Expressionism In Streetcar Named Desire

The literary criticism titled Symbolic/ Expressionism devices in Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire was written to explain a selection of the symbolic devices used in the play, A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams. The criticism details the significance of numerous symbols observed in the play, including the main characters: Blanche, Stanley, and Stella, as well as the expressionism of the characters, such as allusions, the relevance of light, color, and music in the play, and also animalistic images Williams uses. A Streetcar Named Desire is set in the city of New Orleans, in the month of May, shortly after World War II. The criticism of William’s play describes the play’s main conflict between Blanche and Stanley by detailing each character’s diverse relationship to the symbolism found in their characteristics and animalistic images, as well as light and color in the play itself.

Stanley’s wild image and Blanche’s name stand in contrast to one another, and become symbols and subscriptions to the connections of their characters.

Since the color white stands for purity, innocence and virtue, the subscription of Blanche’s name reveals these qualities, which stand in contrast to her actual character traits… In contrast to Blanche, Stanley displays brutal and wild behavior.

The author of the criticism describes Stanley and Blanche in contrast to each other. It is revealed that the subscription of Blanche’s name identifies her as the opposite of the qualities of her actual character traits. Blanche is not a pure and innocent person, and because of this, she decides to live in a self-made world of deception, to mask herself and others from her truth. Stanley is a wild and strong man whose

qualities are ...

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...ms’ play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Symbolic/ Expressionism devices in Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire cites specific examples from the play to form concrete conclusions about the symbols used by Williams. Through the symbols found in the main characteristics of the play’s main characters, in addition to specific use of animalistic images, color, and light, Williams is able to better emphasize particular features of the play’s main, conflicting characters, Blanche and Stanley. As analyzed by the criticism, everything about Blanche and Stanley’s qualities and character traits force them to stand in contrast to each other, and even Stanley and Stella’s simple living quarters provide enough expressionism to show that Blanche and Stanley conflict with their diverse ways in seeing and interacting with the world around them.