¶ … Streetcar Named Desire:
The symbolic dichotomy and opposition between Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski
Tennessee William's Blanche Dubois from an "A Streetcar Named Desire" is one of the most complex characters in dramatic literature. On one hand, Blanche represents fine, southern gentility. When she speaks of losing the family estate Belle Reve, in contrast to the practical Stanley Kowalski, she is vague about the legal and financial complications which led her to such dire straits. She simply does not seem to understand or care. "I think it's wonderful that Belle Reve should finally be this bunch of old papers in your big, capable hands" she says sarcastically to Stanley, mocking his emphasis on his legal entitlement to his wife's share of the estate (44). Hoping that a man will save her from her predicament, she flits like a moth in her sister's apartment, creating 'magic' with paper lanterns. She represents a fragile version of aristocracy that is literally and figuratively crushed by...
Septimus and Blanche: Victims of Patriarchal Culture Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway and Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire are interesting fictional characters who suffer from mental illness in the 1920s. Septimus' illness stems from his wartime experiences while Blanche's illness stems from her position as an oppressed woman under patriarchy. In a sense, patriarchal society has produced both illnesses because exploitation of others, war, and oppression of women are characteristic of
Deferred Dreams The two plays A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry are two classical plays that are based on the daily struggles by families trying to live life as best as they know how. There in are several setbacks and obstructions that come their way and work against them in achieving their dreams. Some of the hindrances are from without yet
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
But on the other hand, men lose interest quickly" (Williams 81). She believes the way to catch a man (which she believes she must do to stay alive), is to act innocent and girlish, and she is not innocent and girlish at all. This shows how tragic her character is, and how self-defeating her dreams and hopes are, because she is setting herself up for failure, and she will
Streetcar Named Desire Blanche is a person of imaginative and false illusions, whereas Stanley is a creature of bestial reality. Although the binary holds firm throughout A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche and Stanley are multifaceted and complex characters that preclude oversimplification. For example, Blanche's imaginative and false illusions are exacerbated and enhanced by her devotion to the drink. Her compulsive and excessive drinking prove to be expressions or symptoms of her
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
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