A Streetcar named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams in 1947. The play was Williams’ first hit and it landed him with his first Pulitzer Prize. The play is about a southern family in the 1940’s. The play surrounds Stella Kowalski, Stanley Kowalski, and Stella’s sister Blanche DuBois. In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire Stanley Kowalski is characterized as abusive, animalistic, and controlling.
Stanley Kowalski is abusive towards every person who enters his house whether it is verbally, physically, mentally, financially, or sexually. Domestic violence stands out in the play because most of the abuse happening is at home in between family. Blanche is affected by abuse the most in the play. Stanley's most ultimate
told Allan "I saw, I know, you disgust me…"( p.96). To Allan, Blanche seemed to
Tennessee Williams was one of the most important playwrights in the American literature. He is famous for works such as “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)”. As John S. Bak claims: “Streetcar remains the most intriguing and the most frequently analyzed of Williams’ plays.” In the lines that follow I am going to analyze how the identity of Blanche DuBois, the female character of his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, is shaped.
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.
Stanley oftenly abuses Stella whenever he is drunk. One night, Stanley brings his friends over for a poker night. Mitch leaves the table in order to talk to Blanche. Stanley begins to get furious since Mitch is no longer playing. As more and more interruptions keep occurring, Stanley is furious and breaks the radio Blanche and Mitch were using. Stella then calls Stanley an animal. “He advances and disappears. There is a sound of a blow. Stella cries out.”(57) Stanley is usually abusive when he's either drunk or frustrated. After Stanley strikes her, Stella leaves the house and goes to her neighbors house. Blanche follows her sister upstairs to support Stella so she does not feel alone. Stanley then calms down and calls for Stella to come back. She returns and falls into Stanley's arms. Stella is very loyal to Stanley, she stays with him because he is her husband and does not want to change that. This is why she ignores her sister's pleas. Stanleys actions prove to the reader that he is an abusive husband to Stella and that Stella tolerates
Stanley Kowalski is the epitome of the traditional man, he portrays his superior nature in various scenes in the Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire. In scene two of the play, Stanley displays his demanding nature while Stella
The character Stanley represents the theme of reality. Stanley Kowalski is the simple blue-collar husband of Stella. His actions, reactions, and words show reality in its harshest most purist form. His actions are similar to a primitive human. For example he doesn’t close the door when he uses the restroom. This rudeness represents the harsh reality that Blanche refuses to accept. Moreover, when he was drunk he hit Stella. This attack on Blanches sister could be a symbolic “wake up” slap to the face of Blanche.
Written in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire has always been considered one of Tennessee William’s most successful plays. One way for this can be found is the way Williams makes major use of symbols and colours as a dramatic technique.
Written in 1947, by playwright Tennessee Williams, the play A Streetcar Named Desire opens in the 1940s in the well-known city of New Orleans. Readers are presented with the young couple Stan and Stella Kowalski who live below another young couple, Eunice and Steve. While Stan and Stella manage to maintain a relationship, it is abusive. Stella reunites with her alcoholic sister Blanche, after learning that the family plantation had been lost due to bankruptcy. Blanche, a widow often finds herself in difficult and unforeseen circumstances. Blanche’s poor choices and vulnerability leads to an affair with Stan’s poker buddy Mitch. Coinciding with his abusive nature, Stanley rapes Blanche. No one believes her until the very end, causing her to get sent away to a mental institution. While the play and film were smashing, each had their similarities overall, in regards to setting, plot, and characters while differences concerned narrative technique.
Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the most popular plays in American history. The play contains this theme of Old South versus New South where old southern ideals and way of life clashes against newly formed ideals of the late 19th and early 20th century. The distinctions between the Old South’s emphasis on tradition, social class, and segregation versus the New South’s emphasis on hard work can be seen throughout the play. It is manifested in the main characters of the play. Blanche DuBois’s civilized and polished nature makes her a symbol of the Old South while Stanley Kowalski’s brutish, direct, and defying nature represents the New South. Tennessee Williams uses the characters of his play to present a picture of the social, gender role, and behavior distinctions that existed between the Old South versus the New South. Furthermore, the two settings provided in the play, Belle Reve and Elysian Fields can also be seen as different representations of the Old versus the New with the way both places are fundamentally different.
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who is in misplaced circumstances. Her life is lived through fantasies, the remembrance of her lost husband and the resentment that she feels for her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Various moral and ethical lessons arise in this play such as: Lying ultimately gets you nowhere, Abuse is never good, Treat people how you want to be treated, Stay true to yourself and Don’t judge a book by its cover.
Stanley does not take notice of his wife’s concern, but instead continues on his original course, asserting his own destiny, without any thought to the effect it may have on those around him. This taking blood at any cost to those around him is foreshadowed in scene one, with the packet of met which he forces upon his wife. It is through actions such as these that Stanley asserts power, symbolic of the male dominance throughout patriarchal society. He also gains a s...
Stanley possesses an animalistic physical vigor that is evident in his love of work, fighting, and sex. Stanley represents the new, heterogeneous America in which Blanche does not believe in since she is from a defunct social hierarchy. Stanley’s hobbies consist of gambling, bowling, sex, and drinking. In addition, Stanley seems to lack ideals and imagination. His authoritative possession over Stella is unsettling. Stanley tells her, “I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!...” (Williams 131). His disturbing, degenerate nature, first hinted at when he beats his wife, is fully evident after he sexually assaults Blanche. Stanley does not express remorse for his callous behavior. Interestingly enough, Stanley’s violent behavior heightens Stella’s desire for him. After Blanche tells Stella he is unfit for her, Stella claims, “...there are things that happen between a man and a woman in the dark-that sort of make everything else seem-unimportant” (Williams 81). The play ends with the representation of Stanley as the ideal family man, comforting his wife in the only way he knows how as she holds their newborn
Stanley (Stella's husband) represents a theme of realism in the play; he is shown as a primitive, masculine character that is irresistible to Stella and on some levels even to his "opponent" Stella's sister Blanche.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a Pulitzer Prize-Winning play. The film was nominated for twelve nominations and was awarded four Oscars. It is a stage play with elements of tragedy. The play opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in New York City on December 3, 1947. The producer of the play Charles Feldman sold the production to the Warner Bros. The play was written by Tennessee Williams. Williams is considered the greatest Southern playwright and one of the greatest playwrights in the history of American Drama. Williams first play was ‘The Glass Menagerie” it was produced in 1945. Williams plays have been adapted to film starring screen greats like Marlon Brando who played Stanley and Elizabeth Taylor who appeared in the on screen play. William described his childhood as pleasant and happy. But when he moved to Missouri everything changed. His home was a tense play to live. In 1929 he enrolled at The University of Missouri to study journalism. His father withdrew him once he became incensed that his son’s girlfriend was also attending the university. So he left but he still continued his journey and worked on his upcoming career. Many of Williams plays were a look into his life. The genre on this novel was tragedy. It was tragedy because the Grey boy who was Blanche's husband had stuck a revolver into his mouth, and fired and the back of his head was blown away. He did this such thing because he felt as though no one would accept him for what he really was, a homosexual. The purpose of this literacy criticism/ analysis paper is to demonstrate how the critic used literary devices such as character, setting, theme, and imagery to critique the authors work.
American playwright Tennessee Williams classic play, A Streetcar Named Desire was written in 1947 and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. Directed by Nathan Motta, and performed by Cleveland State’s Department of Theatre and Dance, it was a night full of heartbreaking abuse, countless lies, and bitter emotion.