World War II, Tennessee Williams infuses Blanche and Stanley with the symbols of opposing class and differing attitudes towards sex and love, then steps back as the power struggle between them ensues. Yet there are no clear cut lines of good vs. evil, no character is neither completely good nor bad, because the main characters, (especially Blanche), are so torn by conflicting and contradictory desires and needs. As such, the play has no clear victor, everyone loses something, and this fact is what gives the play its tragic cast. In a larger sense, Blanche and Stanley, individual characters as well as symbols for opposing classes, historical periods, and ways of life, struggle and find a new balance of power, not because of ideological rights and wrongs, but as a matter of historical inevitability. Interestingly, Williams finalizes the resolution of this struggle on the most base level possible. In Scene Ten, Stanley subdues Blanche, and all that she stands for, in the same way men have been subduing women for centuries. Yet, though shocking, this is not out of keeping with the themes of the play for, in all matters of power, force is its ultimate manifestation. And Blanche is not completely unwilling, she has her own desires that draw her to Stanley, like a moth to the light, a light she avoids, even hates, yet yearns for.
“Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act undertaken by one person with the intention of ending life of another person to relieve that person's suffering and where the act is the cause of death.”(Gupta, Bhatnagar and Mishra) Some define it as mercy killing. Euthanasia may be voluntary, non voluntary and involuntary. When terminally ill patient consented to end his or her life, it is called voluntary euthanasia. Non voluntary euthanasia occurs when the suffering person never consented nor requested to end a life. These patients are incompetent to decide because they are either minor, in a comatose stage or have mental conditions. Involuntary euthanasia is conducted when it is against the will of the patient (Gupta, Bhatnagar, Mishra). Euthanasia can be either passive or active. Passive euthanasia means life-sustaining treatments are withheld and nothing is done to keep the patient alive. Active euthanasia occurs when a physician do something by giving drugs or substances that ends a patient’s life. (Medical News Today)
Hagopian, K. (n.d.). Film Notes -A Streetcar Named Desire. Film Notes -A Streetcar Named Desire. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/filmnotes/fns04n5.html
In Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams uses the suicide of Blanche's husband to illuminate Blanche's insecurities and immoral behavior. When something terrible happens to someone, it often reveals who he or she truly is. Blanche falls victim to this behavior, and she fails to face her demons. This displays how the play links a character’s illogical choices and their inner struggles.
At some point, everyone has financial problems or times when they need cash quickly to cover an emergency home repair or to fix their vehicle when it breaks down. However, for many people, it can be difficult to get a loan because they have less than perfect credit. Fortunately, if you have someone willing to sign a loan form for you, you may be able to be approved for a guarantor loan.
Students may not sit down or have excessive conversations during class. unless instructed to do so by their instructor.
First of all, euthanasia saves money and resources. The amount of money for health care in each country, and the number of beds and doctors in each hospital are limited. It is a huge waste if we use those money and resources to lengthen the lives of those who have an incurable disease and want to die themselves rather than saving the lives of the ones with a curable ailment. When we put those patients who ask for euthanasia to death, then the waiting list for each hospital will shorten. Then, the health care money of each country, the hospital beds, and the energy of the doctors can be used on the ones who can be cured, and can get back to normal and able to continue contributing to the society. Isn’t this a better way of using money and resources rather than unnaturally extend those incurable people’s lives?