ipl-logo

Theme Of Desire In Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

1002 Words5 Pages

Born Thomas Williams, Tennessee Williams wrote the Pulitzer prize winning play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” in which he was able to portray social realism in New Orleans through a woman who desires to be young again. Unable to accept her true fate, Blanche Dubois set the main theme in, “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Constantly lying about her age, forcing her sexuality, and her inability to overcome reality are all attempts to make herself appear more desirable to young men. Ultimately, Blanche does these things because she believes that the opposite of death is desire and that is how she will stay alive. Almost demanding to be desirable, she ultimately created her own spiritual death. Throughout the play, Blanche argues with her brother-in-law, …show more content…

From the very beginning of the play the theme of desire is portrayed. As Blanche arrives in town, she states that she took a streetcar named desire. As the play progresses, it is easy to see that the streetcar is symbolic of Blanche 's desire for love affairs. She has to feel loved and wanted in order to find comfort and peace in her life.The second streetcar that she takes, Cemetery, is also symbolic because it was her lust and desire that caused her rejection from society. When Blanche arrives at Elysian Fields she is highly disappointed because she thought it would be like heaven on earth. The town is also symbolic because Elysian means paradise (Stefanovici 161-166). Blanche is so desperately trying to escape her reality that she is willing to do …show more content…

While Blanche was unable to revive her soul, the birth of a new life was just beginning. Although she desperately tried to rekindle the desire that others saw in her by, she was powerless and ultimately created her own spiritual death. Unable to accept her true fate, Blanche Dubois spent her life trying to be desirable and loved and eventually made herself go psychotic trying to be someone that she was

Show More
Related

  • Self Preservation In Night By Elie Wiesel

    1480 Words  | 6 Pages

    Blanche is projecting the self-image of a person who believes that they are above others. She acts as though she is of a royal family and demands the respect of everyone around her. She loses her family's home to the government and blames it on her sister who left in order to search for her own lifestyle. From the beginning of her visit, Blanche gets an off feeling about Stanley. When she arrives, he starts to stare at her with a sense of caution then soon begins inspecting the paperwork that she brought with her in order to validate her story.

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire Conflict Essay

    783 Words  | 4 Pages

    However the main conflict is Blanche’s inability to accept reality or her inability to let go of her past. Blanche sees herself above her sister’s life and carries a sense of entitlement that no longer fits her environment like it did in her past. Underneath, Blanche is a liar and Stanley is not. Stanley and Stella are able to able to admit what they are while Blanche is constantly trying to hide who she is. She is unable to come to her desire and sees herself superior to the people around her.

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire Marriage Analysis

    978 Words  | 4 Pages

    Examining Marriage in Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee William’s 1947 play A Streetcar Named Desire takes place in Elysian Fields, New Orleans, and portrays the marital situation of this time. This play illustrates conflict over the marriage of Stella and Stanley. This marriage can be seen as strict, and controlling but also full of lust.

    Read More

  • Insecurity In A Streetcar Named Desire

    1085 Words  | 5 Pages

    The play “A Streetcar Named Desire” is about an emotionally unstable lady named Blanche. She moves in with her youngest sister and her husband because the landlord took the land away from Blanche because they could not pay for it anymore. After being their for a while Blanche starts remembering her horrible past which is something she was trying to do in the first place. The husband of Stella, Stanley Kowalski was also someone that made Blanche’s life miserable for complicating everything and harassing her in every possible way. Death is one of the most symbolic terms in this play.

    Read More

  • Compare Fahrenheit 451 And A Streetcar Named Desire

    835 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although the protagonists of “Fahrenheit 451” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” live in two drastically different societies, both are not satisfied with their current way of living and desire a change and improvement in their life. In “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the title of the play itself signifies Blanche’s desire to escape from the reality of her life, as she is haunted by her past and is currently living a life of insecurity, due to the loss of Belle Reve. Ironically, the streetcar named Desire did not bring her to what she truly wanted, an end of all her problems, and she in fact lost her sanity. The reason for Blanche’s tragic ending is due to the avoidance of her problems, shown metaphorically in the form of a flimsy paper lantern on top of a lamp.

    Read More

  • Blanche's Destruction In A Streetcar Named Desire

    778 Words  | 4 Pages

    Both Blanche's family and Belle Reve represent her dream to indulge in a sophisticated, high class, and luxurious life. When all of Blanche’s family dies and Stella leaves, Blanche loses the first piece of her “beautiful dream.” She no longer has the money to support herself, since her educational career provides insufficient funds. After the tragic loss of her husband, Blanche loses Belle Reve and loses her job, symbolizing that her “beautiful dream” has been fully crushed and the only remnants of her dream are the lies she feeds herself. This fall of social class leads Blanche to carry a tone of classism.

    Read More

  • Death In A Streetcar Named Desire

    718 Words  | 3 Pages

    Desire can be defined as a strong feeling of wanting or wishing for something. The something could be an object, idea, or an event. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois believes that the opposite of death is desire. Logically speaking, the real opposite of death is life; so why does Blanche believe that it’s desire? Possibly because she relates desire to life it’s self.

    Read More

  • Illusion Vs Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire

    608 Words  | 3 Pages

    And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!” Blanches magic is seen through her illusions and delusions. In Blanches world Mitch doesn’t fit however she has reached a point of intimacy by being honest about her first husband and the guilt she endures as she begins to share the painful moment of her life with him. Stanley’s intrusion ruins her plans of marriage with Mitch and yet again she had to retreat in the world of her delusions. Stanley who represents realism in this novel and play pops Blanche’s illusion bubble through seeing the realism in scene ten

    Read More

  • Comparing The Great Gatsby And A Streetcar Named Desire

    1312 Words  | 6 Pages

    “The Great Gatsby” and “A Streetcar Named Desire” both focus on the common theme of pursuing goals and living the American Dream. As well as leaving behind the past and “turn a new leaf”. The main characters in each story, Blanche and Gatsby, both have dreams of wealth and great living.

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In A Streetcar Named Desire

    757 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Street Car Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams, which slowly uncovers Blanche’s prior life. Her troubled past causes her a lot of trouble when she tries to start over. She used to work as a teacher in Mississippi, however, she was forced to leave after she was caught having an affair with one of the students. This was typical behavior for Blanche since she had previously taken many lovers. Since she had such a hard time in Mississippi, she decides to move to New Orleans to live with her sister, Stella, and her husband, Stanley, in hopes of escaping her past.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In A Streetcar Named Desire

    1245 Words  | 5 Pages

    Not only has Tennesse Williams portrayed Stella and Blanche to be seen as delicate and dependent, our own society has created this image but this not only affects how individuals see themselves but affects relationships immensely. Tennessee Williams reinforces the stereotype in which women are often the victims of unfortunate fate within the usage of the character Blanche. Throughout the whole play, we have witnessed Blanche being on the bitter end of life's miseries as she has encountered the tough loss of Belle Reve, dealing with her ex-husband's suicide and the loss of her relationship with Mitch. Arguably, the expectations and beliefs of women were either to be a housewife or a mother, whereas Blanche shows neither, as a result of automatically feeling out of place possibly leading to her downfall. Blanche was constantly fantasizing about the traditional values of a southern gentlemen, proving her dependence on this sex.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Light In A Streetcar Named Desire

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    Blanche flees a failed company and a failed marriage in attempt to find refuge in her sister’s home. Through her whirlwind of emotions, the reader can see Blanche desires youth and beauty above all else, or so the readers think. In reality, she uses darkness to hide the true story of her past. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Williams uses the motif of light to reveal Blanche’s habit of living in a fantasy world until the light illuminates her reality. Blanche uses darkness to block her past from onlookers as to shape her image.

    Read More

  • Society In A Streetcar Named Desire

    847 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a very elegant film in which the Southern gothic culture is demonstrated profoundly. Tennessee Williams uses the characters in the play to bring about a sense of how corrupt society truly was in the 1940’s in the South. The 1940’s was marked by an immense amount of violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Women at the time were treated as objects rather than people. Throughout the play Tennessee Williams relates the aspects of Southern society to the characters in the play.

    Read More

  • Who Is Responsible For Blanche's Downfall

    1266 Words  | 6 Pages

    A streetcar named desire was written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, in purpose to show the “declining of the upper class and the domination of the bourgeois middle class in the U.S.A. where the south agriculture class could not compete with the industrialization.” Blanche Dubois the protagonist of our story, a southern beauty that is trapped by the restrictive laws of her society. But she broke them, and eventually put herself in a state, where she had no job and no house. So she had to go to her sister, Stella and live with her and her sister’s husband, Stanley. While staying there, she created a façade for her to hide her flaws and kept acting as a lady, where she is anything but that.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Sexuality In Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

    1534 Words  | 7 Pages

    Overall, A Streetcar Named Desire is showing the downfalls of not expressing sexuality while doing the rare thing of showcasing sexuality in the context of a society that dismissed and condemned it. Tennessee Williams was a gay man who knew the frustration of living in a time period that demanded his sexuality be repressed. Through the play, he communicates how high a price individuals had to pay for expressing their desires. In Blanche’s case, her expression of sexuality led to her being committed to a mental institute, and in Allen Grey’s case death. Despite this Williams also imparts to his audience the negative impacts of disguising one 's sexuality behind the guise of what is considered normal and proper.

    Read More

More about Theme Of Desire In Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Open Document