A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy, which usually involves the notion that such a hero makes an error in his or her actions that leads to his or her downfall. Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire would be a perfect example of a tragic hero. She invokes pity as a tragic hero, revealing in the end that her innocence is ethereal and is easily destroyed by the harsh, but real, world. Throughout the play, Blanche attempts to persuade people that she is a pure, elegant lady; however, this is merely a facade. Beneath her illusions of social snobbery and sexual propriety, Blanche is an insecure individual. She carries many problems from drinking all the way to sex addictions. All of these flaws only multiply throughout the story, and in the end she is left alone.
From the beginning of Blanche’s adulthood, she never had the perfect life. Blanche fell in love with what she thought was a wonderful man. She married and later the marriage fell apart due to a tragic event. One day as she entered her room, she shockingly found her husband in bed with an older man. She had built up so much love for this young man, but now she was disgusted. She expresses how disgusted and disappointed in him she is. Following this event, Blanche heard a gunshot. Because of all the agony and embarrassment of her husband, he took his own life. Blanche cannot get over this; she blames herself for his untimely death. This early tragic event affected the rest of Blanche’s life. We know Blanche has problems when she quotes, "I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can't be alone! Because as you must have noticed, I'm not very well.”
Shortly after the first incident, more problems arose for Blanche. Blanche had to deal with a...
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...comfort, Stella and her husband only brought her down more. Blanche thought she may have found a man, and Stanley ruined that. In the end, the rape from Stanley brought her down to rock bottom. The one person she thought she had was not there for her at all. All of these incidents played a huge role in Blanche being a tragic hero.
Aristotle said that the best tragic plot moves the hero from prosperity to misfortune, occasioned not by depravity, but by some great mistake he makes. He says there are essential qualities of a tragic hero including goodness, appropriateness, lifelike and consistency. Blanche Dubois from A Streetcar Named Desire is a very good example for this kind of tragic hero. Blanche is shown to be too kind and too delicate to live in the realistic world. When her illusions in the Kowalski household were crashed down, she also crashed down.
A tragic hero is an individual who possesses a fatal flaw in their character that will bring about their own destruction or suffering. Aristotle believed that “A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall. (Aristotle #1)” This Ancient Greek philosopher also believed that each tragic hero has four characteristics. The first of these characteristics is that a tragic hero is born with either wisdom or high integrity, and in some cases both.
Blanche was awfully spoiled as a young girl. She lived in a huge house named Belle Reve, where servants would wait on her every want and need. This led her to never experience any hardships or adversity as a child. She had no previous experience of when she was forced to deal with any difficulties. She just had other people to take care of them for her. This is why, as an adult, Blanche doesn’t know how to overcome adve...
She is constantly trying to compensate her surroundings both through actions and imagining possible ways of being forgiven, to make herself feel better, as her foundation of security lies in this act. However, Blanche is not aware that she wishes to eliminate her guilt, because she is convinced that it is the cross she will have to carry for the rest of her
A tragic hero can be defined as literary character who makes a judgment error that inevitably leads to his/her own destruction. A well known novel in American Literature is The Great Gatsby which displays an example of a tragic hero. The author of the book, F. Scott Fitzgerald, portrayed an example of a tragic hero through the main character of the novel named Jay Gatsby. In the book Gatsby tries to accomplish the American Dream by gaining wealth and doing everything in his power to be with the love his life Daisy Buchanan. His whimsical ways granted him wealth and allowed him to be in the arms of his lover Daisy but, it also leads him to death. Jay Gatsby can be considered a tragic hero because he has a tragic flaw and because his misfortune was not wholly deserved.
Blanche Dubois the main character of the play, was an English teacher in Mississippi. She presents herself as a very prim, proper, and prudent person. She once proudly told her sister Stella that her name in French meant white woods. Blanche Dubois is also overly concerned with her appearance, accessories, bathing and age. She was very disturbed by the light, and usually preferred to be in the dark. Many believe it was to prevent people from noticing her real age. Deep inside she was hurt and destroyed. All of this pain was caused by the death of the love of her life. She was married to a young man named Allan, and they loved each other very much. Until one day Blanche found out that Allan was sleeping with another man. Once she confessed to him she knew his secret he committed suicide. Ever since, Blanches’ life was never the same again.
... ignorance; and this was the undeniable tragedy that caused her downfall in the end. Stanley was angry when Blanche told Stella that she did not like him, but he never gave her a chance. Stanley despised her from the beginning. Neither Stanley nor Mitch was intelligent enough to comprehend that not everything is black and white. They perceived her as a deceitful whore. Stella chose her violent husband over her sister. Also, Mitch could not overlook her mistakes. Mitch focused on her flaws which blinded him from seeing the beauty and love Blanche had to offer. Blanche wanted their love, but each of their individual flaws sunk her deeper into a hole. The people around Blanche were unwilling to change and develop an open-minded way of dealing with her situation. Blanche needed kindness and affection, but nobody was able to give it to her when she needed it the most.
The drama is basically about a married couple -Stella and Stanley Kowalski- who are visited by Stella's older sister, Blanche. The drama shows the caustic feelings of these people putting Blance DuBois in the center. The drama tells the story of the pathetic mental and emotional demise of a determined, yet fragile, repressed and delicate Southern lady born to a once-wealthy family of Mississippi planters.3 No doubt that the character of Blanche is the most complex one in the drama. She is truly a tragic heroine.
Blanche who had been caring for a generation of dying relatives at Belle Reve has been forced to sell the family plantation. Blanche is a great deal less realistic than Stanley and lives in illusions which bring upon her downfall.
Blanche’s developmental history or character development points to her diagnosis. Blanche comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella after being fired from her job as a schoolteacher due to having an inappropriate affair with a teenage student. When she arrives to see her sister, she is consumed with insecurities regarding her appearance and is condescending to her sister’s humble lifestyle. Stella’s husband Stanley immediately has distrust and dislike for Blanche and treats her
She passionately raves at length about the horrible deaths and her experience of loved ones dying around her; “all of those deaths… Father, Mother, Margaret, that dreadful way!” The horrific visions of bloated bodies and “the struggle for breath and breathing” have clearly cast a permanent effect on Blanche’s mind. She talks of the quiet funerals and the “gorgeous boxes” that were the coffins, with bitter, black humour. The deaths of Blanche and Stella’s family are important to the play as they highlight the desperation of Blanche’s situation through the fact that she has no other relative to turn to. This makes Stella’s decision at the end of the play seem even harsher than if Blanche had just simply shown up on her doorstep instead of going elsewhere.
A tragic hero can be described as a great or virtuous character in a dramatic tragedy who is
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.
was lobotomised in his absence and later institutionalised leading. many critics to believe that the character of Blanche may have arisen. from events in his own life. Blanche's tragic past involving both the death of her "young" husband and her consequent promiscuity with. The "young men" created an overwhelming amount of emotion for Blanche.
...es and thinks that her hopes will not be destroyed. Thirdly, Blanche thinks that strangers are the ones who will rescue her; instead they want her for sex. Fourthly, Blanche believes that the ones who love her are trying to imprison her and make her work like a maid imprisoned by them. Fifthly, Blanche’s superiority in social status was an obscure in her way of having a good social life. Last but not least, Blanche symbolizes the road she chose in life- desire and fantasy- which led her to her final downfall.
Stella represents an important part in this drama by providing a contrast to how life can change people when they go down different paths. In Contrast to her sister, Stella is bound to love. Although she fell in love with a primitive, common man, she most definitely loves him. Stella desires only to make Stanley happy and live a beautiful life together. She wants to find peace between her sister and her husband yet instead she finds conflict afflicting her on both sides. Blanche uses her dilutions and tries to sway Stella away from Stanley yet Stella takes all these slanders and belittles them. Stella does this because she loves Stanley and since she is pregnant with his baby.