The play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams first opened in Boston in November 1947. It also opened later that year in New York and ran for 855 performances. It shows a confrontation between the Old South and traditional values and the materialistic and industrial ‘new’ America. This turbulent confrontation is shown through the characters of Blanche and Stanley, with Blanche’s sister Stella caught in the middle. It was written after The Great Depression and the American Civil War. The novel Atonement by Ian McEwan was first published in 2001. It is set in 1935 and is about Briony a 13 year old girl who make a mistake that dramatically changes the lives of her sister Cecilia and her childhood friend Robbie. She spends the rest of her life trying to atone for what she did. Atonement and A Streetcar Named Desire are very different in many ways but they also have similarities, in both the play and the novel, the central relationship is that of sisters. The bond between sisters is a very strong bond; sisters normally grow up together and are very close. Sisters know everything about each other and usually sick together no matter what. ‘She is daintily dressed ………………………………………………….Hat’ In A Streetcar Named Desire the characters Blanche and Stella are both from a rich background; brought up as southern belles. They grew up at Belle Reve a huge house which originally had lots of land …..Quote…….. But over the years got sold to pay for bills and expenses after the abolition of the slave trade. When Blanche arrives in Elysian Fields she looks ‘as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district.’ Similarly in Atonement, Briony and Cecilia had a rich upbringing too. Cecilia attended Cambri... ... middle of paper ... ...ie speaks using proper English; this sets him apart from Nettle and Mace who use colloquial language. It emphasises Robbie’s lucky upbringing but, it also make the audience feel as though Robbie doesn’t fit in with Nettle and Mace; reminding us he shouldn’t be fighting in the war. At the end of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella ‘sobs with inhuman abandon’ and Stanley kneels beside her, unsure what to do. Stella feels incredibly guilty for letting her sister, Blanche, be taken to the mental hospital, she feels as though its her duty, as her sister, to look after her. However this is impossible because Stanley raped her and Stella refuse to believe it, so, she does nothing and the play ends with Stanley's fingers finding ‘the opening of her blouse’. ………………..other reading……………. Works Cited 'Atonement' by Ian McEwan 'A Streetcar Named Desire' by Tennessee Williams
Or, as Mary Ann Corrigan later puts it [as does Judith J. Thompson, 38], the Blanche-Stanley struggle is purely an external dramatization of what is going on inside Blanche’s head: “the external events of the play, while actually occurring, serve as a metaphor for Blanche’s internal conflict” [Corrigan, 392]. Critics who share Sharp’s and Corrigan’s views feel that Streetcar is essentially a psychological drama about Blanche’s internal struggle with herself.”
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.
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.
Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.
...think that the play is about desire between people and the different ways they can express it, which the title, A Streetcar Named Desire, informs us. Blanche came to town on a streetcar because she was ostracized in her old home as a result of her desires. Blanche had a desire for sex in general to cope with her divorce and the loss of her family; she just needed to feel loved. Stanley expressed his hidden desire for Blanche by being cruel to her through the whole story, and then having sex with her. Mitch showed his desire for Blanche by asking her to marry him. Stella had a desire for Stanley’s love and for Blanche’s well being. The play is a display of the drama involved in families, and it shows that sometimes people have to make decisions and choose one relationship over another. In Stella’s case, she chose her relationship with Stanley over her sister.
After two world wars, the balance of power between the genders in America had completely shifted. Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a harsh, yet powerful play that exposes the reality of the gender struggle. Williams illustrates society’s changing attitudes towards masculinity and femininity through his eloquent use of dramatic devices such as characterization, dialogue, setting, symbolism, and foreshadowing.
In Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" two of the main characters Stanley and Blanche persistently oppose each other, their differences eventually spiral into Stanley's rape of Stella.
Our lives are consumed by the past. The past of what we once did, what we once accomplished, and what we once could call our own. As we look back on these past memories we seldom realize the impact these events have on our present lives. The loss of a past love mars are future relationships, the loss of our family influences the choices we make today, and the loss of our dignity can confuse the life we live in the present. These losses or deaths require healing from which you need to recover. The effects of not healing can cause devastation as apparent in the play A Streetcar Named Desire. The theme of A Streetcar Named Desire is death. We encounter this idea first with the death of Blanche and Stella's relationship as sisters. Blanche and Stella had a life together once in Bel Reve and when Stella decided to move on in her life and leave, Blanche never could forgive her. This apparent in the scene when Blanche first arrives in New Orleans and meets Stella at the bowling alley. Stella and Blanche sit down for a drink and we immediately see Blanche's animosity towards Stella. Blanche blames Stella for abandoning her at Bel Reve, leaving Blanche to handle the division of the estate after their parents die. As result of Stella's lack of support, we see Blanche become dependent on alcohol and lose her mental state. Blanche comes to be a a terrible reck through out the play as we learn of the details of her life at Bel Reve. Her loss of the entire estate and her struggle to get through an affair with a seventeen year old student. This baggage that Blanche carries on her shoulders nips at Stella through out eventually causing the demise of her relationship. As Blanche's visit goes on with Stella, the nips become too great and with the help of Stanley, Stella has Blanche committed to a mental hospital, thus symbolizing the death of the realtionship they once had. The next death we encounter in the film is the death of Stella and Stanley's marriage. Our first view of Stanley is of an eccentric man, but decent husband who cares deeply for his wife. However, as as Blanche's visit wears on, we come to see the true Stanley, violent and abusive.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” main characters are Blanche, Stella, Stanley, and Mitch. 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, she 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. Mitch is unlike Stanley because he is more of a gentleman and develops a crush on Blanche. Eventually Stella goes into the hospital to give birth and during this time Stanley rapes Blanche. When Stella returns, Blanche tries to tell Stella what Stanley did to her but she instead believing her, Stanley and Stella send Blanche off to a mental institution.
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”
Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most popular plays in American history. The play contains this theme of Old South versus New South where old southern ideals and way of life clashes against newly formed ideals of the late 19th and early 20th century. The distinctions between the Old South’s emphasis on tradition, social class, and segregation versus the New South’s emphasis on hard work can be seen throughout the play. It is manifested in the main characters of the play. Blanche DuBois’s civilized and polished nature makes her a symbol of the Old South while Stanley Kowalski’s brutish, direct, and defying nature represents the New South. Tennessee Williams uses the characters of his play to present a picture of the social, gender role, and behavior distinctions that existed between the Old South versus the New South. Furthermore, the two settings provided in the play, Belle Reve and Elysian Fields can also be seen as different representations of the Old versus the New with the way both places are fundamentally different.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play founded on the premise of conflicting cultures. Blanche and Stanley, the main antagonists of the play, have been brought up to harbour and preserve extremely disparate notions, to such an extent that their incompatibility becomes a recurring theme within the story. Indeed, their differing values and principles becomes the ultimate cause of antagonism, as it is their conflicting views that fuels the tension already brewing within the Kowalski household. Blanche, a woman disillusioned with the passing of youth and the dejection that loneliness inflicts upon its unwilling victims, breezes into her sister's modest home with the air and grace of a woman imbued with insecurity and abandonment. Her disapproval, concerning Stella's state of residence, is contrived in the face of a culture that disagrees with the old-fashioned principles of the southern plantations, a place that socialised Blanche to behave with the superior demeanour of a woman brain-washed into right-wing conservatism. Incomparably, she represents the old-world of the south, whilst Stanley is the face of a technology driven, machine fuelled, urbanised new-world that is erected on the foundations of immigration and cultural diversity. New Orleans provides such a setting for the play, emphasising the bygone attitude of Blanche whose refusal to part with the archaic morals of her past simply reiterates her lack of social awareness. In stark contrast Stanley epitomises the urban grit of modern society, revealed by his poker nights, primitive tendencies and resentment towards Blanche. ...
Blanche grew up living on a plantation in Laurel, Mississippi which is why she considers herself a Southern Belle, despite the changing environment around her. Her life at Belle Reve does not fulfill the dreams that once encircled the wealthy plantation. Instead, Blanche finds herself assuming the responsibilities for the “epic fornications” of her families past lives, along with the financial debt that comes with owning the house. This isn’t the only thing Blanche has been left to take care of though. She is also left to simultaneously pay for the funerals of her relatives, and after being unable to reimburse her debts, Blanche eventually succumbed to the loss of her cherished land. In addition to the loss of Belle Reve, she is also impacted by the lifelong guilt coming from the fact that she made a cruel r...
Written in 1947, by playwright Tennessee Williams, the play A Streetcar Named Desire opens in the 1940s in the well-known city of New Orleans. Readers are presented with the young couple Stan and Stella Kowalski who live below another young couple, Eunice and Steve. While Stan and Stella manage to maintain a relationship, it is abusive. Stella reunites with her alcoholic sister Blanche, after learning that the family plantation had been lost due to bankruptcy. Blanche, a widow often finds herself in difficult and unforeseen circumstances. Blanche’s poor choices and vulnerability leads to an affair with Stan’s poker buddy Mitch. Coinciding with his abusive nature, Stanley rapes Blanche. No one believes her until the very end, causing her to get sent away to a mental institution. While the play and film were smashing, each had their similarities overall, in regards to setting, plot, and characters while differences concerned narrative technique.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams, each character is best represented by how they react with the other people in their home. One of the stronger relationships in the movie adaptation is between Stella and Stanley. They are in love toward the beginning of the movie but the relationship is toxic and it take a third party to point out that Stella is in an abusive relationship. After that there is more fighting and in the end Stella abandons Stanley. Williams characterizes Stella as a