Monologue From A Streetcar Named Desire

In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams the character Blanche Dubois shows the characteristics of a tragic hero. In the play, Blanche is tested by suffering, forcing her to face the consequences of her actions. Blanche has many tragic flaws that can be shown through symbolism and themes throughout the play. Aristotle states that the protagonist must be of noble character - defined not by birth but rather moral choice. Aristotle also felt the best type of a tragic hero will fall somewhere between the two extremes - “... a person who is neither perfect in virtue and justice, nor one who falls into misfortune through vice and depravity, but rather, one who succumbs through some miscalculation.” According to Aristotle the characteristics of a tragic hero are to provoke sad emotions, such as pity or fear, from the audience. When these sad emotions are provoked from the audience, it is hoped that after seeing the tragic hero leading themselves to downfall or death it will transform the audience into good human beings.

She has an affair with one of her students and is fired from her job. She is crushed, and penniless. So, Blanche heads to New Orleans to live her sister, Stella, and her husband, Stanley. Her sudden arrival creates stress for pregnant Stella and her husband. Stanley and Blanche never see eye to eye on anything. Which only increases tension between the three of them, who all have to stay in very close proximity due to the sheer small size of the house. This tension also adds to Blanche's insanity. This is very evident in her actions throughout the story, especially how she acts towards men, specifically, Mitch and Stanley. Mitch meets Blanche while Stanley is hosting a poker game and Blanche instantly wants to start a relationship. She tells Mitch while they are conversing, "I don't want realism. I want magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And it that's sinful, then let me be damned for it!” (Williams 117). In this quote, Blanche admits not not wanting to live in reality, she wants to live in a fantasy world. She explains that she lives in a fantasy world by telling lies and when people believe them, her new 'reality' is created. However, she also recognizes that she is wrong for lying and confesses to her illness. Blanche knows she needs help and in confessing this to Mitch, she is pleading for

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.

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. Quote and Explain, In contrast, Stella has both a husband and a child, she has something to work for, leading her to be accepted into society. Although Stella exemplifies these common traits, she falls under the same category as her sister, Blanche. While being depicted as less in comparison to the opposite sex. The intense description of the stage directions in scene three, depicts Stella as the prey and Stanley as the predator as he vigorously abused

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. The lives of the main character revolve around desire. Throughout the play, the theme of death is the opposite of desire is developed through the main character’s need to be desired or desirable.

Many literary criticisms have been written about Blanche and how she tends to lie about everything in her life. “Blanche disguises her desperation with lies- about drinking, her age, her reasons for coming to New Orleans, her sexual experience.” (Dace n.p.). Dace clearly describes Blanche as a liar and describes the fact how she lied about everything from the smallest thing, like her age to something as big as the reason why she went to New Orleans. “... in spite of the fact she’s somewhat older than I. Just slightly. Less than a year.” (Williams 54). Blanche is lying about her age because she is trying to gain attention to make herself feel better about herself. Throughout the play, the addiction Blanche has to alcohol is revealed little by little. Blanche is the master of liars and lies about the attraction that she has to alcohol. [She springs up and crosses it, and removes a bottle of whiskey. She pours a half tumbler of whiskey and tosses it down.] (Williams 8). Whenever Blanche first arrives at Stella’s house, she makes herself welcomed and decides to take a drink and then hide the fact that she had a drink. After Stella and Blanche meet Stella offers Blanche a second drink, but Blanche rejects the drink so she will not be seen as an alcoholic. “No, one’s my limit” (Williams 11). That is the answer Blanche gives to Stella after she offers Blanche a second

As she was kissing him and reached into his back pocket, took the money for herself and then tucked it in her bra. I found their relationship very affectionate throughout the movie where I did not picture this when reading the play. However, I think that the director was very clever when incorporating their passionate relationship between Stella and Stanley. I believe this because it proved how sexually driven and aggressive Stanley was which almost had a foreshadowing affect on the end relationship between Blanche and Stanley. I also think this portrayal of raw emotion was an extremely important aspect of the film because inner emotion and motives drove every characters actions throughout the play. For instance, Stanley’s aggression led to his ‘relationship’ with Blanche. Stella’s unconditional love for Stanley drove her to believe Stanley instead of her sister, and Blanche’s shame for her past decisions lead her to feel insecure and almost dirty which could have been the reason she constantly took baths. I think it may have been a mental tool to wash away her

Tennessee Williams is a world famous playwright. He has won many prestigious awards. In 1947, Williams penned one of his most famous plays, A Streetcar Named Desire, winning him the Pulitzer Prize. William’s background greatly influenced his writing, and because of this, alcoholism and mental illness are issues strongly reflected in his works (Williams 1817). A Streetcar Named Desire is a story about a women with mental health issues, named Blanche Dubois. In the play, Blanche loses her family 's estate, and goes to stay with her sister Stella.  Stella lives with her husband Stanley.  From the start of the play, the audience begins to notice Blanche and Stanley’s contrasted personalities. Williams uses symbolism to allow his characters to represent something stronger than themselves. Past and present are intertwined in A Streetcar Named Desire through Blanche and Stanley; Blanche represents the past: the Old South, aristocracy, and former sensitivity, while Stanley represents the present: the New South, the industrial class, and modern straightforwardness.

Psychologist Sigmund Freud developed an idea that there is more than one aspect to the human psyche. The human psyche rather is structured into three separate parts including: id, ego, and superego. In a similar manner, Tennessee Williams has three main characters in his Southern Gothic play, A Streetcar Named Desire. In addition to the human psyche as the three mentioned categories, Freud introduced psychoanalysis, which is the belief that people could be cured through developing their unconscious thoughts or motivations into their conscious decisions, receiving insight (McLeod). Characters are shaped by their thoughts and actions, as this is present in A Streetcar Named Desire. Williams seems to have taken the ideals of Freud to build his characters in Freudian molds. Psychoanalytic ideas are revealed through the actions of the three main characters as Stanley is the Id, Stella as the Ego, and Blanche as the Superego. Creating an understanding of each individual as they pertain to a psychological approach, reveals the reasons they had for acting the way they did throughout the play.

When Blanche first comes to Stella’s house, she firmly demands Stella to “turn the over-light off!” as she cannot “be looked at in [the] merciless glare” (Williams 11). Although the light seems harsh, Blanche acts hardhearted and pitiless and could possibly be seeing herself in the glare. Blanche “cannot tolerate being seen in bright light” because she is “hypersensitive to her declining physical beauty” (Adler 30). In attempts to protect her own image, she buys a paper lantern to cover the harsh light in Stanley and Stella’s bedroom; Blanche’s mental state is “as fragile” as the paper lantern that protects her from her own reality (Adler 30). The fragility of Blanche’s mental state is evident when her paper

Stella devotes herself to Stanley and his every move. (Pg. 6) This is represented in the first scene of the play when Stanley throws the package of meat towards her and she catches it gleefully, symbolizing her unwavering dedication to him. (Pgs. 40-42) On the other hand, Stanley abuses her physically when he is drunk, however she always goes back to him. Similarly, Stanley plants information into Stella, until she nearly savaged her relationship with Blanche. (Page 96) This is shown when Blanche has confided to Stella about the rape and rather than consider believing her, she believes Stanley because of all the supposed lies Blanche has told and her abnormal devoutness to her husband. “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley!” –Stella Kowalski. Stella encompasses the glory of delusion when involved in a dysfunctional marriage.

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). Stanley 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!” (10.225). towards the end of the play Stella, Mitch, and Stanley play a role in imposing reality into her allusions. As Stella calls for the Doctor to pick Blanche up it rips her away from her fantasies with Shep Huntleigh. When Mitch reveals to Blanche that she isn't pure enough to take home to his

Symbolisms are commonly used by authors to emphasize a certain type of atmosphere in a novel and it also symbolizes characteristic features of characters and specific places (Your Dictionary). The use of symbolism is really important in the play A Streetcar Named Desire because every symbol the author uses has a deep meaning in the character’s feelings and also it has a deep secret that character wants to hide from others. Thus, this helps the readers to emotionally feel and also helps the readers to focus more into the play and without symbolism, is not going to be easy for readers to understand the book they are reading.

Effeminate- Adjective -(of a man) Having or showing characteristics regarded as typical of a woman; unmanly. (Pg 114)

The play A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most notable plays of the late 1940s to early 1950s and is still prevalent in the theater community today. It originally opened on Broadway in a 1947 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, today more commonly known as the Barrymore Theatre, preforming for a little over a thousand patrons. The original Stanley was played by Marlon Brando, who would reprise this role in the movie adaptation. At the Barrymore Theatre, the set was quite complex with a full stairway and banister, a pallor with a 4-chair dinning set and all the dressings of a then modern, but lower-class apartment. The costumes were quite normal street clothes for that time-period except for Blanche 's extravagant wardrobe. For this time-period, the makeup and hair was quite common. Since Blanche was dressed to impress and find a husband she wore a full face of makeup. Since was not yet born in 1947, I am unsure what the sound and lighting designs were like.