Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus, Missouri in 1911. Williams is considered to be one of the three most famous playwrights of the 20th century for American drama. In 1947, one of his best works, A Streetcar Named Desire was released to the public. The play was set to be the exact year in which it was written (“Tennessee Williams”). The play begins as character Blanche Dubois arrives to her destination after getting off a streetcar named Cemeteries. She went to visit her baby sister, Stella, to inform her of the loss of their home plantation. Also, she had no other place to go, so visiting with Stella meant she had a home. When Stella arrives home, Blanche starts talking and Stella never gets the chance to speak. In the beginning, Blanche …show more content…
As well as Blanche lies and her mental state slopes downhill, Blanche has another issue which is also a factor as to why she is the way she is. From the time Blanche was a young teenager, when she married her husband at the age of sixteen, to her current self, she has had many issues with men. The first issue is that she married young and found something out that pushed her to make her do things she later regretted. “...A widow of a homosexual husband…”(House22) Blanche found out that her first husband was a homosexual and it hurt her to the point that she drove him into a state of mind where he thought suicide would be the better option. Not only did Blanche have “...a disastrous marriage with a homosexual,...”(Dace), she also let her sexual urges get the best of her. She was a school teacher who got let go for messing with a young male student. For some reason, Blanche is attracted to younger men. “...Now run along, now, quickly! It would be nice to keep you, but I 've got to be good--and keep my hands off children.”(89) Blanche noticed the paper boy who came because he was a young one. She immediately started flirting with him and the reader could tell he was somewhat uncomfortable with the way Blanche had approached or pushed herself off on him. In the beginning of the play when Blanche first meets Stanley, it 's noticeable that there is the uneasy feeling when the two are around each other. “...Blanche is terrified of Stanley…”(Dace), and this is shown by the way she acts when she is around Stanley. From the very start, Blanche was never really comfortable around stanley to begin with. “Oh! So you want some rough-house! All right, let 's have some rough-house! Tiger--tiger! Drop the bottle top! Drop it! We 've had this date with each other from the beginning!”(141). Stanley attacked Blanche and she did not want him to do that. She was so terrified that she grab a bottle and hit Stanley with it. The straw that really broke the camel 's back was when “Stanley raped
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Show MoreStella and Eunice are talking about Blanche’s situation and Stella says, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Williams 165). Choosing to not believe her sister’s accusations against her husband is only destroying their relationship. She is imprisoning herself by staying with an abuser and overlooking everything he does. Stella embodies her sister’s essential flaw and lies on Blanche to protect her comfort and the man that has abused them
In Scene 10, Blanche is begging Stanley to let her get by and he is not moving to let her through. Stanley says that he thinks Blanche would not be too bad to interfere with in a sexual way going back to Scene 6, when he would walk through the rooms in his underwear at night near Blanche. Blanche complained about the little bit of privacy she had in the house and that was exemplified when Stanley later picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Blanche had thought in the beginning that her situation was frightful, but never to the degree in which she experienced towards the end of the
Because of loneliness and lost, she could not find anything for entertain. Blanche dressed up herself as a queen with luxury items for the nights and hangover. After the dramatically miserable messed up with her student, she had to leave her job and moved to her younger sister apartment. As the teacher she could not have any love relationship with her student. Why did blanche do that?
Stanley 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
Stella accepts her willingly, however, Stanley begins to hear rumors. Blanche starts to date one of Stanley’s friends, Mitch, but when Stanley informs him about her past, Mitch basically tells her
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.
She also prefers keeping her past to herself because of all the problems she has had. She prefers for people to not find out what has happened and why she is the way it is. An example is when Blanche panicked because they took off the little paper covering the lamp which made the room dim and got pissed because she did not want to show how she looks. Stanley is shown to be the “manliest man” but he is unstable and irrational when he realizes what he has done when the damage has been done. For example, when Stanley physically abused Stella he realized what he had done when he was brought back to his senses.
Stanley 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.
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
She needs Stanley for her own sexual needs and because she is having his baby. In scene one Stella describes to Blanche what she feels: STELLA [half to herself]. I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night… BLANCHE. Why, Stella! STELLA.
These rumors were a threat to what she has created in order to help her with the chaos in her life. Although she tried to build a new life with Stella, Stanley never gave in to her act and was constantly suspicious of her actions. Stanley's constant investigations and interrogations on Blanche’s old life. This is a representation of reality is starting to creep in of Blanche's newly created life. From the beginning Stanley has doubted Blanche, this is seen as he went through Blanche's things with Stella, questioning her belongings, “has she got this stuff out of teacher's pay?”(2.33).
In 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.
In one particular scene in the movie Stanley becomes furious with Blanche’s disrespect towards him and proceeds to tell her that he is the king of the house and she is to do as he says. It seems that Stanley felt a sense of achievement by making women fear him. Tennessee William uses this wicked man to help the audience see how Southern culture displayed unethical
Tennessee 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.
In A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Blanche Debois happenly decides to go visit her sister Stella Kowalski who lives in New Orleans. Blanche was not pleased when she arrived