Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play by Tennessee Williams that explores the relationships between Stella (DuBois) and Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, Stella's sister. In the play, Williams analyzes how social constructs and expectations influenced Blanche's behavior and the factors that contributed to her mental breakdown. Blanche's mental breakdown piques towards the end of the play, however, it can be argued that Blanche was psychologically damaged before she arrived at the Kowalskis and her efforts to get herself out of her social situation were deliberately thwarted by Stanley. In the play, Blanche uses fantasy as a coping mechanism. Throughout her life, she has had to deal situations that have overwhelmed her including the multiple deaths in her family and the suicide of her first husband. Because her behavior is significantly altered after finding out her husband was homosexual and after witnessing him commit suicide, one can argue that Blanche's madness, or nervous nature, was caused by being rejected by the man that she loved, and the man that she thought loved her back. This event triggers Blanche to attempt to find acceptance from other men. Unfortunately, because Blanche's initial rejection is based on sex and sexual preference, Blanche begins to use sex in order to attempt to determine her identity as a woman, which ends up getting out of control. Blanche admits that self-control has never been one of her strong suits, an eerie confession as Blanche's inability to control what she does and what she says ultimately leads to her complete demise (Williams 10). Additionally, it is evident that...
Through her fantasy world Blanche is attempting to create a template for the perfect man. It is evident that Blanche is looking for someone that will provide her with emotional, domestic, and financial stability, or at least give her the opportunity to get herself out of her present destitution. Blanche is willing to do anything and even considers writing to one of her former boyfriends, Shep Huntleigh, in an attempt to reconnect with him and possibly manipulate him into providing her some sort of financial assistance. Blanche's desperation even allows her to consider marrying Mitch, whom she initially considers to be sweet and considers him to be her "Rosenkavalier," or her knight in shining armor (63). By referring to Mitch as her "Rosenkavalier," Blanche is associating him with the traits that she looks for in a partner, even if they are a product of her imagination.
Streetcar Named Desire and the Snows of Kilimanjaro The epigraph of Tennessee Williams' classic play A Streetcar Named Desire contains a quote from Hart Crane's poem The Broken Tower: "And so it was I entered the broken world / To trace the visionary company of love, its voice/An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)/But not for long to hold each desperate choice" (1947). Ernest Hemingway also elected
Everyman: Faustus and Blanche The concept of "Everyman" derives from the 15-century morality play "The Summoning of Everyman." The play was meant as a guide towards salvation and how a person might attain it. The name "Everyman" was meant to represent an everyday, ordinary person of the time, implying that Christian salvation was obtainable by any person. Today, the idea of "everyman" is used to indicate any ordinary person with ordinary
Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams. Specifically, it will compare and contrast the book vs. The 1951 and 1998 movies. Each version of this memorable play brings a different slant to a well-known and often performed classic. Williams' play is the ultimate standard, but each work illustrates just how a different slant can update a dated piece. STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire" is such a pervasive play
Street car named desire "A Streetcar Named Desire" is an American play written by Tennessee Williams, written in 1947. This paper will highlight the relationship between love and desire as highlighted in the paper. There are four important characters in the play and these include Blanche, Stanley, Mitch, and Stella. Love and desire will be highlighted in the light of these four characters. Blanche Blanche is the elder sister of Stella. The
Eugene O'Neill's play, "The Emperor Jones (1921)," is the horrifying story of Rufus Jones, the monarch of a West Indian island, presented in a single act of eight scenes of violence and disturbing images. O'Neill's sense of tragedy comes out undiluted in this surreal and nightmarish study of Jones' character in a mighty struggle and tension between black Christianity and black paganism (IMBD). Jones is an unforgettable character in his
..He smiled so scornfully when you didn't dare to go with them to the table in there (Ibsen, Act 2, pg. 60). Later, when Lovborg thinks he has lost his manuscript due to being drunk, she offers him a gun to shoot himself with, and privately burns the manuscript. Although on the surface, Stella Kowalski is a more honest person than Hedda Gabler, the two women share the characteristic of dishonesty when
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