Streetcar Named Desire
In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche, a former socialite and debutante, is ostensibly concerned with manners and civility. Blanche swings from losing people in her life to losing possessions and a strong sense of desire to combat her ineluctable demise. Her sense of desire is inflamed by the death of her former lover, who she describes as her greatest love.
Starting in Act One, Williams starts to show the reader Blanches inevitable pattern of life when she is searching for the streetcar and describing the directions given to get to her sister's home. “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at-- Elysian Fields.”() The first streetcar, named
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Understanding Blanches previous sexual partner and the actions he took to keep from continually giving into his sexual desires, the reader can gather the direct connection between fulfilling your desires and the consequences from it. Williams hints that Blanche has a choice between staying on the path she is headed down and the choice to change the course of her life by being able to get off at Elysian Fields. (Mood) If she were to continue on the streetcar of cemeteries after six blocks then she would inevitably be headed straight toward death. By getting off at Elysian Fields, she gives herself ‘six blocks’,or six scenes in the case of the play, before she has to face death. Either way Blanche is faced with dying, but by continuing on she gives herself the chance to continue giving into her sexual …show more content…
Blanche once again gives into her desires and becomes involved with Mitch, manipulating him into doing what she wants because he is inexperienced and in doing so she loses her chance at life. “Blanche's affair with Mitch centers on her needing a place away from Stella and Stanley, and Mitch's rejection of her expresses itself in a refusal to bring her "home."”(Vlasopolos) At this point, Blanche is using Mitch to escape from the loneliness of her life and to have some companionship, but she really does not love him at all. When the hispanic woman is chanting about flowers for the dead Blanche realizes that she has officially lost all hope and she is about to reach her destination of death. This is the last straw for Blanche, realizing that the opposite of death is desire, but not the sexual desire she has been fulfilling. The desire opposite of death is desire in good things, but the desire she has had is death's
A Streetcar Named Desire Conflict Essay
783 Words | 4 PagesHowever 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.
Belle Reve: A Streetcar Named Desire
210 Words | 1 PagesThe story and title have a total different meaning as i came to realize, and this quote from Blanche works as a form of foreshadow .Just as she rode the streetcar named ‘Desire’ and then arrived at her destination ‘Elysian Fields’ which is a cemetery in mythology; the story unfolds in the same manner. In my analysis, Belle Reve was the place where she lived and committed sin ,but as well as her husband she in a manner,also died and therefore ran away from this place. Consecutive to escaping from her past she goes to new orleans in search for new beginnings , which is not what she finds as it is in Elysian Fields where all of her lies are discovered and she pays for her past life ,the life nobody knew about. Blanche’s character slowly begins
Blanche Dubois Character Analysis Essay
1307 Words | 6 PagesShe never recovers from the devastating death of her young husband, indirectly caused by the nature of his sexual desire. The death of her relatives are instrumental in reducing her to poverty, as do the desires, the costly “epic fornications” of her forebears. Her own promiscuous sexual desire destroys her reputation and her professional career. (Henthorne ) The death of her relatives leaves deep scars on Blanche’s soul, but even deeper scares are
Insecurity In A Streetcar Named Desire
1085 Words | 5 PagesThe 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.
Deception In A Streetcar Named Desire Essay
1065 Words | 5 PagesBlanche’s final, deluded happiness suggests that, to some extent, fantasy is a vital force in every individual’s experience, despite reality’s inevitable triumph. This refers to her reality of how Mitch had came over to apologize to her, and she tells Stanley that she turned him down. This lie backfired, since Stanley knew exactly where Mitch was at this time. As well as Stanley saw through Blanches delusion of how she has received a wire, from Shep Huntleigh, inviting her to go with him down to the Caribbean cruise, in which Stanley later shuts down as
Blanche's Destruction In A Streetcar Named Desire
778 Words | 4 PagesBoth 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.
Poker In A Streetcar Named Desire
2287 Words | 10 PagesThroughout scene one, many people become drawn to Blanche and offer any aid they can provide her. “What’s the matter honey? Are you lost?” (sc. 1) Eunice asked; this can be seen as an act of mere kindness, but we see a shift in the focus from Stanley to Blanche. Blanche’s infiltration in Elysian Fields transforms the attention from Stanley onto herself.
A Streetcar Named Desire Past And Present Analysis
1547 Words | 7 PagesTennessee 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.
Death In A Streetcar Named Desire
718 Words | 3 PagesThe 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. Blanch wants to be desired. She will do anything to be desired. She lies to everyone around her, pretending to be something she’s not.
Illusion Vs Reality In A Streetcar Named Desire
608 Words | 3 PagesIn 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
Light Techniques In A Streetcar Named Desire
1020 Words | 5 Pages“A Streetcar Named Desire” contains a strong lighting motif that repeats throughout the play. This usually involves Blanche, a character who shies away from any light that is drawn upon her, and is especially sensitive to light when her suitor Mitch is around. To Blanche, she is still young and beautiful in her mind, but when light shines on her she becomes afraid that Mitch will notice her aging skin, her beauty falling. This motif heavily implies how Blanche sees herself and the significance to her sexual innocence. To begin, throughout the play the audience begins to understand how Blanche sees herself.
Happiness In A Streetcar Named Desire
668 Words | 3 PagesBlanche’s desire for marriage stems from the happiness she felt from her first marriage when she was young. She was completely in love with her husband, and was utterly shocked to find out that he preferred men to the point where she had called him “disgusting”. In the end, he took his own life and Blanche had become widowed. Scarred by the death of her husband, she finds content in the arms of any stranger who admires her façade. Blanche’s dependence on a man is a clear representation of her desperation for a married life.
Stereotypes In A Streetcar Named Desire
1245 Words | 5 PagesNot 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.
Theme Of Light In A Streetcar Named Desire
895 Words | 4 PagesBlanche 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.
A Streetcar Named Desire Literary Analysis
1697 Words | 7 PagesStanley 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!”
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