A Streetcar Named Desire Identity Analysis
Identity conjures up an image of self-regard statically set in the beholder’s environment. However, identity is an active interplay between self-regard and the environment. This interplay takes center stage in Tennessee Williams’ 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire, as Blanche Dubois moves in with her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski in New Orleans. Upon her arrival, Blanche and her grandiose air offend Stanley. His identity centers around his masculinity, and Blanche and her presence challenge and physically obstruct his identity. As a result, Stanley’s personal insecurity burgeons, but he ultimately reaffirms his masculine identity by raping Blanche. After Blanche engenders his self-awareness and self-doubt, Stanley rapes Blanche as an attestation to himself of his own masculinity in order to restore his identity, evincing his vanity.
Blanche dehumanizes Stanley by heralding her superiority, and he self-consciously affirms his humanity in reaction. Blanche intimates the function of her frequent baths when she accuses Stanley of being incapable of understanding the emotions which warrant such a remedy. Justifying her baths as an emotional panacea, Blanche patronizes Stanley, explaining to him that “without a nerve” on his body he does not “know what anxiety feels
…show more content…
Self-aware following Blanche’s dehumanizing ridicule, Stanley self-assuredly maintains his humanity, yet privately. Blanche obstructs Stanley’s capacity to sleep with Stella, consequently arousing his self-doubt. Stanley’s rape of Blanche demonstrates he is possessive in his desire to restore his identity. During her stay with the Kowalskis, Blanche punctures Stanley’s foundation, and he scrambles to restore it. Yet his quivering inner-dialogue demonstrates the futility of his conquest. His old identity submits before its shaper, even as he stifles
Outsiders In A Streetcar Named Desire
1465 Words | 6 PagesStanley is a blunt, practical, and animalistic man who has no patience for subtleties and refinement. His animalistic character shows the moment he meets Blanche, when he, moving with “animalistic joy” (24), “sizes” Blanche up with “sexual classifications” and “crude image” in his mind (25). Under his stare, Blanche draws “involuntarily back” (25), a movement that foreshadows their later conflict and her subsequent demise. His practical and straightforward side shows when he interrogates Blanche about the sale of Belle Reve to make sure that his wife is not swindled. His straightforward, practical nature makes him “boom” out of impatience (46) and demands Blanche to cut straight to the point when she tries to talk in an indirect, subtle manner as befit a Southern gentlewoman.
A Streetcar Named Desire Marriage Analysis
978 Words | 4 PagesStella’s sister, Blanche, sees through the illusion and can see how toxic the marriage really is. Stanley and Blanche come from distinctly different backgrounds, Stanley is from the working class while Blanche comes from wealth. Williams uses these two contrasting points of views on marriage, to show the issues of possessiveness, class, and sexism. When it comes to Stanley’s marriage to Stella, one of the most notable characteristics is how possessive Stanley is. An example of this is when Stanley found out that Blanche and therefore Stella, lost their estate.
Insecurity In A Streetcar Named Desire
1085 Words | 5 PagesIt is what is haunting Blanche’s life, it is what has made her mentally unstable. Throughout the play, she has been hiding her past from people so she looks like
Deception In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay
1065 Words | 5 PagesBlanche’s final, deluded happiness suggests that, to some extent, fantasy is a vital force in every individual’s experience, despite reality’s inevitable triumph. This refers to her reality of how Mitch had came over to apologize to her, and she tells Stanley that she turned him down. This lie backfired, since Stanley knew exactly where Mitch was at this time. As well as Stanley saw through Blanches delusion of how she has received a wire, from Shep Huntleigh, inviting her to go with him down to the Caribbean cruise, in which Stanley later shuts down as
Blanche's Destruction In A Streetcar Named Desire
778 Words | 4 PagesIn Scene 10, she deviously claims that she has just received a telegram from the millionaire, Steph Huntleigh, to explain why she is dressed up. At first, Stanley plays along, but once Blanche musters up the audacity to say that Mitch returned to their apartment seeking repentance, Stanley draws the line. He calls her out for her fictitious tales of her past, and states, “We’ve had this date from the start,” just before he maliciously rapes Blanche. Their natures root in primal, animalistic instincts, Stanley like a dirty hog, open and free concerning his sexuality, Blanche like a fox, sly and deceitful. Despite her incessant attempts to destroy her past, Blanche is unable to stop their sexual connection as she has had so many other men.
Relationships In A Streetcar Named Desire
1371 Words | 6 PagesWilliams uses the expressionist technique “The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” to parallel Blanche’s inner mind and depicts Blanche’s deranged mental state after Stella’s betrayal. The imagery ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes’ highlights her mental turbulence and the stage directions ‘mysterious voices behind walls, as if reverberated through a canyon of rock…the echo sounds in threatening whispers’ heightens tension, positioning the audience to witness the overwhelming fear and exaggeration of her senses, further emphasising the detrimental impact Stella’s decision made. The Streetcar Named Desire also examines the influence that a person’s social standing can have. Stanley’s statement in scene 2 ‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions’ indicates their social upbringing has influenced the way they think, hence disrupting their connection and loyalty towards one another. The use of their family name is metonymic for their ancestry and social standing, addressing the barriers derived from a social hierarchy which have affected their relationship.
A Streetcar Named Desire Past And Present Analysis
1547 Words | 7 PagesTennessee Williams wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire” (Williams, 1947) It is based in New Orleans a new cosmopolitan city which is poor but has raffish charm. The past is representing old south in America 1900’s and present is representing new America post world war 2 in 1940’s. Past and present are intertwined throughout the play in the characters Stanley, Blanche, Stella and mitch. Gender roles show that males are the dominant and rule the house which Stanley is prime example as he brings home food and we learn of one time when he got cross and he smashed the light bulbs.
Death In A Streetcar Named Desire
718 Words | 3 PagesHe desires a normal life with Stella, without Blanche in the picture. As told in A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, “After exposing all of Blanches shameful secrets and destroying her plans to marry Mitch, Stanley completes her violation and subjugation by raping her, which drives her to insanity” (A Streetcar Named Desire--Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Silvio). Stanley desires a normal life without Blanche so bad, that he completely broke her to get it. Stanley also wants to be desired.
Stella Kowalski's Sexuality In A Streetcar Named Desire
741 Words | 3 PagesStanley takes advantage of Blanche using his assertion and Blanche’s vulnerability due to her mental state and high level of intoxication. After the attack, Blanche’s already diminished mental state continues to deteriorate, leading her into
Violence And Power In A Streetcar Named Desire
652 Words | 3 PagesThe themes of violence and power in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ hold an important role in the criticism of 1940s American society. Conflicts perpetuated by violence and power, such as abusive relationships and violent oppression are projected through the characters within the play. Williams uses these conflicts to highlight his criticisms of faltering values and social norms, from the perspective of an individual constrained by the expectations of a strict, Southern society. To begin with, there is an indefinite violence between men and women within ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Stanley Kowalski, a focal character, is the epitome of male dominance and primitive aggression.
Illusion Vs Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire
608 Words | 3 Pageshe says: “not once did you pull any wool over this boy’s eyes!” Not only Stanley had broken her world of illusion, but also Mitch who is influenced by Stanley and destroys the protection of darkness by exposing her to the bright light. Stanley bringing up the past contributes to how Blanches ends up, alone and insane expressing the theme that what happened in the past determines the present, and illusion and fantasy directly correlate. Though reality triumphs over fantasy in A Streetcar Named Desire, when the truth comes colliding down on Blanche, she has no choice but to go insane ultimately avoiding the acceptance of
Theme Of Dominance In A Streetcar Named Desire
698 Words | 3 PagesThis is made clear through Stanley’s insecurities about inferiority to women and his prolonged struggle to defeat Blanche. Again, this is evident with Blanche and even Stella. Stella is perceived as a static character with no real individuality, and Blanche, who is seemingly more independent, is characterized mostly by her sexuality. Tennessee Williams demonstrates society’s need for the superiority of men to women through the interactions of Stanley and Blanche in the play, their struggles, and their ultimate
Theme Of Identity In A Streetcar Named Desire
733 Words | 3 Pages“A Daily Joy to Be Alive” discusses the importance to persevere in life .Blanche, Stella and the Speaker in “A Daily Joy to Be Alive” identities have been shaped through their past experiences and effect who they are today. Individuals are free to shape their own identities through familiarity, environments, and relationships as shown in A Streetcar Named Desire and “A Daily Joy to Be Alive”. In the play a common sense of familiarity helps to shape the identities of Stella and the speaker of the poem. It can be inferred that Stella replaced her sister Blanche’s bossy and authoritative behavior with Stanley’s.
Society In A Streetcar Named Desire
847 Words | 4 PagesDuring this time men brought in the money for the household, while the mother’s would stay at home and watch over the children of the family. With this came a sense of pride and authority for the men. Throughout the film Stanley continually abuses Blanche and even goes to the extreme of raping her. He depicts an animal-like man with no awareness of morals. When he gets angry he has no control of his reactions and results to physical violence.
A Streetcar Named Desire Literary Analysis
1697 Words | 7 PagesStanley continues to impose his reality onto Blanche, which causes her more anxiety relying more and more on herself to create more of an illusion by creating an admirer for herself, saying that she ended it with Mitch because she does not deserve “deliberate cruelty”, and crating this alter ego for herself as being pure. While Stella is in the hospital, he and Blanche are left alone for the night as she continues bragging about her admiration coming from Sheep Hunt Leigh and how she just got a wire from him. Stanley catches her in her life, finally tearing apart Blanche's illusions. Although Stanley has been a threat to her through his suspicion and empowering masculinity over her, the last scene is where he finally takes final control over her, or symbolically where reality has a final triumph over her illusions. While catching her in the midst of her lies she reveals to Blanche that “[he’s] been on to [Blanche] from the start!”
More about A Streetcar Named Desire Identity Analysis
Outsiders In A Streetcar Named Desire
1465 Words | 6 PagesA Streetcar Named Desire Marriage Analysis
978 Words | 4 PagesInsecurity In A Streetcar Named Desire
1085 Words | 5 PagesDeception In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay
1065 Words | 5 PagesBlanche's Destruction In A Streetcar Named Desire
778 Words | 4 PagesRelationships In A Streetcar Named Desire
1371 Words | 6 PagesA Streetcar Named Desire Past And Present Analysis
1547 Words | 7 PagesDeath In A Streetcar Named Desire
718 Words | 3 PagesStella Kowalski's Sexuality In A Streetcar Named Desire
741 Words | 3 PagesViolence And Power In A Streetcar Named Desire
652 Words | 3 PagesIllusion Vs Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire
608 Words | 3 PagesTheme Of Dominance In A Streetcar Named Desire
698 Words | 3 PagesTheme Of Identity In A Streetcar Named Desire
733 Words | 3 PagesSociety In A Streetcar Named Desire
847 Words | 4 PagesA Streetcar Named Desire Literary Analysis
1697 Words | 7 Pages