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The thematic preoccupation of a streetcar named desire
The thematic preoccupation of a streetcar named desire
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In the play A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche Dubois is a victim. One reason she is a victim is because even though she caused her young gay husband to commit suicide by saying that he disgusted her, she did not want it and she was left with the guilt of her husband’s death. The guilt caused by her husband’s death was what caused all her actions before and during the play. Another reason Blanche is a victim in the play is how from the start of the play all the way through till the end of the play Stanley tries to ruin or destroy Blanche. Why Stanley tries to ruin Blanche is that he knows that he will feel accomplished after he takes Blanche down from her “pedestal” because he has already taken Blanche’s sister Stella off of her “pedestal”. A third reason why Blanche is a …show more content…
victim in this play is that along with trying to take Blanche off of her “pedestal” Stanley also tries and succeeds at ruining any relationships Blanche has with guys and the world that Blanche uses to escape reality. How Stanley ruins any male relationships that Blanche has is that he ruins Blanche's relationship with Mitch, Stanley does this by telling Mitch that Blanche has only told him lies and telling Mitch the truth.
The last reason for why Blanche is a victim in this play is how in the end of the tenth scene Stanley rapes Blanche and the repercussions of his actions. In the tenth scene Stanley comes back from the hospital drunk tears apart Blanches imaginary world after catching her off guard in her lies about Shep Huntleigh, after tearing apart her imaginary world Stanley blocks Blanche from escaping his advances and in the same way he beats his wife Stella he rapes Blanche and feels proud of doing so. The repercussions of Stanley’s actions are that Blanche is broken and acts the exact opposite from the way she acted when she first arrived, how she acted differently is that when she first arrived she encouraged the guys at poker night to give her attention but this time she feared being seen by the guys playing poker and hid from them in the bathroom. While in the bathroom she took a bath but this time instead of using the bath to “erase” her sins she is now using the bath to “erase” Stanleys
actions. Along with being broken Blanche is also being sent to a Mental Asylum. In this play Blanche is also not a victim. One reason why Blanch is not a victim in the play is the relationship between herself and her student and how she tried to seduce the mailboy. Why her relationship with both her student and the mailboy is an example of how she is not a victim is that both the student and the mailboy were underaged therefore Blanche’s actions with them were inappropriate. Another reason why Blanche is not a victim is how she lied and used Mitch. Why this is an example of how Blanche is not a victim is that she lied to Mitch about her past and she told Mitch that she was younger than Stella. Along with lying to Mitch, Blanche also used and toyed with Mitch. How Blanche used Mitch was that Mitch was looking for a wife because his mother wanted to see him married before she died and Blanche craved male attention so she used his search for a wife to fulfill her cravings even though she had no intention of ever marrying Mitch. How Blanche toyed with Mitch was that she would seduce him but then push him away and tell him that she was “old fashioned”. Blanche is a victim because she suffered a lot in her past and was wrongfully treated by Stanley throughout the play. Blanche is not a victim because she acted inappropriately with minors and used or toyed with Mitch. So in conclusion, Blanche DuBois is both a victim and not a victim.
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.
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
Firstly, the reader may initially feel Blanche is completely responsible or at least somewhat to blame, for what becomes of her. She is very deceitful and behaves in this way throughout the play, particularly to Mitch, saying, ‘Stella is my precious little sister’ and continuously attempting to deceive Stanley, saying she ‘received a telegram from an old admirer of mine’. These are just two examples of Blanches’ trickery and lying ways. In some ways though, the reader will sense that Blanche rather than knowingly being deceitful, actually begins to believe what she says is true, and that she lives in her own dream reality, telling people ‘what ought to be the truth’ probably due to the unforgiving nature of her true life. This will make the reader begin to pity Blanche and consider whether these lies and deceits are just what she uses to comfort and protect herself. Blanche has many romantic delusions which have been plaguing her mind since the death of her husband. Though his death was not entirely her fault, her flirtatious manner is a major contributor to her downfall. She came to New Orleans as she was fired from...
She struggles with Stanley’s ideals and shields her past. The essential conflict of the story is between Blanche, and her brother-in-law Stanley. Stanley investigates Blanche’s life to find the truth of her promiscuity, ruining her relationships with Stella, and her possible future husband Mitch, which successfully obtain his goal of getting Blanche out of his house. Blanche attempts to convince Stella that she should leave Stanley because she witnessed a fight between the two. Despite these instances, there is an essence of sexual tension between the two, leading to a suspected rape scene in which one of their arguments ends with Stanley leading Blanche to the bed.
... 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.
...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.
The first principle character in this play is Blanche DuBois. She is a neurotic nymphomaniac that is on her way to meet her younger sister Stella in the Elysian Fields. Blanche takes two 2 streetcars, one named Desire, the other Cemeteries to get to her little sisters dwelling. Blanche, Stella and Stanley all desire something in this drama. Blanche desired a world without pain, without suffering, in order to stop the mental distress that she had already obtained. She desires a fairy tale story about a rich man coming and sweeping her off her feet and they ride away on a beautiful oceanic voyage. The most interesting part of Blanche is that through her unstable thinking she has come to believe the things she imagines. Her flashy sense of style and imagination hide the truly tragic story about her past. Blanche lost Belle Reve but, moreover, she lost the ones she loved in the battle. The horror lied not only in the many funerals but also in the silence and the constant mourning after. One cant imagine how it must feel to lose the ones they love and hold dear but to stay afterwards and mourn the loss of the many is unbearable. Blanche has had a streak of horrible luck. Her husband killing himself after she exposed her knowledge about his homosexuality, her advances on young men that led to her exile and finally her alcoholism that drew her life to pieces contemplated this sorrow that we could not help but feel for Blanche throughout the drama. Blanche’s desire to escape from this situation is fulfilled when she is taken away to the insane asylum. There she will have peace when in the real world she only faced pain.
... The significance of this resolution is that having a mental illness and no one believing you when you are a victim can lead one to have a mental breakdown. Life goes back to normal for Stanley when Blanche is sent off to the mental institution. When the play comes to an end, reality sets in and Stanley and his friends return to their poker game. Blanche alienates herself from everyone and this leads her to live in her own fantasy world.
Stanley rape Blanche, so she can not reclaim her purity anymore. Her only solution is by living in her imaginary world which she can create free of adversity. She no longer survive in the harsh world of reality . Stanley decided to send her away to a mental institution. When Blanche is told that she will be leaving. Blanche further expand her imagination to Shep Huntleigh. She believed that Shep Huntleigh will take her away. The only thing that she can conquer her adversity is by using her imagination ,which result her a complete loss of identity. She is send away to her last exile and entrapment. Having proven unable to adapt her identity in order to overcome
A Streetcar Named Desire is a play of multifaceted themes and diverse characters with the main antagonists of the play, Blanche and Stanley infused by their polarized attitudes towards reality and society ‘structured on the basis of the oppositions past/present and paradise lost/present chaos’(*1). The effect of these conflicting views is the mental deterioration of Blanche’s cerebral health that, it has been said; Stanley an insensitive brute destroyed Blanche with cruel relish and is the architect of her tragic end. However, due to various events in the play this statement is open to question, for instance, the word ‘insensitive’ is debatable, ‘insensitive’ can be defined as not thinking of other people’s feelings but Stanley is aware of what he’s doing understanding the mental impairment he causes Blanche.
The institution is a society or organization founded for a religious education, social, or similar purpose. A Streetcar Named Desire is about family and friends who lives in New Orleans. With the main character Blanche DuBois an insecure, dislocated individual that’s just desires happiness. But guilt, depression, and lying broke Blanche away from her friends and family. By the end of the play everyone was against her and wanted her to go away into an asylum.
The arts stir emotion in audiences. Whether it is hate or humor, compassion or confusion, passion or pity, an artist's goal is to construct a particular feeling in an individual. Tennessee Williams is no different. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience is confronted with a blend of many unique emotions, perhaps the strongest being sympathy. Blanch Dubois is presented as the sympathetic character in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire as she battles mental anguish, depression, failure and disaster.
How do Blanche Dubois’s interactions with males in A Streetcar Named Desire lead to her self-destruction?
Another emotional factor that Blanche was a victim of was the betrayal. Blanche fell in love with Mitch and wanted to marry him, however Mitch betrayed Blanche by rejecting her “You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother” (Williams 121). Blanche was a victim of betrayal as she was hurt by Mitch’s words and actions. It is clear that Blanche was hurt from her reaction to Mitch’s words, “Get out of here quick before I start screaming fire” (Williams 121). Blanche was also hurt as Mitch asked for sex after he rejected her, this to Blanche came across as selfish and harsh and victimized Blanche even further as it left her feeling more betrayed. From this, it is obvious that the emotional feeling of betrayal leads to the victimization
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.