A Streetcar Named Desire Non Fiction

353 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: American literature after world war II

A Street Named Desire
The non-fiction novel A Street Car Named Desire is based after World War 2 in New Orleans. Blanche an English teacher at a high school in Laurel, Mississippi has lost her family estate and is now visiting her sister Stella in New Orleans. Blanche was a known to be in a higher social class than Stella but has now planned an extended stay with her at her apartment in Elysian Fields. Stella lives with her husband Stanley in the apartments along with her good friend upstairs Eunice who looks out for her later in the story. Blanche comes to New Orleans and meets Stella in her apartment. While Stella begins to do something, Blanche sneaks a bottle of whiskey that she sees in the cabinet. This is the first sign that she is not

Show More
Related

  • Stanley's Control in A Streetcar Named Desire

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    show in the start of Scene 2. In Scene 2, Stella takes Blanche out to

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire Research Paper

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis Essay

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of T. Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

    824 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyone has experienced a situation in life where it's like a rug has been pulled out from under them. Well, T. Williams’ novel A Streetcar Named Desire portrays a similar situation of three unconventional characters whose reality is not the American Dream that they are striving for. Blanche, Stella, and Stanley approach life hoping for different outcomes in their lives. But what is the American Dream they were striving for? Simply put, by looking at the principles of America, the primary dream for everyone is to have a well-lived life. For some people this includes a family, success, happiness, independence, money, and love. If these are T. Williams’ constructs of the American Dream, then Stella and Stanley Kowalski may never find their

    Read More

  • Theme Of Tragedy In A Streetcar Named Desire

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Soon after Blanche arrives to live with her sister in New Orleans, she comes up with the plan for her pregnant sister, Stella, and herself to

    Read More

  • Character Conflict in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a play wrought with intertwining conflicts between characters. A drama written in eleven scenes, the play takes place in New Orleans over a nine-month period. The atmosphere is noisy, with pianos playing in the distance from bars in town. It is a crowded area of the city, causing close relations with neighbors, and the whole town knowing your business. Their section of the split house consists of two rooms, a bathroom, and a porch. This small house is not fit for three people. The main characters of the story are Stella and Stanley Kowalski, the home owners, Blanche DuBois, Stella’s sister, Harold Mitchell (Mitch), Stanley’s friend, and Eunice and Steve Hubbell, the couple that lives upstairs. Blanche is the protagonist in the story because all of the conflicts involve her. She struggles with Stanley’s ideals and with shielding her past.

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire

    436 Words  | 1 Pages

    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?

    Read More

  • Blanche Dubois: Histrionic Personality Disorder

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blanche’s developmental history or character development points to her diagnosis. Blanche comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella after being fired from her job as a schoolteacher due to having an inappropriate affair with a teenage student. When she arrives to see her sister, she is consumed with insecurities regarding her appearance and is condescending to her sister’s humble lifestyle. Stella’s husband Stanley immediately has distrust and dislike for Blanche and treats her

    Read More

  • Stanley Kowalski’s Violence in A Streetcar Named Desire

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    As Stanley continues torturing Blanche and draws Stella and Mitch away from her, Blanche’s sanity slowly dwindles. Even though she lied throughout the play, her dishonesty becomes more noticeable and irrational due to Stanley's torment about her horrible past. After dealing with the deaths of her whole family, she loses Belle Reve, the estate on which her and her sister grew up. This is too much for Blanche to handle causing her moral vision to be blurred by “her desperate need to be with someone, with ancestors for models who indulged in “epic fornications” with impunity, [Blanche] moves through the world filling the void in her life with lust” (Kataria 2). She also loses a young husband who killed himself after she found out he was gay when she caught him with another man. After that traumatic experience she needed “a cosy nook to squirm herself into because ...

    Read More

  • Blanche is Responsible for her own Fate in a Street Car Named Desire

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Role of Alcohol in A Streetcar Named Desire

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois, the protagonist, frequently uses alcohol to escape the hysteria that she faces each day due to the loss of both her homosexual husband and her affluence, “…retreating further into a world of fantasy and cleverly evolved artifice” ("A Streetcar Named Desire Theme of Drugs and Alcohol”). Upon entering the Kowalski’s’ household, Blanche pours herself half of a tumbler of whiskey. This act foreshadows her outright dependence on the substance. It is evident throughout the play that she tries to keep up her aristocratic façade by only drinking whiskey, which is an expensive and strong form of liquor. Blanche recognizes that drinking ruins her reputation and that it also contradicts with her “southern belle” persona, which is why she tries to conceal it as much as possible. She states when offered a second drink from Stella in scene one, “No, one’s my limit” (Williams 14). As ...

    Read More

  • Theme Of Fantasy And Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire

    825 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story Alice in Wonderland, the world of Wonderland represents the main antagonist Alice’s fantasy that is fueled by her desire of staying in the past and remaining a child. Ultimately, she fears the changes that come with becoming an adult; thus, she resists reality and embraces the lies of her fantasy of staying a child by staying in Wonderland. Furthermore, this is similar to how the main antagonist in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois, resists reality by lying to herself and everyone she knows because she also fears reality. Unlike Blanche, Alice soon realizes that by embracing her fantasies and desires she would be led down a path of destruction because fantasy and reality are incompatible. Likewise, Tennessee Williams covers the topic of the incompatibility of fantasy and reality in A Streetcar Named Desire by making the character Blanche DuBois, which represents fantasy, resist and have a conflict with the character Stanley Kowalski, which represents reality, because he wants to convey that it is natural to fear and resist reality and take solace in desire and fantasy.

    Read More

  • Fantasy and Illusion in A Streetcar Named Desire

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Decline of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire

    2043 Words  | 5 Pages

    Upon reviewing the drama, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, it would appear that the character of Blanche DuBois is worthy of closer inspection.  With her previous occupation as a teacher of American literature and her former social status being that of a well-bred woman of the very traditional Old South, Blanche could be any human being transferring from one culture to another with customs far different from the ones being left behind.  Even today it could happen that someone is suddenly confronted with a totally new and different value system with which he must learn to cope in order to be accepted into his new environment.  That is the situation in which Blanche finds herself.  After close inspection of the plot of A Streetcar Named Desire, it appears that the course of the play could quite easily have been turned from decline and tragedy to rescue and triumph for Blanche DuBois with only a few minor adjustments.

    Read More

More about A Streetcar Named Desire Non Fiction

Open Document