Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play by Tennessee illiams that explores the relationships between Stella (DuBois) and Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, Stella's sister. In the play, illiams 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,…...
mlaWorks Cited
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. Scribd. 19 October 2009. Web. 10 October
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 not admit it. From the beginning of the play, the reader knows Blanche is a lost woman, left without a home, her attraction to younger men, and the death of her husband by suicide. The reader also sees that she has problems with drinking and sexual behavior. Overall, she is nothing but an empty human in society; she belongs nowhere, not even with her sister. She continually makes the same mistakes in her life, and these eventually lead to her…...
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 imaginative and false illusions. Drinking also causes Blanche DuBois to intensify any imaginative or false illusions she might have had already. Because Blanche was once young and attractive, she still sees herself in that light. It is as if she has a false mirror before her like the stepmother in "Snow hite." Blanche harbors false self-images, because those illusory self-concepts are more pleasant and comforting than the reality. Blanche can trick herself into believing her false illusions because she has…...
mlaWork Cited
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire.
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 to preface his timeless short story The Snows of Kilmanjaro with an epigraph, but rather than quote the elegiac poetry of his predecessors, the quintessential American author provides his own cryptic musings on the tallest peak in Africa, before concluding "close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude" (1938). Although writing from uniquely different perspectives, Williams and Hemingway both employed the…...
mlaReferences
Hemingway, E. (1995). Snows of Kilimanjaro. Scribner. Williams, T. (2008). Streetcar Named Desire, a. Ernst Klett Sprachen.
Streetcar Named Desire Long Days Journey Night ( Scenes Acts Correspondigly- Introduction-role Stage Directions-themes-character Development-setting-structure -- Dramatic
A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night"
Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Eugene O'Neil's "Long Day's Journey Into Night" both deal with the physical and mental difficulties that people encounter partly as a result of being unwilling to accept their condition and partly because of the set of problems that they come across. Williams focuses on the character of Blanche Dubois as she vainly struggles to ignore her troubled past in order to create a dreamlike future while O'Neil deals with the Tyrone family as it is severely affected by the fact that each of its members has proved to be a failure. Although the Tyrones appear to be heading toward the same route as Blanche, they seem to be stronger and better prepared to accept their problems, even…...
Forrest Gump and Streetcar
Comparing and Contrasting Feminine Constructs in a Streetcar Named Desire and Forrest Gump
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois -- the self-deluded Southern Belle -- leaves her home (and her world) for the primal, modern world of the Kowalskis. In doing so, she travels via the Desire, which serves as both the name of the streetcar in New Orleans and as an ironic symbol of that which she does not possess: fulfillment. Blanche is an unsatisfied woman, in part because she refuses to see herself for what she is -- a semi-depraved human no different from Stanley, desperately in need of saving (or as she herself puts it: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers") (illiams 123). In Forrest Gump, the title character is also traveling from one world to another via public transportation. The film is told in flashback sequences while Forrest sits at…...
mlaWorks Cited
Horowitz, D. Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998. Print.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. UK: Heinemann, 1995. Print.
Zemeckis, Robert, dir. Forrest Gump. LA: Paramount, 1994. Film.
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 characteristics that might represent the majority of the world's citizens. When considering the characteristics of "everyman" in literature, plays, and films, one might therefore surmise that this is, ideally, a character that the majority of his or her intended audience would be able to relate to. In film, for example, a young single mother who attempts to balance her relationship with her children with other responsibilities such as work and romantic relationships would be relatively typical of Western society today,…...
mlaReferences
Hooti, N. Quest for Identity in Tennessee Williams "A Streetcar Named Desire." Studies in Literature and Language. Vol. 2, No. 3. Retrieved from www.cscanada.net.
Marlowe, C. The Tragical History of Doctor. Faustus. Retrieved from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/779/779-h/779-h.htm
Skiba, M. (2008). The Character of Blanche DuBois in 'A Streetcar Named Desire'. GRIN.
Suleiman, R. (2010, Oct. 8). A Cooperative Frame or Hostile Incarceration?: How the Humanist Playwright Treats the Academic in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Retrieved from: http://www.regis.edu/content/rcrcu/pdf/SuleimanEssay.pdf
Street car named desire
"A Streetcar Named Desire" is an American play written by Tennessee illiams, 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 loaners have confiscated all her riches and property and she has been left with nothing to live. In spite of losing all her money and family riches, Blanche still lives under an illusion of being rich and authoritative. This illusion lets her attract and lie to men. A woman of thirty living under the illusions of being pretty and still attractive, she desires more men to be attracted to her. One of the main reasons based on which Blanche keeps…...
mlaWorks Cited
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. Introduction and text. Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1995.
Blanche recognized that Stanley did not share their "values" and attempted to get her sister to see him for who he really was.
Conclusion
The purpose of this discussion was to explore the issues of character, themes and values presented in a Street Car Named Desire and the manner in which Tennessee illiams infused these ideas into this classic play.
The research reveals that Character presented through the play varied from vain to cruel. Blanche had character traits that were superficial while her sister was loyal and extremely tolerant of others. Stanley was a bully who abused his wife and raped his sister-in-law. The discussion also revealed several themes present throughout the play including sex, fantasy and women dependent upon men. The discussion found that sex was one of the more dominant themes of the play from beginning to end. Finally the discussion explored values and found a tug of war between…...
mlaWorks Cited
Bloom, Harold, ed. Tennessee Williams's a Streetcar Named Desire. New York: Chelsea House, 1988.
Brownstein, Oscar Lee. Strategies of Drama: The Experience of Form. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.
King, Kimball. "Tennessee Williams: A Southern Writer." The Mississippi Quarterly 48.4 (1995): 627+.
Mermelstein, David. "A Streetcar Named Desire." New Criterion Dec. 1998: 57.
Street Car Named Desire
The play a Street Car Named Desire is about the relationship between: lanche, Stella and Stanley. lanche is a southern belle, who is visiting her sister (Stella) and brother in law (Stanley) in New Orleans. Throughout the play, there is a conflict between lanche and Stanley. This is because Stanley believes that lanche is interfering in his relationship between Stella and himself. As he is emotionally and physically abusive, yet they are also dependent upon each other for support. The problem is that her presence is creating a situation which is highlighting the strains in this relationship. ("Street Car Named Desire")
However, Stanley finds out that lanche was former teacher (from Laurel, Mississippi). The reason why she left is because: her husband was a homosexual; she had an affair with a 17-year-old student and was run out of Laurel. This is because he wants to get back at…...
mlaBibliography
"A Street Car Named Desire." Spark Notes, 2011. Web. 29 Dec. 2011
The fulfillment of desire, that is, means the eradication of desire -- by its very definition, desire is gone once its object has been attained. This plays out differently for the two characters described above; Gatsby does briefly attain his desire -- i.e. Daisy -- but also learns that, through her own decision, he will never really possess her. This dual event of fulfillment and permanent rejection is symbolically paired with his death, and the complete randomness yet strange inevitability of the death as far as the storyline of the novel goes makes it all the more tragic. Blanche never really attains her desire, and in fact can be seen as destroying it utterly when Mitch leaves her, and this final rejection is enough to break her. Unable to attain her desires, Blanche suffers a complete break from reality that effectively destroys her, as well, yet she continues living in…...
Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois goes to seek refuge at her sister's house. At first it seems decent enough- even though she has to bear with Stella's less than gentleman husband, Stanley Kowalski, she starts to disintegrate into madness when her once value beauty cannot get her the freedom and independence she craves. As some would say, beauty gets you far, for Blanche, nearing the age of 30, without hardly any money and losing her home and position as a high school teacher, her aging face is a far cry from her once flawless form. She was considered the "bell of the ball." She had money, she had worth suitors, and she had a good family name. Of course none of that mattered as her attempts to gain independence from her newly found poverty through being with men ended in a psychotic break that ruined any future chances of…...
mlaReferences
Bloom, H. (2009). Tennessee Williams's a streetcar named Desire. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea.
Shakespeare's play, Romeo Juliet, film version: note defend effective ineffective. Do unknown young actors, Leonard hiting Olivia Hussey, opposed recognizable stars, made film appealing? Please explain
Although some might be inclined to believe that it is impossible to compare two works of art because they should each be analyzed from different points-of-view, it is only safe to consider that illiam Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet needs to be compared with the film that was inspired from it. One of the first things that the director needed to take into account was that the play that he wanted to screen contained a particularly powerful storyline and the actors thus needed to be prepared to express its full intensity. Franco Zeffirelli decided to cut some of the play's major parts and in spite of the fact that he created a less dramatic piece he managed to create a motion picture that was successful…...
mlaWorks cited:
Dir. Elia Kazan. A Streetcar Named Desire. Warner Bros. 1951
Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Romeo and Juliet. Paramount pictures, 1968
The director makes this point very clearly in the scene where David and Dianna win some money.
They tumble among the bills, consummating their love for money as much as, or more so than, their love for each other. The scene is quite remarkable even beyond the basic idea of sex literally on top of money. Lyne spends significant amounts of time exploring the cash-filled crevices of his stars. While certainly a cinematic first, this union of love and money is a hollow pleasure.
The above quote also emphasizes the attitude projected by the film, which is a reflection of the contemporary world, where money and sex and power are closely associated. In a sense the film also points to another problematic aspect of the modern world; that the value of money is regarded above all else - including love and human relationships. The entire film is built around an exploration…...
mlaBibliography
Berardinelli, J. Indecent Proposal. Retrieved March 9, 2005. Web site: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/i/indecent.html
Dirks, T. Deliverance (1972). Retrieved March 9, 2005 from Filmsite Org. Web site: http://www.filmsite.org/deli.html
Howe, D. 'Midnight Cowboy' (R) (1994) Retrieved march 8, 2005 from the Washington Post. Web site: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/midnightcowboyrhowe_a0b04a.htm
Koller B. Midnight Cowboy (1969) Retrieved March 7, 2005. Web site: http://us.imdb.com/Reviews/131/13153
Good Man is Hard to Find
Flannery O'Conner's short story, a Good Man is Hard to Find is a modern parable. The story is laced with symbolism and religious subtext. In many ways the piece is similar to classical Greek plays about pride and retribution.
efore launching into a discussion of O'Conner's story it is important to understand the woman and her motivations to write. O'Conner was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925 to her devout Catholic parents, Edward and Regina O'Conner. Flannery spent her youth attending Catholic parochial schools. In 1938, the family moved to a town just outside Atlanta called Milledgeville where Flannery continued her education. Unfortunately, her father would ultimately die in this town as the result of complications from the disease lupus. Flannery went on to Georgia State College for Women and then proceeded to the State University of Iowa where she received her MFA in 1947.
It…...
mlaBibliography
O'Conner, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. 1953. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR/goodman.html
Galloway, Patrick. The Dark Side of Flannery O'Conner. 1996. http://www.cyberpat.com/essays/flan.html
Mitchel, J. Tin Jesus: The Intellectual in Selected Short Fiction of Flannery O'Conner. 2000. http://sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu/~jmitchel/flannery.htm
Coles, Robert. Flannery O'Conner's South. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1980.
You can find great information on Scene 3 of A Streetcar Named Desire here: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/streetcar/section3.rhtml The use of language varies a lot between Stanley (very coarse) and Blanche (full of lyric and emotion when she speaks about her husband). Symbolism is particularly important, because Tennessee Williams was very focused on more than just what was said by the characters. He wanted the people who read his work to experience more than just the words of the people in the story. It's also possible to find the scene on YouTube so you can watch it and understand more about the motifs and....
There are two main levels of language used in A Streetcar Named Desire. These are the text of the stage directions and the words the actors actually say to one another. The biggest contrast is between Stanley's course, slang language and Blanche's classy, flowery statements. While Blanche's language sounds much more proper, it also sounds very fake and false in comparison with Stanley's speech. This is how Williams wanted it to sound when he wrote the play. By using two styles of writing and language, Williams was able to distinguish the two main characters from one another very easily, which....
The stage directions in Scene 1 of A Streetcar Named Desire are very specific and detailed. They are more than just stage directions, and are focused on exactly how the characters are supposed to look and be portrayed. They discussed the outfits, the mannerisms, and the actual ways in which the characters are supposed to act, far beyond what they just physically do and what they say to one another. The motifs are clear and direct. They provide design for the set and the outfits the characters are wearing, along with the decoration the set has and what it portrays....
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