This paper will discuss the use of light in the play, "A Streetcar Named Desire", by Tennessee Williams.
Blanche’s relation to light is quite obvious because she tries to
avoid bright light of any kind. Her reaction to light can be
regarded as an attempt to hide her true nature as well as her
vanishing beauty and youth. By hiding from the light, she tries to
escape reality. She covers the naked light bulb with a Chinese paper
lantern, saying, “I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I
can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (Sc.3 p. 2093). This remark
shows that Blanche would rather hide behind polite phrases than accept
truth and reality. The paper lantern is not very stable, though, and
it can easily be destroyed, just like her illusions. In scene six,
she takes Mitch home with her and says, “Let’s leave the lights off”
(Sc.6 p. 2309). Blanche thinks of Mitch as a future husband, and
therefore she does not want him to know her past or her true age, and
the best way to hide her age is to stay out of bright light where he
could possibly see her wrinkles and fading youth in her face. Later
in that scene, Blanche tells Mitch about her husband Allan: “When I
was sixteen, I made the discovery – love. All at once and much, much
too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on
something that had always been half in shadow, that’s how it struck
the world for me” (Sc. 6 p. 2113).
In her past, light used to represent love, but now it represents
something destructive for her. Allan’s suicide erases the light or
love, and thus she now does not believe in it any longer and tries to
escape from the light and therefore escape reality.
When Mitch tears off the paper lantern in order to take a closer look
at her in the bright light, “she utters a frightened gasp” (Sc. 9 p.
2125). Then she tells him, “I don’t want realism. I want magic!
Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things
to them. I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth.
Blanche’s immoral and illogical decisions all stem from her husband's suicide. When a tragedy happens in someone’s life, it shows the person’s true colors. Blanche’s true self was an alcoholic and sex addict, which is displayed when “She rushes about frantically, hiding the bottle in a closet, crouching at the mirror and dabbing her face with cologne and powder” (Williams 122). Although Blanche is an alcoholic, she tries to hide it from others. She is aware of her true self and tries to hide it within illusions. Blanche pretends to be proper and young with her fancy clothes and makeup but is only masking her true, broken self.
The human mind is fragile, unpredictable and unreliable. Simultaneously, the human mind is a master of self-defense against emotionally shaking experiences that one might live through. During the first half of the 20th century, mental illness was not a subject widely spoken about and drugs, electro-convulsive therapy, and surgery were used as treatments for persistent illnesses of the mind (PBS “Timeline: Treatments (...)”). This is the world Tennessee Williams grew up in, with a three year older sister who developed a mental illness herself (Hoare). In 1947, Tennessee Williams broke through the barrier of fame with his well known play A Streetcar Named Desire: the story about the emotional demise of the fragile, yet determined, southern belle Blanche DuBois and her visit to her sister Stella in New Orleans. Williams himself said that his plays are “pleas for the understanding of delicate people” (Rocamora): they contain a desperation for sensitivity, tenderness and humaneness that can rarely be found other plays (Maupin). Blanche DuBois is Tennessee Williams’ representation of the “delicate people”, as she battles psychological illness through fear, guilt and compensation for the surrounding people and relations in the play.
During early times men were regarded as superior to women. In Tennessee William’s play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Stanley Kowalski, the work’s imposing antagonist, thrives on power. He embodies the traits found in a world of old fashioned ideals where men were meant to be dominant figures. This is evident in Stanley’s relationship with Stella, his behavior towards Blanche, and his attitude towards women in general. He enjoys judging women and playing with their feelings as well.
The moment their eyes first meet, there seems to be an immediate attraction between Blanche and Mitch, causing them to take a “certain interest” in one another. After their first close encounter while the poker game is taking place, Blanche notices that Mitch is not like Stanley and the others. Telling Stella, “That one seems—superior to the others…I thought he had a sort of sensitive look” (Williams 52), Blanche takes interest in Mitch’s perceived sensitivity, and is immediately attracted
This 1950's theatrical presentation was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Tennessee Williams. It is about a southern bell by the name of Blanche Dubois who loses her father's plantation to a mortgage and travels to live in her sister's home in New Orleans by means of a streetcar called Desire. There she finds her sister living in a mess with a drunken bully husband, and the events that follow cause Blanche to step over the line of insanity and fall victim to life's harsh lessons.
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
In this play the character blanche exhibits the theme of illusion. Blanche came from a rocky past. Her young husband killed himself and left her with a big space in her heart to fill. Blanche tried to fill this space with the comfort of strangers and at one time a young boy. She was forced to leave her hometown. When she arrives in New Orleans, she immediately begins to lie and give false stories. She takes many hot bathes, in an effort to cleanse herself of her past. Blanche tries also to stay out of bright lights. She covers the light bulb (light=reality) in the apartment with a paper lantern. This shows her unwillingness to face reality but instead live in an illusion. She also describes how she tells what should be the truth. This is a sad excuse for covering/lying about the sinful things she has done. Furthermore, throughout the story she repeatedly drinks when she begins to be faced with facts. All these examples, covering light, lying, and alcoholism show how she is not in touch with reality but instead living in a fantasy world of illusion.
Isn't it true the relationship between Stella and Stanley is praiseworthy, since it combines sexual attraction with compassion for the purpose of procreation? Isn't it true that as opposed to Stanley's normalcy in marriage, Blanche's dalliance in sexual perversion and overt efforts to break up Stanley and Stella's marriage is reprehensible? Isn't it true that Stella's faulty socialization resulting in signs of hysteria throughout the play meant that she probably would have ended her life in a mental hospital no matter whether the rape had occurred or not?
The ideology of male dominance has existed since the beginning of mankind. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, it is especially apparent that Stanley, who is a working class man, feels the need to assert and reassert this principle of power constantly. Williams makes clear, through the character of Stanley, that the yearning for others’ recognition of their power and capability is the motive behind men’s masculine inclinations.
away that he did not care about him self for over ten years. The young woman
she was told "to take a streetcar named Desire, and then to transfer to one
As one can see, Tennessee Williams used colours in several ways. The significance of colours reveals the real appearance of Blanche throughout the play. The colours have their own meanings. The significance of colours is a central theme in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire; the author uses colours to reflect states of mind, make further commentary on particular characters, and what sorts of things specific colours represent.
“Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces” (Sigmund Freud). Illusion can be a part of our lives; however, if taken to the extreme, it can lead one to forget reality. Every individual has problems in life that must be faced with reality and not with illusion, even though it might throw one into flames of fires. Tennessee Williams' play of a family reveals the strength of resistance between reality and desire, judgment and imagination, and between male and female. The idea of reality versus illusion is demonstrated throughout the play. Blanche's world of delusion and fantastical philosophy is categorized by her playful relationships, attempts to revive her youth, and her unawareness in the direction of reality of life. In Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, through the study of character and tropology, fantasy and illusion allow one to make life appear as it should be rather than as it is.
Unfortunately, she is full aware of not fulfilling the stereotype of a girl her age and she does not like it, Olsen’s narrator clearly states:
Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911, he was the second of the Williams’ three children. By his own candid accounts, he described his family situation as being troubled, to put it lightly. His parent’s marriage was ordinarily tense, most likely as a result of his father’s alcoholism, physical intimidation and neglect. Thomas’s kindred troubles did not end with his parent’s unpleasantness, his beloved older sister, Rose, was institutionalized as a young woman and remained in care for the reminder of her life. He, himself suffered a mental breakdown, following his recuperation he moved to New Orleans and changed his name to Tennessee, this move invigorated his lifestyle and provided him with a new source of inspiration.