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Essay on tennessee williams
Intoduce social darwinism
Essay on tennessee williams
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In a capitalist society, social darwinism is key aspect and in Streetcar, Blanche is not able to succeed because just like Darwin's theory, only the strongest survive. From the beginning of the play, one sees that Blanche is a big outsider to Elysian Fields. As soon as Blanche arrives she begins to criticize the Kowalski household saying: “what kind of bed’s this-one of those collapsible things?” (Williams 16). Blanche has not been used to this new standard of living and doesn’t know how to understand that in the Kowalski household they don’t have maids, a lot of of rooms, or much privacy. It is said that, “Blanche is doomed by her inability to adapt, whereas Stanley seems bent on adapting the environment to himself” (Winchell 6). Even though
Delicate Blanche, virile Stanley. Dynamic Maggie, impotent Brick. Williams' protagonists are distinctly different in temperament. In "A Streetcar Named Desire" Blanche exemplifies the stereotypical old south: educated, genteel, obsolete. Stanley is the new south: primitive, crude, ambitious. Blanche, a fading beauty, uses her sugary charm and soft southern ways to attract men. In comparison, Stanley "sizes women up at a glance, with sexual classifications" to "determine the way he smiles at them" (Williams, Street 29). Course and deliberately aggressive, he is a "survivor of the stone age" (Williams, Street 72). Despite their differences they both possess a raw sensuality. In their first confrontation, Blanche's thick display of charm angers and attracts Stanley. He wants her to be truthful and "lay her cards on the table" but simultaneously would "get ideas" about Blanche if she wasn't Stella's sister (Williams, Street 40-41). Their relationship overflows with sexual tension as they battle for Stella. Stanley, the new south, defeats Blanche, the old south. After destroying her chance for security, his sexual assault erases her last traces of sanity.
Or, as Mary Ann Corrigan later puts it [as does Judith J. Thompson, 38], the Blanche-Stanley struggle is purely an external dramatization of what is going on inside Blanche’s head: “the external events of the play, while actually occurring, serve as a metaphor for Blanche’s internal conflict” [Corrigan, 392]. Critics who share Sharp’s and Corrigan’s views feel that Streetcar is essentially a psychological drama about Blanche’s internal struggle with herself.”
Her first problem is with the heroine of the play, Blanche DuBois, who, she claims, is "ironically made guilty for her own victimization. No longer fully human, she is simply a metaphor of all that is vile about women. Blanche cannot, then, claim tragic stature or even our sympathy precisely because she is a victim of rape. And as she becomes responsible for her own victimization, Stanley is left to glory in his ascendancy. This aspect of Streetcar arises from the misogyny which colors the play…" (Lant 226). Admittedly, Blanche does flirt with Stanley briefly at the beginning of the play—just as many women playfully flirt with their brothers-in-law. But as her relationship with Stanley deteriorates, she makes it quite obvious to him that she loathes the sight of him. Though the world in which Lant lives may be one in which a woman, playfully sprinkling her brother-in-law ...
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.
According to Charles Darwin, the father of the modern theory of evolution, “it is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Based on the example set forth in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, the principle that adaptability is the key to survival holds true in modern society. Streetcar chronicles the bitter struggle for survival between Blanche Dubois, a sophisticated but fading southern beauty, and Stanley Kowalski, her brutish brother-in-law. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses Stanley to represent an organism perfect adapted to life in the French Quarter. By showing that a person with primitive and animalistic traits can triumph over a more refined, intelligent individual, Williams demonstrates the idea of environment-specific adaptations being more important to survival than one’s place in the evolutionary line.
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.
Many authors like Aldous Huxley have come to state that “ignorance is bliss” in their own manners. In A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, this message is passed on down to the audience through the characterization of Blanche DuBois. Blanche is a character who had her fall from grace. Coming from a rich family, she lost all of her wealth; and, thus, came to live with her sister, Stella. However, mentally, she still lives in the past. In other words, she’s ignorant of the present. This ignorance comes to be the foundation of her character.
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
The two important female characters in the "poetic tragedy"(Adler 12), A Streetcar Named Desire, are Stella and Blanche. The most obvious comparison between Stella and Blanche is that they are sisters, but this blood relationship suggests other similarities between the two women. They are both part of the final generation of a once aristocratic but now moribund family. Both manifest a great deal of culture and sensitivity, and because of this, both seem out of place in Elysian Fields. "Beauty is shipwrecked on the rock of the world's vulgarity" (Miller 45). Blanche, of course, is much more of an anachronism than Stella, who has for the most part adapted to the environment of Stanley Kowalski. Finally, both Stella and Blanche are or have been married. It is in their respective marriages that we can begin to trace the profound differences between these two sisters.
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play founded on the premise of conflicting cultures. Blanche and Stanley, the main antagonists of the play, have been brought up to harbour and preserve extremely disparate notions, to such an extent that their incompatibility becomes a recurring theme within the story. Indeed, their differing values and principles becomes the ultimate cause of antagonism, as it is their conflicting views that fuels the tension already brewing within the Kowalski household. Blanche, a woman disillusioned with the passing of youth and the dejection that loneliness inflicts upon its unwilling victims, breezes into her sister's modest home with the air and grace of a woman imbued with insecurity and abandonment. Her disapproval, concerning Stella's state of residence, is contrived in the face of a culture that disagrees with the old-fashioned principles of the southern plantations, a place that socialised Blanche to behave with the superior demeanour of a woman brain-washed into right-wing conservatism. Incomparably, she represents the old-world of the south, whilst Stanley is the face of a technology driven, machine fuelled, urbanised new-world that is erected on the foundations of immigration and cultural diversity. New Orleans provides such a setting for the play, emphasising the bygone attitude of Blanche whose refusal to part with the archaic morals of her past simply reiterates her lack of social awareness. In stark contrast Stanley epitomises the urban grit of modern society, revealed by his poker nights, primitive tendencies and resentment towards Blanche. ...
Throughout Tennessee William’s play “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Blanche Dubois exemplified several tragic flaws. She suffered from her haunting past; her inability to overcome; her desire to be someone else; and from the cruel, animalistic treatment she received from Stanley. Sadly, her sister Stella also played a role in her downfall. All of these factors ultimately led to Blanche’s tragic breakdown in the end.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses Blanche and Stanley to point out the different features of both periods, old and new. At the end of the play when Stella chooses to be believe Stanley over her sister Blanche. It basically means that New South wins in the end. Blanche who represents the Old South’s rich, beautiful, southern belle is sort of cast out of society. Stella on the other hand was able to adapt to the social evolution of the south and mix with Stanley to create a new life.
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.
Blanche alienates herself from everyone and this leads her to live in her own fantasy world. Living in a fantasy world puts people out of touch with reality and Blanche will not accept her reality of who she really is. In “A Streetcar Named Desire” shows that living in a fantasy world can lead a person to a mental breakdown and to a life of alienation. In not living in the real world a person can become lucid with different issues pushing a person over the edge.
She would be able to get sympathy with Stella, Stanley, and Mitch if she understood their condition as well. Stella’s condition is opposite from Blanche’s aristocratic lifestyle. She is living in poverty and is unable to provide for Blanche’s elaborate needs. “Streetcar quote” Blanche recognizes her current condition but fails to understand it and empathize, instead she Slanders Stella’s home and invades it “Some people rarely touches it, but it touches them often” If she was a decent guest and sister, she could seize the opportunity to help Stella in the home, perhaps by helping with the daily chores or by fixing it up to become more “homely”. By doing this she would then gain a sense of purpose, cleaning could possibly become a healthy coping mechanism, she would be doing something positive, and by helping around the home, she would gain a healthier, supportive, relationship with her sister and the homes other resident, Stanley. Being unable to empathize with Stanley was key for Blanche downfall; she invaded his home, degraded him in front of his friends and family, and tried to steal his wife from him. If Blanche was able to recognize the positive traits of Stanley, that he is passionate and loving towards his family, she would be able to ignore the “primal, animalistic” manner of Stanley. If she could empathize with his current