More handpicked essays just for you.
Themes of a streetcar named desire
A central theme of a streetcar named desire
A central theme of a streetcar named desire
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, Blanche DuBois is Stella’s older sister and was a high school English teacher in Laurel, Mississippi. Stella Kowalski is Blanche’s younger sister, about twenty-five years old, and lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with her husband Stanley Kowalski. Both Stella and Blanche possess the same high-born heritage growing up on the Belle Reve plantation in Mississippi, however; Stella in her late teens decided to go down a different path and head to New Orleans where she was to find lower class Elysian Fields to be her heaven escape. Once the two sisters reconnect years later when Blanche comes to stay with Stella after the loss of Belle Reve, you realize just how different these two characters …show more content…
really are from each other. Stella Kowalski has a very obedient nature to her. Especially when others take up much more spotlight than her. Both Stanley and Blanche are very outgoing, demanding characters and Stella will do just about anything they ask or tell her to do, the prime reasoning being she has the most unconditional love for them.
She mostly stands back and listens, especially since Blanche LOVES to talk. In Scene One of A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella quotes, “You never gave me a chance to say much, Blanche. So I just got in the habit being quiet around you” (Williams 13). This remotely explains Stella’s relationship with her older sister, and how much she runs around for Blanche because she cares and wants to simplify protect her. Also for the fact, Blanche “loves to be waited on”. Another character trait of Stella’s is she is a push-over. In Scene Four, after the night when Stanley abuses her, Blanche asks her sister why she has given into this man? Stella replies with “People have to tolerate each other’s habits, I guess” (Williams 74). Stella allows the man she loves and cares about to step all over her and tolerate his bad treatment towards her. Her relationship with Stanley is all she desires, regardless of how badly he treats her, and nothing can change her mind. Her attraction to Stanley is purely sexual. Even after Stella got a beating from Stanley, he fixed the situation by having sex with her knowing how much she would like it. Enough so, Stella ignored every …show more content…
one of Stanley’s bad qualities, Blanche tried to bring to her attention, for the sake of his presumed talent in bed.
Although Stella is very obedient and a quite push-over, she can come across as a passionate character. Whenever Stanley has a proposition, she usually goes along with whatever he has to offer. But in Scene Seven, when Stanley is telling Stella all the rumors he has heard about Blanche around town, Stella exclaims with much fed-upness, “What--contemptible--lies!” (Williams 120). When it comes to her sister, Stella stands up for Blanche. She will not listen to such accusations and lies put upon her own blood. She respects and cares for Blanche and feels almost insulted Stanley would judge and treat her so unkindly because he doesn’t know the Blanche Stella does. Although these actions show Stella as a very loving character towards her sister, it also makes her very naive. It is almost as if she doesn’t think enough sometimes and generally takes what she wants to believe out of a situation. For example, after Blanche was raped by Stanley, Stella explains to her neighbor Eunice “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Williams 165). This quote indicates Blanche had told Stella of the rape and she decided to consider her options:
believe Blanche and leave Stanley, or to consider Blanche’s story a lie and simply a delusion. I think Stella knew what Blanche had said was at least partially true because she had good reason to suspect her husband raping drove her sister over the edge of insanity, but Stella is pretending nothing ever happened. She wants to believe illusion over reality - very similar to Blanche’s aspects of life - and in the end, she takes Stanley’s side. Stella doesn’t specifically say she thinks Blanche is lying; rather she’s consciously choosing to think Blanche isn’t telling her the truth so Stella can continue her life without interruption. Stella’s neighbor, Eunice, tells her, “Don’t ever believe it. Life has to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep going” (Williams 166). Stella chooses to live in her perfect, selfish, naive world instead of finding compassion and facing the cold truth that would have essentially broken up her family. Moving on to Blanche’s character traits within the play, Blanche is a very charming woman. She was once married to her husband Allen Grey until he passed away. Since then, Blanche is constantly, desperately searching for a man to love and fulfill her life. Similarly to her sister, Blanche has a huge dependency on men because she sees a male companion as her only means to achieve happiness. Both sisters depend on men for their sustenance and self-image. In Scene Two, Blanche says to Stanley, “Afterall, a woman's charm is fifty percent illusion” (Williams 41). This quote illustrates that most of what Blanche says is a lie. As a reader, I can infer that when Blanche is interested in a man, she will say just about anything he wants to hear, truth or a lie, just so she can get them to fall for her. She repeatedly refers to herself as a ‘lily flower’ because they are soft and pure and that is who Blanche wants to be, yet she is far from it.
In A Streetcar Named Desire the characters Blanche and Stella are both from a rich background; brought up as southern belles. They grew up at Belle Reve a huge house which originally had lots of land …..Quote…….. But over the years got sold to pay for bills and expenses after the abolition of the slave trade. When Blanche arrives in Elysian Fields she looks ‘as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district.’
Her character represents absolute indifference due to her largely domestic and submissive role. Stella is almost a prisoner in her own home; she is continuously indoors from the outset of the play. Her character is subjugated by the language in the play. She is rarely called by her name, and is continuously referred to as "honey", "baby", or "sweetie" instead. This is one of the characteristics of the feminine struggle for equality within contemporary society; her name is not used to confirm her identity - instead she is branded by condescending labels which overwhelm her individuality. Stella is often belittled physically through the violence her husband subjects her too; for example, Stanley 's response to her request for help to clearing the table:
When Stanley beats Stella in Scene 3, the abusive side becomes noticed and readers come to the conclusion that it was not the first time that this act of violence has occurred. (Williams 40). But Stella ends up coming back to him after he cries out to her, and their relationship resumes as it did in the times prior. He is also the one who investigates the protagonists’ (Blanche’s) past; as he knows there are things she is hiding. This need to know about Blanche’s history is driven by his hatred for her aristocratic ways. Furthermore, Stanley makes his dominance apparent through the expression of his sexuality. At the end of the play, he rapes Blanche as a way to regain his dominance in the household. Throughout the play, Blanche slowly gains some control over Stella, and causes disruption to Stanley’s
Stella isn't doing this out of incompetence or disregard for her sister but because she truly believes she doesn’t have another option. Or, as Stella's neighbor Eunice says, “Don’t ever believe it. Life has got to go on. No matter what happens, you’ve got to keep on going” (Williams, pg. 133). This line in particular is interesting because it sounds like survival instinct. These words, “survival” and “instinct,” should send the reader back to Blanche’s rant against Stanley in Scene Four. Where Blanche tells her sister that Stanley represents the law of the jungle, ape-like passions, and that Stella should move forward and progress with the world instead of her grueling counterpart. She begs her sister, “Don’t hang back with the brutes!” (Williams, pg. 72). Yet, Stella ignores all logic in hopes of achieving her American Dream which Stella feels she needs to live a happy and acceptable
Stella, Stanley's wife in the play, is a passive woman. She is displayed this way through how she responds to the people and situations around her. When she is beaten by Stanley, she understands that his drunkenness takes hold of him and he has no control over his actions. She knows he never means her harm and his intentions are good.
Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a play wrought with intertwining conflicts between characters. A drama written in eleven scenes, the play takes place in New Orleans over a nine-month period. The atmosphere is noisy, with pianos playing in the distance from bars in town. It is a crowded area of the city, causing close relations with neighbors, and the whole town knowing your business. Their section of the split house consists of two rooms, a bathroom, and a porch. This small house is not fit for three people. The main characters of the story are Stella and Stanley Kowalski, the home owners, Blanche DuBois, Stella’s sister, Harold Mitchell (Mitch), Stanley’s friend, and Eunice and Steve Hubbell, the couple that lives upstairs. Blanche is the protagonist in the story because all of the conflicts involve her. She struggles with Stanley’s ideals and with shielding her past.
Eunice(Stella’s neighbor) a few scene after. In P. 63 Stella tells Blanche “You are making much too much fuss about this.'; And later says “it wasn’t anything as serious as you seem to take it.'; Blanche will never understand how, or why Stella would go back to Stanley because she doesn’t fit into their community, just like Laura will never fit into hers either.
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.
Stella Kowalski’s character, parallels to Stanley’s and represents the ego in the play. herself from her hometown and start a life in this vigorous world made by Stanley. she stands for the ego who wants to create a balance between desires and ideas, between body and soul, heart and mind to have a normal life. Blanche is the only one who wants to warn her of what she does. Loving Blanche, she also dislikes her and at the same time fears her. She hopes Blanche marry Mitch for her sister’s sake and for herself too. Actually she wants to get rid of
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.
Blanche Dubois, a refined and delicate woman plagued by bad nerves, makes her first appearance in scene one of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. She unexpectedly arrives in New Orleans to visit her sister Stella Kowalski who ran away after their father’s death. Upon their reunion, Blanche is sharp-tongued and quick to state her shock over the unsavory status of the apartment in comparison to the luxurious plantation where the two sisters were raised. Though dissatisfied by the living conditions, Blanche quickly explains that she had been given leave of absence from her teaching position due to bad nerves and could not stand being left alone—her excuse to invite herself to stay with Stella for an undetermined period of time. It
As a result of Blanche not being totally honest with her, Stella has no choice but to disbelieve Blanche’s claims that Stanley forced himself upon her. Throughout the play there are examples of Blanche lying to Stella, or not telling the complete truth. The earliest of these instances is when Blanche tells Stella, “So Mr. Graves - Mr. Graves is the high school superintendent - he suggested I take a leave of absence” (Williams 14). Stella also witnesses Blanche twisting the truth when Blanche wires Shep Huntleigh, an old boyfriend of hers. In the correspondence to Shep, Blanche writes, “Sister and I are in desperate situation,” (Williams 78) which is not true. Due to Blanche’s constant lying, and Stella’s knowledge of it, it leads Stella to distrust Blanche and disbelieve things she says. When Blanche confronts Stella and tells her of Stanley’s raping her, Stella can’t make herself believe it, as she thinks it is just another one of Blanche’s stories. Stella confides in Eunice, telling the woman, “I couldn’t believe her story and go on living with Stanley” (Williams 165). It is also presumed that Stella was the one who called for the doctor as she, again, confides in Eunice: “What have I done to my sister? Oh, God, what have I done to my sister?” (Williams
In 'A Streetcar Named Desire' we focus on three main characters. One of these characters is a lady called Blanche. As the play progresses, we gradually get to know more about Blanche and the type of person she really is in contrast to the type of person that she would like everybody else to think she is. Using four main mediums, symbolism and imagery, Blanche's action when by herself, Blanche's past and her dialogue with others such as Mitch, Stanley and the paperboy, we can draw a number of conclusions about Blanche until the end of Scene Five. Using the fore mentioned mediums we can deter that Blanche is deceptive, egotistical and seductive.
Stella Dubois is unconcerned about her survival and is more concerned about her life with Stanley. The plot is introduced when Stella’s sister Blanche moves in with Stella and her husband. Blanche is a dynamic character and that causes conflict with other characters, revealing the other character’s true nature, including Stella’s. Blanche consistently comments to Stella about Stanley’s character stating that “he’s common… He’s like an animal…Yes, something- ape-like about him”(Williams, 82-83). Despite Blanche and Stella’s wealthy and privileged upbringing, she’s head over heels in love with Stanley, who even described himself as unrefined. In Scene three, Blanche stirs trouble with Stanley by turning on the radio when he told her to turn it off.
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.