The bildungsroman ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D Salinger and the play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams are both post-World War Two narratives which incorporate protagonists that challenge contemporary American attitudes. Blanche DuBois and Holden Caufield are quintessential examples of characters who subvert societal expectations, impositions and hegemony of America in the late 1940s and early 50s, the author and playwright have the plot revolve around these characters and their itinerant lifestyles as they literally and socially move from one milieu to another. Both Salinger and Williams use a plethora of literary devices such as symbolism, juxtaposition and imagery whether it is visual, auditory or olfactory to highlight
Comparing A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof In the game of life, a man is given the option to bluff, raise, or fold. He is dealt a hand created by the consequences of his choices or by outside forces beyond his control. It is a never ending cycle: choices made create more choices. Using diverse, complex characters simmering with passion and often a contradiction within themselves, Tennessee Williams examines the link between past and present created by man's choices in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. "
In Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, its form of a Southern Gothic enables the playwright to base the play on sexual identity and judgement and the female characters all experience their struggle to liberate from their current position. For example, Blanche is notably known for her situation – The ‘polka dot’ which recurs throughout the play as a testimony to Blanche’s past. The playwright presents these situations using the play’s structure of a recurring cycle of a daily life of the characters. Unlike Alfieri in A View from the Bridge, A Streetcar Named Desire has no narrator and mostly focuses on the characters to establish Williams’ point of view. Perhaps, t...
In ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ Tennessee Williams depicts many of the convictions concerning to American society 's mind-set towards men and women 's gender roles in the mid-twentieth century. He deals with both male and female typecasts as well as society 's reaction to those who question these assumptions. In order to shape understanding of gender labels Williams uses a variety of techniques, such as dictions, stage directions, character foils, symbolism, sarcasm, and character. By signifying these truths Williams poses a question to society, as to whether or not these depictions are
The confusion between “wants” and “needs” is greatly displayed in the movie, “Blue Jasmine” and the book, “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Both main characters, Jasmine and Blanche, have lived lives almost the same as the other but if compared, Blanche has lived worse therefore, she deserves my sympathy.
When discussing the notion that “Love can often lead to the creation of an ‘Outsider’." there are cases in our literary examples that would agree with the statement, and some that would not. Outsiders in Much Ado About Nothing, Pride and Prejudice and A Streetcar Named Desire are created by both love and other themes, whether it be class, power, disinterest or a scandal.
In the novel The Great Gatsby and the play A Streetcar Named Desire the main characters James Gatsby and Blanche Dubois have a lengthy search for love. Both characters go about their search in similar and different ways. The characters choose illusion over reality, but the way in which they go about it differs. Also in an attempt to impress, both characters try and “buy” love by using material possessions to attract people to them. Although Gatsby and Blanche devote a lot of their lives to finding true love, their searching leaves them unsuccessful.
The world today is very deceptive and phony. J.D. Salinger’s well known novels, The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey attack this fake and superficial society which is evident through the lives, ideas, actions, and words expressed by the characters in these literary pieces. The transition from childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood is inevitable. The protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield goes through this stage and finds himself in a crisis. He alienates himself from everyone who is around him and tries his best not to grow up. Holden often dwells upon his childhood and the life he had with his family. Franny in Franny and Zooey has already passed this stage but finds it difficult to live in a world where everyone she is surrounded by is only concerned with outward appearances. In these worlds, both characters, Holden and Franny, reveal their struggle of growing up and trying to live as an adult in a world full of deception and shallow-minded people who only care about appearances.
Throughout the history of literature, a great deal of authors has tried to reveal a clear understanding of the American Dream. Whether it is possible to achieve lies all in the character the author portrays. The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye stand as prime examples of this. F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, the authors of these titles, respectively, fashion flawed characters, Jay Gatsby and Holden Caulfield, with one vital desire: the longing to gain what they can’t have; acceptance and the feeling of belonging. Each retaining characteristics that shows their differences and similarities in opinion of the world around them.
The main men characters in “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams and “Barn Burning” by William Faulkner are similar more than they are different. Stanley Kowalski from “A Streetcar Named Desire” is a man in his thirties. Abner Snopes from “Barn Burning” is a father of three children. Their lives are completely different but they are alike a lot. Both are violent, shows no remorse or feelings, and they are different because Abner is not considered a family man.
After two world wars, the balance of power between the genders in America had completely shifted. Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a harsh, yet powerful play that exposes the reality of the gender struggle. Williams illustrates society’s changing attitudes towards masculinity and femininity through his eloquent use of dramatic devices such as characterization, dialogue, setting, symbolism, and foreshadowing.
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, main character Blanche Dubois to begin with seems to be a nearly perfect model of a classy woman whose social interaction, life and behavior are based upon her sophistication. The play revolves around her, therefore the main theme of drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the misfortune of a person caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present.
One of the best-known plays of our time, Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” tells the story of fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois and her struggles during the South’s post-war changes. Although the play is widely remembered due to its 1951 film version and Marlon Brando’s famous bare-chested cry of “Stella!,” it is also a story of a changing South containing characters struggling with the loss of aristocracy to the new American immigrant, the fallout of chivalry to a new mindset of sex and desire, and a woman grasping desperately at the last bit of fantasy she can muster. Throughout “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Williams uses Blanche as a way to critique Southern “progress” by using her as a symbol for a dark, underlying existence.
Both William Shakespeare 's Othello and Tennessee William 's A Streetcar Named Desire are both theatre productions. Othello was written in 1603 and contains themes of betrayal and loyalty, whilst Streetcar was written in 1947 and both contain themes of social standing. Streetcar was intended to be received by an educated adult audience, whereas Othello was intended to be watched by a mixture of educated and uneducated adults. Both pieces possess a serious narrative tone, and were intended to entertain an audience whilst presenting the author 's themes and ideas.
Tennessee Williams wrote a play named A Streetcar Named Desire which eventually became Pulitzer Prize winner for drama in 1948. This play was first staged on December 3rd 1947 in New York. A Streetcar Named Desire which was second play produced by Williams went on to become a huge success just like his first play named The Glass Menagerie. Streetcar helped Williams in cementing his position as one of the most proficient and respected playwrights existing in contemporary theater (Kolin 1993). For Tennessee Williams this play proved to be his first work which was translated and produced as a movie by Elia Kazan. Owing to high intensity emotional plot and subtle yet powerful acting by its lead cast ensured that the movie became a blockbuster.
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.