“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a book from 1947 written by Tennessee Williams. Blanche DuBois is an English teacher from Mississippi who comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella Kowalski. Blanche cannot believe how Stella could be married to Stanley Kowalski who is a Polish, violent and cruel man. She had shown signs of mental instability, but when Stanley reveals information about Blanche’s past to her lover Mitch it all goes downhill for her. Blue Jasmine is a film from 2014 directed by Woody Allen. Jasmine Francis is the wife of Hal, who is a wealthy socialite in Manhattan. Hal is sent to prison for stealing money from investors leaving Jasmine with nothing. She moves in with her sister Ginger in San Francisco who dates several men that Jasmine does not approve of. Even though Jasmine is trying to start over, she reflects back on her past life that was abruptly ripped away from her. By analyzing the emotional cores of Blanche and Jasmine through a description of the similarities and differences between them, we can get a better understanding of how they are fundamentally different. There are many similarities that can be seen between Blanche and Jasmine such as their state of mental health. Towards the end of the book and film, both of them are on the verge of insanity and show signs of it throughout the storyline. There is already a hint in the beginning of the movie that something is abnormal about Jasmine: “MAN: Who’s that woman you were talking to? LADY:
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.
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.
Williams uses the expressionist technique “The ‘Varsouviana’ is filtered into weird distortion, accompanied by the cries and noises of the jungle” to parallel Blanche’s inner mind and depicts Blanche’s deranged mental state after Stella’s betrayal. The imagery ‘Lurid reflections appear on the walls in odd, sinuous shapes’ highlights her mental turbulence and the stage directions ‘mysterious voices behind walls, as if reverberated through a canyon of rock…the echo sounds in threatening whispers’ heightens tension, positioning the audience to witness the overwhelming fear and exaggeration of her senses, further emphasising the detrimental impact Stella’s decision made. The Streetcar Named Desire also examines the influence that a person’s social standing can have. Stanley’s statement in scene 2 ‘The Kowalskis and Dubois have different notions’ indicates their social upbringing has influenced the way they think, hence disrupting their connection and loyalty towards one another. The use of their family name is metonymic for their ancestry and social standing, addressing the barriers derived from a social hierarchy which have affected their relationship.
Play vs. Movie: Which is best? Streetcar Named Desire was written by Tennessee Williams. Tennessee Williams was an American playwright from Mississippi. It became his first Broadway play in 1947.
In the beginning of the play, Blanche and New Orleans are anticipated as totally incongruous together. The reason why this controversy is created between Stellas sister and New Orleans, is that Blanche comes from Belle Reve, a completely different city, and she is not used to the life in the place where Stella has settled down, as she is described as a highbrow person, from an elevated social class who is well refined and very delicate. Her character is also noticed from the fluffy bodice clothes and the white gloves that she is wearing, as well as the cultural language that Blanche uses to communicate with the others. On the other hand, New Orleans is a small city, with old white painted houses with rickety stairs, with an atmosphere of decay, full of bars where the loud disturbing sound of the tinny piano is heard, and people that behave differently from what Blanche expected.
Everything in life has similarities and differences as long as you're looking for them, but some have more than others. Comparing similarities and difference between two things in life is making a compare and contrast (book) . When comparing and contrasting two pieces of literature you have to observe not only the themes of them but also the plot. Fences by August Wilson and My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke have many similarities and differences throughout the literature due to themes and the plot.
Blanche is an old southern Belle who expects the man to be a gentleman and in her level of class, scene 10 “A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life” (Williams, 1947) this is how Blanche intertwines the past and present as past women were only there to be seen, look after the house and provide children and present Blanche could be seen to be past her prime. Blanche is representing the past as she is still dress in grand dress white moth Ironically Blanche appears in the first scene dressed in white, “the symbol of
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
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.
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).
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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