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A streetcar named desire stanley and stella's relationship
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duction A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennesse Williams (1947), is often characterized as the most extraordinary play that portrays the authentic South American life in the late 40`s and reflects the psychological interactions between the realistic inhabitants of the crowded Elysian Street, a home for the working labor class. Also, the narrative discourse of the play, in a sensitive manner, reveals more profound psychological characterizations of the main protagonists and the background topics such as gender differences, sexual intercourses, the submissive women`s roles and the dominant and aggressive nature of the male in the heteronormative post-war society. Although it seems that the playwright is about the decadence of the working-class society, still, the internal background of the story shows sensitive topics such as fear od loneliness, the symbolism of madness and the consequences of the abusive and violent attitude towards women.The real significance of the notion "desire" is, in fact, related to the relationship between Stela, a young inferior wife, and her husband, the Polish officer Stanley …show more content…
Namely, the arrival of Stela`s older and superior sister Blanche reveals the true nature of her husband`s character. He suddenly becomes nervous, suspicious and insecure. He is the man that wants to have an absolute control, a gambler who starts to speak about Napoleon code, which means that "what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband and vice versa" (p. 28). Blanche compares him to the stone man who "acts like an animal" (p. 74), so Stella cannot be sure that he is going to " strike her, or maybe kiss her" (p. 74). After one drunken, gambling night inside their house, Stanley physically attacks his pregnant wife and soon after the incident acts like nothing happened, begging Stella to forgive him: "he breaks into sobs (p. 54), calling her "sweet baby"
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.
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.
Deception is present in Tennessee Williams’s drama ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, William Shakespeare’s Tragedy ‘Othello’ and L. P. Hartley’s novel ‘The Go-Between’; the writers choose to use characterisation to explore the theme in depth. Often the protagonists of each text are the primary offenders of deceit, though some supporting characters mislead as well; although Iago is the antagonist of ‘Othello’, he is incomparably the most deceitful character in the entire play. Similarly, Williams uses Blanche to develop the plot by misleading the other characters and even herself at times, though arguably, unlike Iago, Blanche is presented as a character who lacks the motivation to hurt anyone. Conversely Leo, although the protagonist and narrator of the novel, is not the most deceitful character – Ted Burgess and Marian Maudsley not only coerce him into the deceit, but they themselves are presented as masters of the game they play, however, this essay will focus on Leo as he is a unique symbol of deceit; he is unaware of the consequences of his actions.
Tennessee Williams was born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911. As a successful playwright, his career was greatly influenced by events in his life. He was noted for bringing the reader "a slice of his own life and the feel of southern culture", as his primary sources of inspiration were "the writers he grew up with, his family, and the South." The connection between his life and his work can be seen in several of his plays.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a serious play. Not only difficult in its adult concepts but with important relationships between characters that are hard to capture. My idea for the children’s book was for all the characters to be butterflies with the exception of Blanche Dubois. Blanche, I made into a small white moth, as I felt this fit her character best, which was a flitty, frail, middle aged woman. Tennessee Williams chose the character's names specifically and I wanted to highlight that. Blanche, the name, suggests the color white, she is a character who blends into the background, nervous, lying , so I choose a white moth. Stella suggests a star, yellow, shining bright hence a yellow butterfly. And the other characters I choose what I
told Allan "I saw, I know, you disgust me…"( p.96). To Allan, Blanche seemed to
Tennessee Williams gives insight into three ordinary lives in his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” which is set in the mid-1930’s in New Orleans. The main characters in the play are Blanche, Stanley, and Stella. All three of these characters suffer from personalities that differentiate each of them to great extremes. Because of these dramatic contrarieties in attitudes, there are mounting conflicts between the characters throughout the play. The principal conflict lies between Blanche and Stanley, due to their conflicting ideals of happiness and the way things “ought to be”.
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.
The arts stir emotion in audiences. Whether it is hate or humor, compassion or confusion, passion or pity, an artist's goal is to construct a particular feeling in an individual. Tennessee Williams is no different. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience is confronted with a blend of many unique emotions, perhaps the strongest being sympathy. Blanch Dubois is presented as the sympathetic character in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire as she battles mental anguish, depression, failure and disaster.
In conclusion, “A streetcar named Desire” in which a central character is flawed but nevertheless gains your admiration. Williams firstly effectively shows this through his use of characterization creating a contrast which leads to conflict thus bringing out sympathy and admiration. This conflict also draws the audience’s attention to Blanche’s flawed character. Secondly, Williams’ use of aspects of staging also draws out admiration for Blanche from the audience. Finally, Williams’ use of key scenes further relates to Blanche’s flaw and successfully extends the audience’s admiration for her
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.
“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.
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. ...
Throughout Tennessee Williams’s life, his struggle with gender identity and sexuality altered his perception of others claiming “people are complex.” Williams’s plays reflect his own life by creating characters who are neither good nor bad but have a certain complexity that baffles the audience. These intricate characters, like Williams, struggle with his/her own human nature and are coaxed by the temptations of immoral desires. In Tennessee Williams’s two plays, Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Williams develops the significance of the two titles by generating themes such as desire, mendacity, and sexuality.