To be pushed away is to be truly alone. How does Streetcar named Desire demonstrate that to be socially outcast by others is a very cruel fate? The text streetcar named desire by Tennessee Williams explores different ways people can be isolated from others. Stella is a reflection of society, living as a housewife unable to voice opinions that contradict her husband’s. In contrast to that, Blanche is exposed to a new lifestyle in New Orleans. She is talked down by many and uses generalisation and misconceptions to guide her beliefs. This can be seen when she consistently refers to Stanley as a ‘Polack’ without understanding how offensive the term is. Finally, Stanley is also an outcast as though he has multiple acquaintances, he has no true …show more content…
She is married to an American war veteran and is seen supressing her emotions and perceptions for the sake of saving her marriage. This can be seen in the example “… I know how that must have seemed to you and I’m awful sorry it had to happen, but it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it…he didn’t know what he was doing” . There was a lot of social upheaval in the 60s, men had just come from war and so, being married was a privilege, women that were widowed or single were considered inferior and indefensible. It was expected that Stella fulfilled the needs of her husbands and kept the emotional and physical abuse a secret from society. It can also be observed that Stella was unable to have any friends, Stanley isolated her from connecting with other people. Also, she was not allowed to converse with any of his friends but instead be asked to leave the house or stay in another room while Stanley hosted his guests. And even when she learns the truth about her sister Blanche she chooses to be silent, to save her marriage with Stanley. As an audience we learn that society dictates a marriage by determining what is and is not love as it became more of a method than a natural process. We learn that Stanley and Stella do not take time to genuinely get to know one another and so, there is a decline in effective communication and patience. Stella viewed falling in love or simply being in a relationship as a necessity. Though it is not prevalent through the broken relationship between Stanley and Stella we are able to better understand that loyalty people should always be respectful towards others, however, we are able to comprehend how this attribute should be second nature in any
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.”
Stanley oftenly abuses Stella whenever he is drunk. One night, Stanley brings his friends over for a poker night. Mitch leaves the table in order to talk to Blanche. Stanley begins to get furious since Mitch is no longer playing. As more and more interruptions keep occurring, Stanley is furious and breaks the radio Blanche and Mitch were using. Stella then calls Stanley an animal. “He advances and disappears. There is a sound of a blow. Stella cries out.”(57) Stanley is usually abusive when he's either drunk or frustrated. After Stanley strikes her, Stella leaves the house and goes to her neighbors house. Blanche follows her sister upstairs to support Stella so she does not feel alone. Stanley then calms down and calls for Stella to come back. She returns and falls into Stanley's arms. Stella is very loyal to Stanley, she stays with him because he is her husband and does not want to change that. This is why she ignores her sister's pleas. Stanleys actions prove to the reader that he is an abusive husband to Stella and that Stella tolerates
2. What causes Mitch and Blanche to take a "certain interest" in one another? That is, what is the source of their immediate attraction? What seems to draw them together? What signs are already present to suggest that their relationship is doomed/problematic?
In Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire the characters represent two opposing themes. These themes are of illusion and reality. The two characters that demonstrate these themes are Blanche, and Stanley. Blanche represents the theme of Illusion, with her lies, and excuses. Stanley demonstrates the theme of reality with his straightforward vulgar ness. Tennessee Williams uses these characters effectively to demonstrate these themes, while also using music and background characters to reinforce one another.
In contrast, Stella is overly mild-tempered and always striving to please. Generally, she is able to adapt to all situations. This ability to adapt proves to be useful, as both her husband and her sister, Blanche, have such strong personalities. From the beginning, it is apparent that Stella often plays the peacemaker. She was able to foresee that Stanley and her visiting sister would clash. In hopes of avoiding any confrontation, she warned them both to be on their best behaviour. Stella is soft-spoken, speaking only when it is needed, and expressing her grief only when it overwhelms her, whereas Blanche is the opposite: an outspoken woman, with many opinions.
The essential conflict of the story is between Blanche, and her brother in-law Stanley. Stanley investigates Blanche’s life to find the truth of her promiscuity, ruining her relationships with Stella, and her possible future husband Mitch, which successfully obtain his goal of getting Blanche out of his house. Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she should leave Stanley because she witnessed a fight between the two. Despite these instances, there is an essence of sexual tension between the two, leading to a suspected rape scene in which one of their arguments ends with Stanley leading Blanche to the bed. Branching from that, Stella has an inner conflict because she does not know whether to side with her husband or her sister in each situation. Blanche and Mitch ha...
Tennessee Williams was one of the greatest American dramatists of the 20th century. Most of his plays take us to the southern states and show a confused society. In his works he exposes the degeneration of human feelings and relationships. His heroes suffer from broken families and they do not find their place in the society. They tend to be lonely and afraid of much that surrounds them. Among the major themes of his plays are racism, sexism, homophobia and realistic settings filled with loneliness and pain.1 Tennessee Williams characters showed us extremes of human brutality and sexual behavior.2 One of his most popular dramas was written in 1947, and it is called A Streetcar Named Desire.
Stanley (Stella's husband) represents a theme of realism in the play; he is shown as a primitive, masculine character that is irresistible to Stella and on some levels even to his "opponent" Stella's sister Blanche.
She would be able to get sympathy with Stella, Stanley, and Mitch if she understood their condition as well. Stella’s condition is opposite from Blanche’s aristocratic lifestyle. She is living in poverty and is unable to provide for Blanche’s elaborate needs. “Streetcar quote” Blanche recognizes her current condition but fails to understand it and empathize, instead she Slanders Stella’s home and invades it “Some people rarely touches it, but it touches them often” If she was a decent guest and sister, she could seize the opportunity to help Stella in the home, perhaps by helping with the daily chores or by fixing it up to become more “homely”. By doing this she would then gain a sense of purpose, cleaning could possibly become a healthy coping mechanism, she would be doing something positive, and by helping around the home, she would gain a healthier, supportive, relationship with her sister and the homes other resident, Stanley. Being unable to empathize with Stanley was key for Blanche downfall; she invaded his home, degraded him in front of his friends and family, and tried to steal his wife from him. If Blanche was able to recognize the positive traits of Stanley, that he is passionate and loving towards his family, she would be able to ignore the “primal, animalistic” manner of Stanley. If she could empathize with his current
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, main character Blanche Dubois to begin with seems to be a nearly perfect model of a classy woman whose social interaction, life and behavior are based upon her sophistication. The play revolves around her, therefore the main theme of drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the misfortune of a person caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present.
Throughout the play there are numerous examples of the power he possesses of her. Williams portrays Stella as a little girl who lives in Stanley’s world. She does what he wants, takes his abuse, yet still loves him. Situations like these may have occurred in the 1950’s and lasted, but in today’s time this would only end up in a quick divorce. The first scene of the play (pg. 14) Stanley has just thrown a piece of meat up to Stella as he turns the corner heading for the bowling ally.
The seven deadly sins are well established as being detrimental; nevertheless, humanity naturally gravitates towards the inhuman. The life of Blanche DuBois, the protagonist of Tennessee Williams’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire is derailed by lust: the lechery of her ancestors causes the loss of the family home, her husband’s lust leads to suicide, and her own sexuality forces her to leave her occupation and her hometown in disgrace. After taking the streetcars Desire and Cemeteries, Blanche seeks refuge from reality in the home of her sister Stella and her masculine and somewhat barbaric husband Stanley. Despite her attempts to start an unblemished life with a new persona and love interest, Mitch, Blanche’s dark past begins to resurface after
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.
Stella represents an important part in this drama by providing a contrast to how life can change people when they go down different paths. In Contrast to her sister, Stella is bound to love. Although she fell in love with a primitive, common man, she most definitely loves him. Stella desires only to make Stanley happy and live a beautiful life together. She wants to find peace between her sister and her husband yet instead she finds conflict afflicting her on both sides. Blanche uses her dilutions and tries to sway Stella away from Stanley yet Stella takes all these slanders and belittles them. Stella does this because she loves Stanley and since she is pregnant with his baby.
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.