Preview

A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
524 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
A Streetcar Named Desire Analysis
Kenny Lane
Humanities, P5&6
May 5 2011
A Streetcar Named Desire A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most significant plays of the twentieth century. This classic play tells the story of Blanche DuBois, a woman who moves in with her sister after she loses her plantation, and depicts her tumultuous journey into lunacy. As the viewer follows Blanche on her journey two major themes are significantly explored; dependence on men and escapism. Throughout the course of the play these themes move the plot forward and drive Blanche’s story. In the course of A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche illustrates various forms of dependence on men. The viewer first observes Blanche exhibit this theme after it is discovered that her husband killed himself. The loss motivates Blanche to move into the Hotel Tarantula where she invites various men into her room to spend the night. Blanche believes that having a man immediately builds her sense of self worth and brings her happiness. A quote that perfectly illustrates Blanche’s dependence on men take place near the end of the play on page 142 when Blanche states to the people transporting her to the asylum “Whoever you are-I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”. This quote is an example of how much Blanche relies on other people, in particularly men, to help move her life forward. The dependency of women on men was prominent at the time the play was published and many females relied on men for financial security and emotional fulfillment. The writing of this play was Tennessee Williams’ way of criticizing that ideal. Escapism is an additional theme that Williams heavily examines in A Streetcar Named Desire. This theme is explored throughout the course of the novel and we the viewer often experience fantasy conflicting with reality in the various quarrels between whimsy Blanche and pragmatic Stanley. An example of this theme occurs when Blanche’s husband kills himself and she loses her families plantation. Blanche’s

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the movie, A Street Car Named Desire, Blanche uses the quote, “I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, Yes, magic! I try to give that to people." to explain her desire for her fantasy life to become reality. Blanches fantasy life would restore her youth, forgive her past and she would be more welcomed by people like Stanley and Mitch. I do agree with her statement, and believe that living in a “fantasy world” for a short period of time can be beneficial, but I do not agree with the circumstances Blanches is doing so by. Blanche wants to forget the death of her husband, the termination of her position as a schoolteacher caused by a discovered affair with a high school aged boy and the loss of her childhood home and plantation. Some of…

    • 307 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Streetcar named Desire is driven by the imagination of Blanche and the other nature. The handwriting in the amusement cloak from their loyalty by representation as if the events they way through didn’t occur or were not momentous. The consideration of mockery/fantasia vs. devotion seems to carry on the intention that these independence poverty to “sally” their earth. Escaping your fact and vigorous in a like globe will leaving you intricate to the stuff around you. In some suit, if you are muscular enough to restrain from the humor and illusions around you, you may termination up in the loyalty, inclination Mitch. Both Stella and Blanche found it flower in their liking to remain in a humor but if you abide in it too far-reaching it can take…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even from the first few scenes of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’, we can see that Blanche DuBois is a complicated character; throughout the play she ignores warnings and breaks moral codes, and it is this that leads to her demise of character.…

    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main character in a drama entitled "Street Car Named Desire", written by Tennessee Williams, is an emotional woman by the name of Blanche, who has many afflictions. The setting of this play is in the state of Louisiana. Blanche has the potential to be a very vigorous woman, if she chooses to tap into that unidentified strength. All her life, she’s managed to face scrutiny from every possible direction. She has been ostracized from her community, lied to throughout her entire marriage, lost her inheritance, battling with alcoholism, and invests her fate and well-being in men. Blanche is a wandering soul, who’s wrapped up in life’s misfortunes, and is commonly misunderstood.…

    • 1154 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blanche Dubois Victim

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Page

    Blanche DuBois is one of the central characters in Tennessee Williams’: “A Streetcar Named Desire”. She is the sister of Stella Kowalski, she is in her thirties and works as a school English teacher. Blanche can be described as many things; a “slut”, because of her relations with soldiers and numerous men in a hotel, a “predator”, because of her affair with a young school boy. However, a “victim” because of her gender would not be one that many would first think of or even agree with.…

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I believe the primary theme of A Streetcar Named Desire is madness as the result of a disconnect between idealism and reality. The main character of the play, Blanche DuBois, refuses to face reality, keeping her past mistakes and losses hidden from those around her by hiding in the shadows of madness and deception. She wishes nothing more than to escape from who she is, avoiding the interrogation lamp of life at all costs to conceal her depressing past and frightening present. In doing so, she falls more and more away from what was genuine as she wanted to live in a world of magic where none existed, forcing her into a pit of insanity and depression as her past finally catches up with her. A significant rhetorical strategy employed by Tennessee…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire written by Tennessee Williams is a play about a southern lady named Blanche from Mississippi visiting her sister Stella, who is married to Stanley and currently living in Elysian Fields, New Orleans. Blanche arrives in Elysian Fields, and throughout her entire stay with Stella and Stanley, there is tension and conflict occurring in Stella’s house. Even though Blanche and Stella were brought up in the South under wealthy conditions, the conflict is mainly caused by Blanche’s dislike of Stanley because, as a blue-collar worker, Stanley's status is lower than the DuBois’. In another aspect, Stanley’s conflict is caused by him being suspicious of Blanche since her arrival. Blanche explains to Stella that…

    • 1339 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The play “streetcar named desire” written by Tennessee William in 1949, which was received the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1948. The play commenced on Broadway on December 3, 1947 in the Ethel Barrymore Theater. This play is about life of a woman in 19th century who could not come out of the fantasy to the real life that her self instinct and her surrounding creates extra problems in her life that makes her hide her historical and physical appearances and lied her sister and suitor. On the other hand, the poem “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” by Emily Dickinson, in 1890, this poem believed toHhave been written in 1862, a year during which Dickinson supposedly produced more than 300 poems. This poem suggests the persona of this poem in order…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire, a play by Tennessee Williams, takes place in New Orleans in the mid-1940s. It follows the lives of Stanley Kowalski, Stella Kowalski, and Blanche DuBois and the story about a woman coming to visit her sister, which ends up going just as bad as any family reunion has ever gone. From the moment Blanche got to Elysium Fields, her and Stanley, Stella’s husband, appear as polar opposites and are constantly at war with each other. They never can agree on anything, are always arguing and shouting at one another, and want the loyalty of Stella all for themselves. Their constant power struggle can only end with one character the victor and the other leaving defeated. One of the main themes about conflict is that Stanley and Blanche are in a battle to win Stella and neither of them will give her up. However, Stanley and Blanche represent something bigger than two conflicting characters. Blanche represents the old south, with dying traditions whilst Stanley represents the new south where chivalry no longer exists and it 's every man for themselves and just like in real life, the old south is overcome by the new south.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ sees aristocratic Blanche Dubois unexpectedly arrive at her sister’s house under mysterious circumstances. Not only this but from the moment she arrives she seems to cleverly hide details of her past expanding the air of mystery which surrounds her. William’s cleverly weaves Blanche’s past into the narrative so as the play moves forward more and more aspects of her past are revealed, deepening our understanding of the real reasons that she has had to move in with Stella. As the play unfolds and the past is revealed Blanche appears to struggle to keep herself mentally under control as the reality of her situation threatens to overcome her and it is this which leads to her eventual tragic downfall. The past is important both structurally and psychologically throughout the play. Psychologically, the past has its main tragic and most destructive impact on Blanche who finds that her mind is lost in her luxurious past life (although as we see Blanche’s past affects all three of the other characters in different ways). She can’t seem to move on and the realisation of what she has lost and the consequences eventually catch up with her and seems to be the biggest factor in her inevitable but tragic downfall.…

    • 1380 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire A woman named Blanche Dubois, sister to Stella Dubois comes to visit her and her husband Stanley Kowalski. To Blanche’s surprise her sister's husband Stanley is not like the men she knew growing up. Blanche is a fading southern beauty who has experienced many things since the loss of her home, Belle Reve. Throughout the story the reader sees Blanche having episodes that have the reader thinking Blanche is crazy. By the end of the story the reader sees Blanche actually become completely crazy.…

    • 398 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A Streetcar Named Desire is a tragedy that is unlike a traditional tragedy in that the characters in it are not struck by some calamity or fall because of unwise choices on their part. Instead, we enter the play in the delayed aftershocks of a tragedy that has befallen the main character, Blanche, as she attempts to hold on to whatever remnants of her beautiful past she can, but ultimately fails due to a combination of her past that catches up to haunt her, and also because of the rough-handed, misogynistic, and brutally pragmatic Stanley. Throughout the play, Williams hints and ultimately cements the idea that the audience will see Blanche fall. This is done through a blend of symbolism, character interaction, musical and auditory cues that foreshadow Blanche’s ultimate fall from beautiful to insane.…

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “Streetcar” opened in 1947 causing a storm of controversy. George Jean Nathan, who condemned the play’s “unpleasant “nature- “The Glands Menagerie”- was unsure how to interpret Blanche, whose deteriorating mentality challenges whether her demise was truly tragic, questioning if Williams created the “objective correlative” needed for a tragedy. Characteristics of Williams’ mother, believing she was aristocratic, and his sister’s schizophrenia, are evident in Blanche’s behavioural breakdown, suggesting the play explored William’s emotions and family. One interpretation explores Blanche’s “psychological struggle to negotiate nostalgia with reality” leading her to depend on Stella, believing she could help her escape a condemned reputation. In the beginning, Blanche has already fallen through society due to the loss of Belle Reve, her husband’s suicide, her poorly disguised drinking problem and her…

    • 1674 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    3. “The broken” - A Streetcar Named Desire – Blanche DeBouis One of Tennessee William’s greatest successes is A Streetcar Named Desire which takes place in 1947, in New Orleans. The history and culture of the setting express the fundamental concerns of the text therefore the scene indicates the reversals that were happening during the World War II. Moreover, the French Quarter of New Orleans was responsible for the abundant background and for the sensitive events of the play (streetcars, bars, entertainment, jazz, and blues music.) The play clearly symbolizes the fail of the aristocratic families traditionally associated with the South.…

    • 1884 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Streetcar named Desire is a play both grimly naturalistic and poetically symbolic, written by playwright Tennessee Williams. It is set in New Orleans post the depression and World War II. The characters in A Streetcar Named Desire are trying to rebuild their lives in post-war America. Much of the characters and themes found in Williams's dramas were derived from the playwright's own life. Alcoholism, depression, desire, loneliness, and insanity were all included. Typical of Williams' style, Streetcar portrays the main character as Blanche DuBois, a, faded Southern belle who represents the culture and beauty of the past and her evident distaste for her younger sister, Stella's, husband, Stanley Kowalski, a lower class Polish man who is the personification of modern practicality, crudeness, cynicism, and brutality. Through this play we follow Blanche and her descent into madness and lunacy.…

    • 853 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays