As mortal human beings, we all seek a substantial amount of happiness in our everyday lives. Oftentimes, we will lie about our past in order to bring what we hope will be true happiness, but in reality, we bring about our own downfall. In the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams introduced Blanche DuBois, who had such a horrific past that she felt as if she had to cover it up and lie to the people of whom she cared about. As a young girl, Blanche had married a boy by the name of
Allan Grey, but she soon realized that he had been seeing another man. After confronting Allan about his affair, he felt ashamed and made the abrupt decision to end his life, thus causing Blanche to turn to other men for comfort. Living at the Flamingo
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Blanche wanted Stella to think that she had higher standards than those that she was provided with. In meeting her sister’s husband, Blanche was immediately attracted to him because of his strong, manly structure. Once jealousy had struck her, Blanche started flirting with her sister’s husband but Stanley felt as if every word that came out of her mouth was a lie. While sharing her experience of Belle Reve with Stella, Blanche felt satisfaction as she could tell that her sister was feeling guilty for not being there. Suspicious of Blanche’s speech about the plantation, Stanley demanded to see the papers, stating that he was being “swindled” and that he “didn’t like being swindled”. That night, when the men were having their weekly poker night, Blanche met Mitch and felt an instantaneous connection with him. Hoping that this was going to be the man she would marry, Blanche decided that it would be a better idea to tell he lies about her life back in Laurel. She told him that she was a school teacher and that she was just taking a leave of absence, when in reality, she had been fired for engaging in an affair with a student in her english class. Later on in the evening, Blanche had
Most closely related to her in a sexual manner is Mitch. One might envision Mitch as a slight loser of a young man, extremely excited at the prospect of Blanche. She continually leads
Stella encompasses the glory of delusion when involved in a dysfunctional marriage. Secrets, lies, and fear form the foundation of Blanche and Mitch’s relationship. First of all, Blanche is particularly interested in Mitch, not only because of his appearance or wealth, but because he is a way for her to escape Stanley and find love. (Pg. 67)
Lies often come from a place of fear and trauma, and this idea holds true in Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire. The theme of the story is lying, and how it affects the dynamics of relationships and conflicts amongst the characters. Throughout the play, various characters use lies as means to protect themselves, manipulate others, and to hide their true nature. The most prominent instances of lying stem from Blanche Dubois, who utilizes this tool to hide who she truly is. Blanche is quite a complex character with a puzzling past, who often lies in order to present a face that is not truly her own.
It 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
301617- A Streetcar Named Desire Lying as well as deception is a common theme in A Streetcar Named Desire for the characters. There is Blanche, whom, because of her deception and lying which has played a bigger role on the other characters than she goes and realizes. Blanche stated in scene two of A Streetcar
It is Blanche’s obsessive desire for a clean slate that ultimately drives her streetcar into destruction. With each lie she tells, the last lie becomes a reality to her, and once her delusional reality begins to fade, Blanche recedes into a dark hole where neither she or anyone else could ever truly see herself
One major similarity between Blanche and Stanley is that they both like to manipulate or control other people, to make themselves feel better. Even though there are different ways Stanley and Blanche take control of other people they still do it in a familiar matter. For example, Blanche takes power and influence over people by lying to others and herself, to make them believe in something that actually never happened, with fantacy, therefore makes Blanche feel greater, than she actually may be. To go deeper in depth, to prove that Blanche is manipulative she also says. ¨I don 't tell the truth.
Playwright Tennessee Williams once said “a symbol in a play has only one legitimate purpose which is to say a thing more directly and simply and beautifully than it could be said in words”. He seems to take his own advice to heart when writing such a thought provoking play as A Streetcar Named Desire. While Williams makes extensive use of symbols in Streetcar, the use of animals and animal-like characteristics as a symbol are constantly used to define Stanley Kowalski’s character and convey his desires as primal and ferine. Stanley has the first line in the play and is immediately characterized by Williams with the use of his stage direction “bellowing” (Williams 244; sc. 1). Like a wild animal, Stanley has a desire for unrefinement and
But don’t look at me..” and “Open your pretty mouth and talk while I look around for some liquor”. 6) Identify two examples of Blanche’s deception in this scene. What does this reveal about her character? One example is that Blanche try to seem alright
She refused to leave him when Blanche insisted and didn’t believe Blanche when it came to her being raped. Blanche, Stella, and Stanley all have the same want to be desired. The ways they act and treat each other back that up. Blanche feels the need to be desired by everyone around her, Stanley by Stella and others, and Stella by Stanley. Their lives revolve around desire.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, the author Tennessee Williams exaggerates and dramatizes fantasy’s incapability to overcome reality through an observation of the boundary between Blanches exterior and interior conveying the theme that illusion and fantasy are often better than reality. Blanche, who hides her version of the past, alters her present and her relationship with her suitor Mitch and her sister, Stella. Blanche was surrounded by death in her past, her relatives and husband have passed away, leaving her with no legacy left to continue. The money has exhausted; the values are falling apart and she is alienated and unable to survive in the harsh reality of modern society. Throughout the novel Williams juxtaposed Blanche’s delusions with
In the avid pursuit of happiness, an individual can feel compelled to fabricate the truth about themselves in order to achieve the joy that they believe they deserve. The harsh truth of reality can force us to turn to the warmth of a fantasy to ease us in our search of contentment. Such is the case in Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where sisters, Blanche and Stella both lie to themselves and others in order to become satisfied with their lives. Through the eyes of the beholder, happiness is measured differently; to Blanche, happiness is measured in wealth, particularly a wealthy man, whereas to Stella, happiness is in the comfort of a husband whom she refuses to call abusive. When we are first introduced to Blanche, Williams
Tennessee Williams is acclaimed for his ability to create multi faced characters such as Blanche Dubois in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire. She comes to New Orleans after losing everything including her job, money, and her family’s plantation Belle Reve, to live with her sister Stella. During her time there she causes many conflicts with Stella’s husband Stanley and tries to get involved with the people there, all while judging them for their place in society, although she is imperfect too. Through her, Williams has created a complex character. She is lost, confused, conflicted, lashing out in sexual ways, and living in her own fantasies throughout the entirety of the play.
To hide her true self, Blanche restored to duplicity, coupled with her voracious desire and ubiquitous deception caused her a breakdown. In the following paragraphs, there will be more events that led Blanche to such end. One of the things that led Blanche to her downfall is the past. The past, where she was the reason why she lost her husband, Alan, he
Blanche Dubois is a complex character, as like her first name Blanche seems pure and innocent in the beginning, but as the play continues it is shown that Blanche is not the pure, innocent girl she portrays herself to be. In fact, Blanche has a dark past that conflicts with who she truly wants to be and be seen as. Blanche creates a façade of an angelic woman who is of high esteem, is independent and has never known indignity, however, her true self is the complete opposite of who she wants to be. Throughout the play Blanche is seen taking baths to “calm her nerves”, these baths could symbolize Blanche attempting to “purify” herself, and she wants to cleanse herself physically, emotionally and spiritually. Similar to baptisms, when an older person is baptised it is usually for them to be cleansed of their sins, Blanche who is old and is considered dirty is trying to purify and cleanse herself free of her sins.