Blanche's Madness In A Streetcar Named Desire

What, quite unmanned in folly?” Macbeth’s erratic behavior in the Banquet Scene, is a sign of his growing paranoia. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship has begun to deteriorate as they attempt to overcome the constant fear that has begun to consume them. By the last act of the play, all equality and love between the two is lost and replaced with mania.

Through the novel, we can see how Gilead negatively affects the psychology and mentality of the handmaids that makes them to give up to the system and brain washes them. One example is Janine. She is rejecting her victimization and ignorant of her own victimization, Janine looks revolting, pathetic, and distressed. For example, Offered describes Janine as pitiful since she tries to fulfill Gilead’s roles. She describes her how she throws herself into the testifying and feels arrogance in describing her rape story and abortion; subsequently, feels guilty when she had done nothing wrong.

Hamlet has come to see his mother, Queen Gertrude, and ends up stabbing Lord Polonius, which ultimately leads to his death. Lord Polonius’ final words include “O, I am slain!” Even though this provides a slight amount of comic relief to the reader, it has a reverse effect on Ophelia’s mental state. Her father’s death seems to be the potent punch in this fight because she officially goes mad after this final event. This is apparent in Scene IV Act I, when Laertes has come back to visit his sister and check on her well being.

She sleepwalks, and reveals what she and Macbeth have done to her servant. Her sleepwalking is her bodies way of dealing with her massive amount of guilt. She “seems thus washing her hands”, trying to wash all the blood she has shed off her hands (5.1.31). She cannot wash the blood off though because it is ingrained in her. She questions “who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”(5.1.40-41).

Ophelia and Hamlet were in love which in turn made it burdensome for her to forgive him for killing her father. Similarly to Hamlet, Ophelia went “mad” when her father was killed. Specifically, Gertrude said, “Her clothes spread wide, And, mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds, As one incapable of her own distress Or like a creature native and endued Unto that element” (Hamlet 4.7.172-175). Ophelia had to be bored up because she couldn’t handle the distress that she was feeling. Ophelia’s madness was easily seen with her actions and appearance.

His pent up frustration against his mother results in an outburst against Ophelia whereby Hamlet verbally assaults her- “go thee to a nunnery.” Ophelia is also guided by her Id since she desires Hamlet and upon being abused by the latter, she loses her sanity and her will to live, showing the reign of Thanatos, thus, prompting her suicide. Her father, representing her superego, attempts to control her behavior along the lines of morality, but the consequence is rather disastrous as her Id

A good pattern of imagery he uses is blood symbolism. Blood begins to symbolize Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeth’s guilt because they start to feel that their crimes have stained them in a way that can’t be washed clean. Macbeth cries after he has killed Duncan, even as his wife yells at him and says that a little water will wash the blood from his hands. Lady Macbeth's hallucination of blood on her hands seems to represent her feeling of guilt.

There is a rising action as Blanche and Stanley 's relationship becomes more and more difficult, with Blanche constantly belittling and insulting him, and Stanley becoming more aggressive and angry. Blanche grows to despise Stanley when she sees him beating her pregnant sister and Stanley permanently hates Blanche after he overhears her trying to convince her sister Stella to leave Stanley because he is common. There is also a rising action in Stanley’s revealing of Blanche 's secret past to Stella and Mitch. The climax of the play occurs when Stanley rapes Blanche. This brutal act marks the completion of her mental decline, pushing her over the edge from sanity to madness.

Later, after his death, she keeps being literally stained because of the mark of the key to the bloody chamber on her forehead. In literature, lilies are typical symbols of death. The husband - like the lilacs in the glass vase - is distorted at the sight of the bloody chamber, and his soul is reduced to unequal pieces that can never be

The first example relates to Caleb, which is where Caleb and Catherine are arguing in the kitchen and both are putting each other down and Caleb loses his temper and hems Catherine up toward the wall and is yelling at her about respecting him and blames Catherine for his porn addiction (Kendrick, 2008). The second example relates to Catherine, after Caleb’s actions of the kitchen disputes she tell him that she wants out of the marriage (Kendrick, 2008). Both of these two examples of Caleb’s and Catherine’s degenerative communication spiral is related to Stewart’s (2012) information regarding degenerative cycles are eagerly obvious when a relationship starts disintegrating due to distrust feeing distrust, defensiveness soaring which causes the relationship to worsens (p 404). The third example relates to Catherine, when Catherine pursues an emotional affair or connection to her coworker, Doctor Gavin (Kendrick, 2008).

Another element in this novel is Melinda’s inner conflict, man vs. self. What Melinda has been through greatly affected her everyday life. She struggles with depression, dislikes her appearance, and feels ashamed of herself for something that isn 't her fault: “I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else...even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me” (Anderson 51). Andy Evans, the senior who raped her, made her feel worthless. This situation is much like the one in the novel The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.

Henderson tends to be the harshest on women out of the four men. Multiple times throughout the story he voices his opinion to Mrs Peters and Martha. “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” This quote is making fun of Minnie’s home and how not kept it is.

Oscar Wilde once said, "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” Sometimes, the guidance of external forces changes the course of action by providing temptation and implementing persuasiveness. This confuses the consciousness and leads to a disgruntled view of appearance and reality. As a result, decisions made under the authority of outside influences are not representative of one’s true self.

Coincidentally, during the course of this story, both Daisy and Myrtle are physically harmed by Tom. “Then there were bloody towels upon the bathroom floor, and women’s voices scolding, and high over the confusion a long broken wail of pain. ”(37). When drunk, Myrtle refused to stop talking about Daisy, and Tom, annoyed by this, punched her in the nose. Similarly, Daisy is also harmed by Tom, although the reason is unexplained.

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams, the main character, Blanche DuBois, travels to New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, and Stella’s husband, Stanley Kowalski. Throughout the play, sexulaity is seen as a strong motivator for many of the characters actions. Early in the play, Stanley is introduced as a particularly sexual character, “ Since earliest manhood the center of his life has been pleasure with women, the giving and taking of it, not with weak indulgence... He sizes women up with a glance, with sexual classifications…” (Williams 25).