Streetcar Named Desire Isolation Analysis

The text Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams explores different ways people can be isolated from others. Isolation is a personal choice that is stimulated by Ignorance from society. In this text, it can be seen that people have a fascination about learning about the lives of others so that the gathered information can be used as a defence mechanism. Stella is a reflection of society, living as a housewife, unable to voice opinions that contradict her husband’s. In contrast to that, Blanche is exposed to a new lifestyle in New Orleans. She is talked down by many and uses generalisation and misconceptions to guide her beliefs. Finally, Stanley is also an outcast as though he has multiple acquaintances, he has no true friends. Stanley

She presents herself as a very outspoken person, however, we as an audience learn that she is very fragile, this can be seen through her drinking habits and also by the way she vents to Mitch as she unravels her true self. And, so when her lies are detected he is the first to realise that she was battling against her own insecurities and needed someone to comfort as she had putting up a strong front. Furthermore, when Blanche suffered from the loss of Belle Reeve and witnessed the death of her family members and lost her partner she decided to fill the void by working at the hotel as she states that “Intimacies with strangers was all I seemed to able to fill my empty heart with” (scene nine). For the longest time Blanche showed no emotion in relation to grief. Blanche also attempts to save Stella from the marriage which can be seen in the quote “He acts like an animal, has an animal’s habits! Eats like one, moves like one, talks like one!” (Scene four) inferring that she should not compromise Stanley’s bad behaviour. Nonetheless, Blanche’s dark past follows her to New Orleans as Stella finds it hard to believe Blanche after learning about her promiscuous past from her husband. The relationship between Blanche and Stella is broken due to misconceptions and so Blanche remains an outcast to society. Eventhorugh Blanche was grieving and needed some form of comfort as she had been completely isolated

She is married to an American war veteran and is seen supressing her emotions and perceptions for the sake of saving her marriage. The was a lot of social upheaval in the 50s, men had just come from war and so, being married was a privilege, women that were widowed or single were considered inferior and indefensible. It was expected that Stella fulfilled the needs of her husbands and kept the emotional and physical abuse a secret from society. It can also be observed that Stella was unable to have any friends, Stanley isolated her from connecting with other people. Also, she was not allowed to converse with any of his friends but instead was asked to leave the house or stay in another room while Stanley hosted his guests. And even when she learns the truth about her sister Blanche, Stella choose silences herself. As an audience we learn that society determines what is and is not love. We see that that the process of marriage becomes more of a method than a natural process. We learn that Stanley and Stella do not take time to genuinely get to know one another and so, there is a decline in effective communication. Stella viewed falling in love or simply being in a relationship as a necessity. Though it is not prevalent in the broken relationship between Stanley and Stella, respect, honesty and loyalty are attributes that should be second nature in any