Human conflict is ever-present in sex and desire. But, not until the streetcar named Desire was first shown in 1947 had the corporeal act of sex been so openly depicted on stage as a basis of dominance and power. The streetcar in the New Orleans Street, Elysian Fields, is an urban harsh world, where the laws of nature are the enduring rules of engagement. As the wild sex and violence are intimately connected, Intercourse is a product of aggressive dominance, competition and submission to a certain extent than romance. Although Williams repeatedly claimed that his piece cautioned against the world where brutes were permitted to reign, the play 's end, shows the sexually imposing dominance placed upon Blanche by Stanley, whom demolished her illusions …show more content…
He beats Stella 's resistance by throwing the radio out the window. "Drunk-drunk-animal thing you," Stella yells, directly rebelling against Stanley 's authority. Stanley behaves as masculine by charging at her. When the women go upstairs, Stanley stands outside yelling to Stella "like a baying hound". Stanley fakes a submissive posture, kneeling before her and resting his head on her stomach. With this action, Stanley surrenders to Stella 's authority. Part of Stella 's attraction to Stanley may come from the thrill and power of being able to tame such a forceful man. The switch provides insight to Williams ' view of sex and violence. It is severely reported that Williams participated in what would be defined as "rough sex" (Tischler 53). In this custom, sex has more to do with the swapping of submission and power than physical incentive. This dynamic is nothing new considering that in the animal world, sex is often used as a way of asserting superiority and establishing social ranks. Reasonably, fighting has become normal in the Kowalski’s household. Only until they feel the painful lows of verbal and physical abuse, they experience heightened feelings of passion and …show more content…
His recklessness is part of his appeal from Stella’s part. Although this type of relationship goes against her childhood, she is honest about her desires. "I 'm not in anything I want to get out of," Stella continually tells Blanche who formulates a fantasy of getting money from an old lover for them to escape. Stella understands compromise. She is realistic. She sees Stanley 's gambling, drinking, and violent outbursts as "his pleasure, like hers in movies and bridge". She believes that people "have got to accept each other 's habits". Cleaning up after Stanley 's violent spells is just a part of living with him. Unlike Blanche, she knows that life is no fairytale, negociations must be reached. Stella is proof of the statement that "there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark-that sort of make everything else seem-unimportant". She lives in a decrepit house, filled with smashed glass, part of the noisy part of town, and yet she is
During early times men were regarded as superior to women. In Tennessee William’s play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Stanley Kowalski, the work’s imposing antagonist, thrives on power. He embodies the traits found in a world of old fashioned ideals where men were meant to be dominant figures. This is evident in Stanley’s relationship with Stella, his behavior towards Blanche, and his attitude towards women in general. He enjoys judging women and playing with their feelings as well.
2. What causes Mitch and Blanche to take a "certain interest" in one another? That is, what is the source of their immediate attraction? What seems to draw them together? What signs are already present to suggest that their relationship is doomed/problematic?
A Streetcar Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, has been called the best play ever written by an American. The geological setting of the play, New Orleans, creates a remarkably blended mood of decadence, nostalgia, and sensuality. The plot of the play comes about through the conflict between a man and his sister-in-law who comes to live at his house with he and his wife. Stanley Kowalski immediately captures the attention of the audience through Williams' excellent portrayal of the intensely strong willed character.
From amateur theatre to professional broadway and in movies, A Streetcar Named Desire has been performed throughout all types of production. For several people, A Streetcar Name Desire will always be considered close to their hearts due to a single production in particular that struck them deeply. However, the image individuals visualize while reading the script version of a play can differ greatly in comparison to a live or filmed production. Thus, the following will be a personal interpretation of how Benedict Andrews’s 2014 production changed or portrayed the meaning of the original written script of Tennessee Williams 's A Streetcar Named Desire differently than perhaps how readers may have read the play. Within Benedict Andrews’s production,
Tennessee Williams has said, “We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.” Betrayal is prevalent in life and literature and creates uncertainty. According to Williams, without questioning people, one will eventually be betrayed. Characters deceive each other and, occasionally, themselves as they try to mend their lives. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, betrayal is evident in every relationship — Blanche and Mitch, Blanche and Stella, and Blanche and Stanley — and contributes to the theme of uncertainty in the novel. Blanche Dubois is the ultimate example of betrayal because she ends up being betrayed and betraying others throughout the play, which serves as a basic model of the effects betrayal can have on a person.
The ideology of male dominance has existed since the beginning of mankind. In the play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, it is especially apparent that Stanley, who is a working class man, feels the need to assert and reassert this principle of power constantly. Williams makes clear, through the character of Stanley, that the yearning for others’ recognition of their power and capability is the motive behind men’s masculine inclinations.
Set during the year of 1947 in the french quarter of New Orleans Blanche is introduced into a new world and is lost both geographically and temporally. As she arrives at Kowalski's street she speaks to Eunice, “They told me to take a street-car named desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at-Elysian Fields!” (Williams 6). Although at first glance, nothing may stand out about these names, they contain a deeper metaphorical value. Williams reflects Blanches life up to this instance to the audience through the use of this quote to emphasise his main
Stanley arrives and yells for Stella, his wife, to catch a package of meat. He then goes bowling and Stella follows. Here, we can see gender roles early on in the play.
In Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" two of the main characters Stanley and Blanche persistently oppose each other, their differences eventually spiral into Stanley's rape of Stella.
In scene three Stanley is having his poker party (pg. 57). At this point he is very drunk. Blanche distracting Stanley by listening to the radio instigates him to grab it off the table and toss it out the window. Stella in a state of panic tells everyone to go home which angers Stanley so he chases after her and hits her. This type of behavior is not normal of any human being involved in any relationship. Stanley repeatedly gets what he wants by use of any means possible. In addition the person whoever threatens the existence of his poker game receives a beating, in this case his wife. This scene demonstrates Stanley’s viscous animal like traits with such violence. If what happened here was repeated in today’s society he would find himself in a jail cell with a pending divorce.
Tennessee Williams was born in 1911 in a Southern rural town of Mississippi. He grew up with an abusive father, a flighty sister, and a Southern Belle religious mother. Williams adolescent life and how he grew up prominently influences his work. Most of his characters and their struggles mirror someone of his family; so, Williams was known for using his life as an influence in his works. A Streetcar Named Desire was one of his most successful plays. In this play Williams exposes the struggle human beings have by clinging to fantasies and not accepting reality which ultimately destroys them. Williams does this by embedding location symbols throughout the play.
The characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, most notably Blanche, demonstrates the quality of “being misplaced” and “being torn away from out chosen image of what and who we are” throughout the entirety of the play.
Stella is not purely a victim of abuse because she gives Stanley the ability to behave in such a way.
A Streetcar Named Desire sets the decaying values of the antebellum South against those of the new America. The civil, kindly ways of Blanche’s past are a marked contrast to the rough, dynamic New Orleans inhabited by Stella and Stanley, which leads Tennessee Williams’s “tragedy of incomprehension” (qtd. in Alder, 48). The central protagonist, Blanche, has many flaws; she lies, is vain and deceitful, yet can be witty and sardonic. These multifaceted layers balance what Jessica Tandy, who played Blanche in the first stage production in 1947, “saw as her ‘pathetic elegance’ . . . ‘indomitable spirit and ‘innate tenderness’” (Alder 49). Through a connected sequence of vignettes, our performance presented a deconstruction of Blanche that revealed the lack of comprehension and understanding her different facets and personas created. Initially Blanche is aware of what she is doing and reveals
Tennessee Williams has mastered the idea of plastic theater throughout the plays he was written and “A Streetcar Named Desire” is no different. He incorporates many elements of plastic theater throughout this play to take you through a journey unlike any other. One of the main elements of plastic theater that is heavily used is the music. The music plays a vital role in this play in setting the moods for each scene. The “Blue Piano” and The “Varsouviana Polka” are prime examples for playing major roles in the scenes Williams used them in.