Desire’s Effect on an Individual. “There is often less danger in the things we fear than in the things we desire” (John Churton Collins). Desire is defined as the strong feeling of wanting to have something which in return drives us to pursue our dreams and find happiness, but it can also lead us towards a destructive mindset. The desires of an individual can be both motivational and consuming. The motivational component can challenge us to work hard, take risks, and strive towards success. Nevertheless, when desire becomes excessive, it can manipulate our judgment on others and society, causing individuals to make poor decisions or prioritize their desires over everyone else. Tennessee Williams explores the effect of desire on an individual …show more content…
Her desires are still evident as she continues to search for a connection, as well as displaying the consequences she has endured in the face of her own actions. During Blanche's downfall, she reflects on her tendency to escape into a fantasy world before she is taken off with the doctor in her final moments of the play. She states, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (Blanche, 178). Her reliance on others' perception of her from the unrealistic expectations she has created for her identity ultimately leads to her disconnection from reality. This reinforces the idea that Blanche lives in a dreamworld, which eventually leads everyone to be distrusting of her, as everything she says is deemed as a “story” or not true. Her hope that others will show her compassion and kindness influences the idea that Blanche will forever struggle to grasp the concept of not allowing your desires to control your identity. By having an increasing disturbance of what individuals think of you, your ideals on the environment around you are harmed as going about daily routines is interfered with by the opinions of others. In Entirety, Blanche's downfall and her disconnect from reality emphasizes the compulsion that comes with desire and the risks involved in placing one's wishes and needs in the hands of others. It demonstrates how our desires can shape our interactions with the world, and the lengths we may take to fulfill
Isn't it true the relationship between Stella and Stanley is praiseworthy, since it combines sexual attraction with compassion for the purpose of procreation? Isn't it true that as opposed to Stanley's normalcy in marriage, Blanche's dalliance in sexual perversion and overt efforts to break up Stanley and Stella's marriage is reprehensible? Isn't it true that Stella's faulty socialization resulting in signs of hysteria throughout the play meant that she probably would have ended her life in a mental hospital no matter whether the rape had occurred or not?
In the plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, and A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, love is what makes a person irrational. Throughout both plays, the idea of love constantly plagues the characters thoughts, and is the idea behind their actions.
To conclude, the author portrays Blanche’s deteriorating mental state throughout the play and by the end it has disappeared, she is in such a mental state that doctors take her away. Even at this stage she is still completely un-aware of her surroundings and the state she is in herself.
As Stanley continues torturing Blanche and draws Stella and Mitch away from her, Blanche’s sanity slowly dwindles. Even though she lied throughout the play, her dishonesty becomes more noticeable and irrational due to Stanley's torment about her horrible past. After dealing with the deaths of her whole family, she loses Belle Reve, the estate on which her and her sister grew up. This is too much for Blanche to handle causing her moral vision to be blurred by “her desperate need to be with someone, with ancestors for models who indulged in “epic fornications” with impunity, [Blanche] moves through the world filling the void in her life with lust” (Kataria 2). She also loses a young husband who killed himself after she found out he was gay when she caught him with another man. After that traumatic experience she needed “a cosy nook to squirm herself into because ...
she was told "to take a streetcar named Desire, and then to transfer to one
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...
In Tennessee Williams' play, A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams uses the suicide of Blanche's husband to illuminate Blanche's insecurities and immoral behavior. When something terrible happens to someone, it often reveals who he or she truly is. Blanche falls victim to this behavior, and she fails to face her demons. This displays how the play links a character’s illogical choices and their inner struggles.
Blanche also becomes disconnected from reality because of her delusions of music and gunshots from her husband’s death. She seeks relationships with strangers in the hopes of recreating the love she had for her husband. When the relationship fails to satisfy her craving for love, she sinks further into her fantasy. When Mitch rejects her, saying “I don 't think I want to marry you anymore.” (Williams 131) she once again finds comfort in her fantasy. She has sunk so far into her fantasy that she has a response to all of Stanley’s questions. She is no longer up holding the illusion for others. She truly believes her delusions enough to maintain the façade while she is
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.
...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.
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 faces pain.
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.
Up until the moment she sees the doctor at the end of the play, she is convinced her former man, Shep Huntleigh, now a millionaire, is coming to get her and take her away to a life of stability and ease. As the doctor leads her away she says, “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers.” This deluded calmness and happiness that Blanche has while being lead away to the insane asylum she still doesn’t know about, is suggestive that despite reality’s eventual and definite victory, fantasy is a strong and vital thing that is used by all individually in their own circumstances. Williams uses Blanche as one way to demonstrate and explore his points on the tragedy of reality versus
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.
The audience could foresee that Blanche’s madness would soon over power and her genuine reality would be revealed. This adds to an effective end to the play as again it makes the audience sympathise with Blanche and realise that she has been dismantled and destroyed as she struggles to seek kindness in anyone around her “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” here shows a vulnerable individual, as “she allows him to lead her as if she were blind” , this stage direction is effective as it visually shows Blanche’s weakness to the audience and how yet again she puts her trust into a male stranger. It could also in some respects present Blanche as almost juvenile where she has ‘always depended’ and ‘on strangers’ this displays how she could be viewed as naïve. It is also ironic as it could be a metaphor for her ‘sleeping around’ which links to another part of the play where Blanche openly confesses to Mitch that she finds comfort for her loneliness in strangers, shown through the line “After the death of Allan the intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty head with” here Williams again portrays Blanche as weak and vulnerable, unable to get any other character to truly sympathise with her