This is best expressed in scene five, where Steve and Eunice fight and then quickly reconcile. This demonstrates that Stella and Stanley’s violent love is the norm in New Orleans. Eunice and Steve’s sexual attachment is much healthier than Blanche’s attraction for the newspaper boy. Blanche acts in this destructive manner due to her background. She is one of the “epic fornicators” of her family, who indulged in forbidden acts because they could not find a healthy outlet for their desires.
Noun- Meaningless talk; nonsense. (Pg 145) II. Discussion Questions 1. Why do you think Stanley was out to get Blanche throughout the whole novel? Do you think he found satisfaction in revealing her true identity?
Nina Hefner (Ouachita Baptist University) identifies the beginning of the influence Stanley’s masculinity has on the demise of Blanche. “When she calls him a Polack it infuriates Stanley because Blanche suggests that he is less than they are merely because he was not born in America… Finally, comparing Stanley to an animal deprives him not only of his masculinity, but also of his humanity”.3 Stanley’s aggressive behaviour is triggered by emasculation and his anger towards Blanche begins to build up.
The “white frame, weathered grey" and “faded white stairs" is representing what’s happening to Blanche and the people with the same foreign background as her. The “dim white building" could be representing the already fading old American Society, that’s a “peculiar tender blue" representing the new south. This indicates that the old southern American values are being restrained by the new southern American values. The impact between aristocracy and liberal class is obvious in this play taking the conclusion in consideration when old
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.
”(159) Throughout the story Blanche talks about this rich guy Shep who she used to know in high school and lies about how she knows him and tells people that he's going to come and get her. But when she is in a moment of peril, when she is about to get raped by Stanley, she has a brief moment to at least try and save herself. But when she tries to call someone she calls Shep who she should know won't pick up because she doesn't even know him, but she is so delusional that she truly starts to believe that she actually knows him and calls him for help instead of the police. After Blanche is raped she tells Stella, but Stella
On a daily basis men and women are lied to by strangers, friends, and even ones who they love and trust the most. Young Blanche is introduced to the story in the beginning of the play through leaving her hometown to come live with her sister Stella. As the play progresses and more information of the backstory on who Blanche is, is revealed the more the viewer sees that it is not all entirely true. She lies about key events in her life such as the passing of her husband, how she was fired, age, and even love interest that she has. As these lies continue Stella's husband (Stanley) starts to become aware of Blanche’ false life that she is telling not only himself but everyone else around them.
In Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche Dubois measures her family’s successes and failures against a standard that she believes reflects the social values of the Old South - the pre-war South in which Blanche grew up. She uses her reminiscences and behaviors to construct herself - to other characters and to the audience - as a Southern Belle: a representative of a group of highborn women from the antebellum South. As the play unfolds, however, it becomes clear not only that Blanche cannot live up to the Southern Belles code, but also that her ideas of the Old South are as illusory as the other self-deceptions to which she is subject. Confronted by the harsh reality of post-war America, Blanche finds comfort in escapism,
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
The themes of violence and power in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ hold an important role in the criticism of 1940s American society. Conflicts perpetuated by violence and power, such as abusive relationships and violent oppression are projected through the characters within the play. Williams uses these conflicts to highlight his criticisms of faltering values and social norms, from the perspective of an individual constrained by the expectations of a strict, Southern society. To begin with, there is an indefinite violence between men and women within ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. Stanley Kowalski, a focal character, is the epitome of male dominance and primitive aggression.
Society of Tennessee Williams’ time saw sexuality as a part of ourselves that should be suppressed because of it’s destructive nature. Throughout A Streetcar Named Desire Williams showcases his characters in this anti-sex society. He shows them in this society, not to praise it, but instead to highlight the negative effects of existing in such a world. Through the actions and consequences his characters face in conforming to societies’ standards Williams manages to communicate a story that condemns society for keeping people from expressing their sexuality and from being stable, whole and sexual human beings. Expressing sexuality or sexual desires leads the play 's characters to death or to ruin, the suppression of desire is destructive and
This is made clear through Stanley’s insecurities about inferiority to women and his prolonged struggle to defeat Blanche. Again, this is evident with Blanche and even Stella. Stella is perceived as a static character with no real individuality, and Blanche, who is seemingly more independent, is characterized mostly by her sexuality. Tennessee Williams demonstrates society’s need for the superiority of men to women through the interactions of Stanley and Blanche in the play, their struggles, and their ultimate
During this time men brought in the money for the household, while the mother’s would stay at home and watch over the children of the family. With this came a sense of pride and authority for the men. Throughout the film Stanley continually abuses Blanche and even goes to the extreme of raping her. He depicts an animal-like man with no awareness of morals. When he gets angry he has no control of his reactions and results to physical violence.
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
The 1947 play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams tells the story of the sweet, polite, but willfully oblivious Blanche DuBois’ difficult relationship with her rough & tough brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. When Blanche loses the family plantation, she travels to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, to visit and temporarily live with her sister, Stella. Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go. Problems arise between Stanley and Blanche when Blanche begins a series of lies and half-truths, and belittles Stanley, labeling him as “common” and “barbaric”. Things escalate between the two because of Stanley’s drunken rage taken out on Stella, but also because Stanley begins to become suspicious and aware of Blanche’s many lies and cover-ups.