IIn the play A Street Car Named Desire, Williams uses music in accordance with certain tones throughout the text. Two of the tunes that he uses are the blue piano, and the Varsouviana polka. These two tones are used very differently. In the introduction, it states that the blue piano expresses the spirit of the life of those who live in the setting of the play. The blue piano symbolizes the characters passion as it is played during passionate moments. Such as, the end of scene three when Stella comes back to Mitch after he had hit her and they embrace one another. As well as in scene two when Blanche finds out her sister is pregnant. The play doesn’t give an explicit description of what the polka is used for, but the reader can tell based on
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.
because it makes us want to know what it is building up to. Then at
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.
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.
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.
Throughout the play, the playwright Edward Albee made it so there is a clear showing of several different literary allusions. But in this case, in that particular scene, the focus is on Tennessee Williams A Street Car Named Desire. First of all, In the beginning of the scene, the point where she is talking to herself, you can spot that she makes some references to “The Poker Game” the painting based on the scene in which fragile Blanche comes in on her animalistic brother-in-law Stanley's poker game. And secondly, George, when he enters with the flowers in hand, or snapdragons, he is seen quoting a line of dialogue that comes from Williams play, the famous line "Flores para los muertos," which means flowers for the dead. Now here is the explanation or the comparison that can be made here. We all know that, in the play Streetcar, this particular line is used to foreshadow Blanches death. Not her physical death though, more so, it is used to foreshadow her emotional and spiritual death. In Woolf, George is using that line to foreshadow his announcement of "sonny-Jim's" death. Not only that, but it is also used to proceed the spiritual decimation of his and Martha's marriage. In addition to that, there is m ore death foreshadowing that can be seen, when we think or the part where Martha yells "Pansies! Rosemary! Violence! My wedding bouquet!" This line is making a reference to Hamlet, the part where Ophelia does her crazy speech where she offers imaginary flowers. Martha is heard using the word violence instead of violets in order to characterize her marriage. This offers shadowing of death also since Ophelia gives her mad speech before drowning herself. I think the greatest theme that this scene, this Act and the play in...
According to the play in the starting and ending, Kazan choose to emphasize his treatment towards the "A Streetcar Named Desire" on how the film version is black and white, which it shows how the director didn't display the "lurid" colors in the play. However, Kazan uses different lighting effects to achieve a different atmosphere in the play. Blanche is never shown in the direct spotlight, which is a signal to the main theme of the book of fantasy and delusion. Blanche does not allow others to discover her true age or her looks instead she is always in a partly darkened spot whenever she is in the play. In this case this would refer as foreshadow towards the end and while giving Stanley's an reaction on Blanche. Some of the more important
It offers a romantic vision of dingy life(referring to the not so perfect world they live in). The mix of characters demonstrates the way that New Orleans has changed to other southern American cities. It was originally a catholic settlement while most southern cities were protestant The music of the blue piano is cleverly used in the background to portray to feel of changing life throughout the city, while seemingly also reacting to the changing moods in the play through hate and anger of Blanche’s arguments with Stanley to love and forgiveness when Blanche arrives to stay with Stella. I feel it is also used to take the sting out of the feel of poverty.
...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.
Next,Tennessee williams introduces the theme of violence to the reader in his play A Streetcar named desire between relationships with the characters Stanley,Stella,Blanche, and all the men Blanche discovers throughout the play. The role of domestic violence really hits a peak in the play because most of the violence takes place in a home between partners and spouses. Rape and Suicide are also forms of violence in the play. For example, Blanche a southern belle from Laurel,Mississippi is affected by violence more than any character in the play.She is affected when her late husband shoots himself after Blanche confronts him with his sexuality. “It was because-- on the dance floor -- unable to stop myself-- i suddenly said-- “i saw!” “I know!”
There are 3 major themes in the play A Streetcar Named Desire, the first is the constant battle between fantasy and reality, second we have the relationship between sexuality and death, and lastly the dependence of men plays a major role in this book.
The use of colours plays an important role in A Streetcar Named Desire. Throughout the play, Williams makes direct use of colours as a means of indicating the characters and the atmosphere of the setting. Colours are used to express emotional moods, human qualities, and hierarchical position. The first apparent use of colour in the play is the symbolic meaning of Blanche’s name. Her name in French means white.
The author Tenesse Williams whom wrote "A Street Car Named Desire" uses colors to symbolize the characters in his story. The author also uses colors to symbolize certain objects in his story as well. The colors used for the two characters "Blanche" and "Stanley" in the story "A Street Car Named Desire" either fits the persons lifestyle, or contradicts their lifestyle. "Blanche Dubois" which we are told means white woods, her name reflects on the fact that she is always wearing the color white because she dresses as if she was rich to impress the men although she is poor and lives in the ghettos. "Stanley" who is is the second character in "A Street Car Named Desire" whom the author also uses the color blue to relate to Stanley's righteous character seen in the story. By using colors to symbolize characters, and objects he creates a better visual for the reader see in their own perception.
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.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who is in misplaced circumstances. Her life is lived through fantasies, the remembrance of her lost husband and the resentment that she feels for her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Various moral and ethical lessons arise in this play such as: Lying ultimately gets you nowhere, Abuse is never good, Treat people how you want to be treated, Stay true to yourself and Don’t judge a book by its cover.