Tennessee Williams’, A Streetcar Named Desire, follows Blanche DuBois as she leaves her life in Laurel, Mississippi to try to create a new start for herself in Elysian Fields, New Orleans. Blanche lives in a world of illusion which contrasts that of her sister Stella and brother-in-law, Stanley. Her reliance on the self-made fantasy, and even delusion, is revealed throughout each scene. Blanche’s illusions are placed into different symbols of A Streetcar Named Desire and when rigorously investigated are proven to showcase the true depth of her insecurities and lies. She is too caught up in maintaining an image of perfection and fragility that the illusions, that she has created in her mind, can be held responsible for each tragic event that …show more content…
He begins by explaining all of the odd quirks he has noticed. He comments that he has never truly gotten a good look at Blanche in the light. Whenever they go out in public, she insists that the sun be down and they go to dimly lit places. At the peak of the argument, Mitch acknowledges that Blanche is actually older than he was lead to believe, yet this is not what he cares about most. What made Mitch the most angry is how she had constantly lied to him all summer about who she really is. In addition to this, he claims that Stanley, a man named Shaw, and a man named Kiefaber from Laurel, all said the same facts about her. They all told Mitch that Blanche used to prostitute at the Flamingo Hotel in Mississippi. Breaking down, Blanche explains herself in between sobs and shots of liquor. Due to her late-husband’s hidden homosexuality, their marriage never had any real passion. The panic that she felt after her husband, Allan’s, death caused her to take advantage of the intimacies she had with strangers to try and fill the empty space in her heart that he had left. This lead her straight into trouble as she found herself in an intimate relationship with a seventeen year-old boy. The decisions she had made leading up to that point all ended with her losing her job as a high school English teacher. With all of her lies and secrets exposed, Blanche tried to make it clear to Mitch that she never lied on the inside and that what she felt for him was raw emotion. As stated previously, Blanche’s actions do not relay this because Mitch started out as just a man that she threw herself onto in order to try pleasing her fantasy world and feel
A Streetcar Named Desire is an intricate web of complex themes and conflicted characters. Set in the pivotal years immediately following World War II, Tennessee Williams infuses Blanche and Stanley with the symbols of opposing class and differing attitudes towards sex and love, then steps back as the power struggle between them ensues. Yet there are no clear cut lines of good vs. evil, no character is neither completely good nor bad, because the main characters, (especially Blanche), are so torn by conflicting and contradictory desires and needs. As such, the play has no clear victor, everyone loses something, and this fact is what gives the play its tragic cast. In a
Blanche tries to conceal the secrets of her past from her new found life in New Orleans; however it is only a matter of time before the truth comes out. Stanley is the one to reveal her true reason for coming to New Orleans: she was essentially kicked out of her town because there were only so many men. Her numerous sexual relations recounted by Stanley depict Blanche as a gold digger and the epitome of the party. Stanley crashes all of Blanche’s hopes to recreate a new life for Blanche. He forces Mitch, her almost lover, to leave Blanche and stoop her down to even more disparity in her
The play A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams, is a play about a woman named Blanche Dubois who goes to live with her sister after she loses her home in Mississippi. Between the hardships of her previous life and the way she is treated now, she is not in a good way by the time the play ends. She basically has a mental breakdown. There are three stages of Blanche’s mental state. She lives in a fantasy, Mitch rejecting her, and Stanley raping her, Blanche is mentally unstable by the end of this ply.
She even tells Mitch that she doesn’t tell the truth, she tells what ought to be truth. So Blanche is aware that she is lying and continues to do it, which end the end causes grief for her.
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.
Tennessee Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is set in the ‘Roaring Twenties’ when America was going through a great deal of change in the order of society. The three main characters; Blanche DuBois, Stella Kowalski and Stanley Kowalski jostle claustrophobically in a small apartment, set in Elysian Fields in New Orleans, Elysian Fields is an ironic name as it evokes the sense that the apartment is heaven, when in reality it is very much the opposite. Stella and Blanche are sisters, but during the course of the play, we notice very clearly that Blanche is stuck in the in the Old World of plantations and inequality, with very large social divides. In contrast, Stella has almost seamlessly evolved to live in the New
In A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche’s flaws that lead to her downfall are abundant. If we are to view Blanche Dubois as a tragic heroine, then it is in scene six that her tragic flaws are especially evident, and in particular desire. They are so prevalent here as it is arguably the beginning of Blanche’s demise and as in Shakespearean tragedy; it is in the centre of the play that we see the beginning of the protagonist’s downfall. Desire, as her harmartia, is represented in several ways in scene six.
Blanche's devistating past is just one of the reasons I felt sympathy for her. Troubled from her past, Blanche has a sence of falseness, which increasingly becomes apparent to Stanley. Her secrets are revealed, and this unveals a haunting past, and insecurities which were unknown to Stella. It would appear that the lies and desperate clutches to hold onto
In Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche DuBois desires to be viewed as a pure and innocent girl despite her sex and scandal filled past. In Scene 5, Blanche attempts to explain the way someone needs to look if they want to come off as innocent and appealing: “When people are soft---soft people have got to shimmer and glow---they’ve got to put on soft colors, the colors of butterfly wings, and put a---paper lantern over the light. . . . It isn’t enough to be soft. You’ve got to be soft and attractive” (79). By wearing soft, not harsh on the eye colors, particularly white, Blanche is trying to show that she is still young and virtuous. Blanche is playing the part of a wholesome and angelic woman in order to appeal to the men
She lies to others to hide her past. Blanche’s series of lies did not bring her comfort instead leading her to tragedy. “Mr. Graves is suggested I take a leave of absence”(14) and “ I guess you are hoping I’ll say I’ll put up at a hotel, but I am not going to put up at hotel I want to be near you” (17) and the other lie is Bell Reve was his headquarters! “Honey that is how it slipped through my finger” (22). Blanche is telling these lies to her sister hoping Stall will believe her and accept her as she is now. Blanche is constantly lying to Mitch, who is Stanley’s friend and the only hope for life. “I called her little in spite of the fact she’s somewhat older than I” (60) and “Married? No. No I am old maid schoolteacher” (60). Blanche’s fake
Blanche Dubois has a mysterious past that she tries to hide with her stylish and demure front. She tries her best to cope with reality, whether that includes slinging back one too many shots of whiskey or getting involved with one too many men. However, Blanche does eventually come to terms with her past, potentially changing the reader’s view on her. While speaking to her potential love interest, Mitch, about the night of her husband’s death, Blanche states “It was because-on the dance floor-unable to stop myself-I’d suddenly said-’I saw! I know!
I would like to analyze a tragic heroine Blanche DuBois appearing in a play A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) written by Tennessee Williams. My intention is to concentrate on the most significant features of her nature and behaviour and also on various external aspects influencing her life and resulting in her nervous breakdown. I would like to discuss many themes related to this character, such as loss, desire and longing for happiness, beauty and youth, pretension, lies and imagination, dependence on men and alcoholism.
What Blanche means when she says “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” that due to her past issues and conflicts that Blanche experienced she desires that attention and compliments from strangers and eventually counted on the kindness to make her feel more confident and fulfill her emptiness along with all the insecurities she had.
Like many people in the world, the characters in Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, are troubled by anxiety and insecurities. Life in New Orleans during the 1940s was characterized by the incredible variety of music, lively and bright atmosphere, and diverse population, while in the midst of the ongoing World War II. Culture was rich and fruitful because the city developed into a “melting pot” of people from all over the world. Due to the wide-range in population, the people of New Orleans adopted an identity like no other. Instead of their identity being entirely pieced together, almost like a puzzle, the people took on one that was shared by the entire community. However, with this being said, people had the ability to use this to their advantage and mask their true selves. This idea translates well into the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and is exhibited through the character Blanche. In A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams uses the theme of vanity to reveal the importance of appearance, and the insecurities of Blanche and how they influence her actions.
Before one can understand Blanche's character, one must understand the reason why she moved to New Orleans and joined her sister, Stella, and brother-in-law, Stanley. By analyzing the symbolism in the first scene, one