Allan Grey JQ Excelsior Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Kazan’s film adaptation shared not only the same characters, but also the same themes, reactions and other literary techniques Williams had created throughout his play. However, for Elia Kazan to have produced the film, some scenes were eliminated or changed to fit what was known as the Hay’s Code. One of the scenes that was not so much vital to the play, was when Blanche DuBois explains to Mitch about her ex-husband. Allan Grey, Blanche’s ex husband, was found in bed with another man and by no other than his wife, Blanche herself. In the play both Blanche and Allan pretended that nothing happened after that night. Allan was probably being tortured and was already …show more content…
So this would not be so surprising as Blanche hides almost everything about herself. While talking to Mitch, she instead says, “At night I pretended to sleep, and I heard him crying,” whereas in the play she talks about the discovery of Allan’s homosexuality. But for those of age or rather those who could understand and knew about sexuality in depth, they could pin point what Blanche meant by “lost all respect for him”. Allan’s homosexuality was one of the demands that had to be met. Homosexuality was most likely a taboo subject that people would not bring up, but producers had to find out what was okay and what was not okay to put in films. There was no official censorship to undergo of any movie being released at the time of Kazan’s film adaptation. However, the producers had volunteered for investigation by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and CLD (Catholic Legion of Decency). CLD however strictly forbid showing such content like Allan’s sexual preference in action. MPAA had been known as the Hays Office. The name Hays comes from the first president of the office in 1922. When a couple years later, J. Breen was president (1934), he had enforced demands that prohibited sexual, violent, and swearword actions. After several cuts to the film to maintain a positive and high audience, eventually demands were met and the film was accepted. Even though this was one of the few changes made in
Blanche has a devastating and scarring past in which her tragic flaw originates from. The elements of love, sex, and death haunt her until she is unable to handle it any longer and loses what is left of her sanity and sparks her unstable mind. To expatiate, Blanche was once married to the love of her life, Allen Grey, until she found
When Blanche meets Mitch, she realises that her is someone who can give her a sense of belonging and who is also captivated by her “girlish” charms. She deceives him into thinking her, as she would like to be –prim and proper – however, as she later tells Mitch: “Inside, I never lied”. Her essential nature and being have been changed by her promiscuity – She gave her body to any man, but it would appear, that to Mitch, she is ready to give her whole being. Mitch falls in love with Blanches world of
Blanche’s guilt, the principal force driving her downfall, stems from her involvement in the circumstances surrounding her husband Allan’s suicide. After finding her husband with
Blanche’s and Stella’s reliance on men and inability to support themselves are used to illustrate the subliminal pressure for women to follow society’s norms. Women without men are seen as weak, and those who break away from their rigid social classes are looked down upon. Since these social norms have been instilled into Blanche, she believes that she has to have a man fawn over her feet at all times. She realizes that she is aging and thus by engaging in sexual trysts with men, she thinks that she is still wanted and that she still has a place in society despite her current status. “After the death of Allan - intimacies with strangers was
Blanche could not accept her past and overcome it. She was passionately in love with Alan; but after discovering that he was gay, she could not stomach the news. When she revealed how disgusted she was, it prompted Alan to commit suicide. She could never quite overcome the guilt and put it behind her. Blanche often encountered
Blanche's panorama towards gay people had interchanged with her beliefs and this lead to her biased opinion towards her husband. Most likely, things were probably said that weren't meant to be hurtful, but her husband still committed suicide. This misunderstanding of her own feelings as well as her husbands’ potentially lead to a guilt savaged life for Blanche.
due to her past blanche’s actions are unusual and to many they are considered inappropriate. Blanche lives through some very dark and intense incidents before the play takes place, she witnesses the death of her entire family, she loses her family home, and to add to the misery she believes she is the reason her husband killed himself. In an act to move on she retreats into illusion acting as if these incidents never happened. Blanche decides to lie to everyone, from her sister to the man she potentially wanted to marry, she does not give them the truth. She wants to marry mitch but does not tell him about her past, mitch had all right to know, yet she led him on, actions like these in an environment of connection is inappropriate beyond a doubt. Because of her lies and illusions Blanche ends up losing everything, she loses her only chance at a future with Mitch and her freedom when she is sent to the mental institution. Blanches motivation by the past caused her life around her dissolve.
Elia Kazan’s film, A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) was adapted from the play originally written by Tennessee Williams. This film won multiple Oscars and countless other awards that prove it to be an extremely impressive work for its time. The setting of this film sets the stage, the themes and symbolism add interest, and the characterization only enhances an already impressive work. These elements and many more are what make up this incredible film.
Not long into their marriage, Blanche found her husband in bed with another man but kept it quiet. After Blanche told her husband she knew about the affair he ended up committing suicide. It is logical to think that after her husband killed himself that this is when Blanche decided that she no
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.
Ultimately Blanche is portrayed as a tragic character but not as a tragic heroine. Although she may think she is morally sin free on the inside as she tells Mitch; “Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart”, she does not fit the criteria for a heroine, she fails to save herself and whilst reading the play the reader feels as though she gets what is coming to her, and that she brought it all on
Finally, Blanche had and uncontrollable desire for sexual attention, which inevitably led to her downfall. Blanche was removed from school due to her involvement with a seventeen year old. She explains to Mitch, “hunting for protection here and there -in the most unlikely places- even, at last, in a seventeen year old boy. (146)” Blanche was forced to give up her job credited to her inappropriate behavior, which is what started her problems. One of her biggest losses due to her epic fornication was the loss of Mitch and his respect upon him discovering the truth: “You’re not clean enough to bring in the house with my mother. (150)” Blanche wished to settle with Mitch but her lust had previously created so many affairs that he was left disgusted
Blanche's tragic flaw that cause her downfall or hamartia is her reliant on men, so much so that she makes choices and does things that are morally questionable. She manipulates and lies to potential suitors to make herself seem more attractive and younger-which in her mind is the only way a man will love her. She does this with Harold "Mitch" Mitchell and it seems to be working until Mitch is informed of all the lies he's been fed, at which point Mitch breaks up with Blanche and leaves her vulnerable for Stanley to
The reader may view Blanche as someone who tried to escape her sordid past in Laurel and wanted to start a new life with her sister, yet due to the continuous investigations from Stanley, was unable to do so. Stanley reveals Blanches’ lies and deceits, commenting on them as her ‘same old act, same old hooey!’ This tells the reader that his research of Blanches’ past is way of stopping her from finding a new life. Blanche attempts to redeem her life by finding love with Mitch, yet Stanley again reveals to Mitch that she was not ‘straight’, resulting in Mitch not wanting to be with her and also contributing to her fate. Stanley, after mercilessly divulging all her truths and bringing her to the edge of her mental capacity, rapes Blanche which brought about her final collapse. The reader may view Stella as someone at blame for her sisters’ fate, as though she shows some moral support of Blanches’ situation and listens to what she has to say, Stella continuously throughout the play neglects to notice Blanches slow mental deterioration and ignores Blanches’ outcries and incessant need for attention. Stella chooses Stanley over Blanche, despite her warnings about him being ‘volatile, violent and sub-human which represents not
Blanche needs Mitch as a stabilizing force in her life; if her relationship with him fails, she knows she faces a world that offers few prospects for a financially challenged, unmarried woman approaching middle age. She tacitly admits to Mitch that she needs him when she accepts his embrace, but her fears of acknowledging her past and current situation overpower her and prevent her from telling the full truth. She hides her past not only from Mitch, but also from herself because to acknowledge it is to also admit the unhealthy choices she has made. When Stanley tells Mitch about Blanche’s blemished past Mitch recognizes that Blanche’s deceptions have relied on a symbolic and literal darkness which obscures reality. When Mitch asks Blanche to be honest about herself she says, “I don’t want realism. I want Magic! I don’t tell truth, I tell what ought to be the truth” (145). In these lines Blanche clearly expresses her desire not to deal with reality; this inability to face her circumstances signifies that Blanche is not recovering from her mental stress, but rather descending further into it. Blanche becomes desperate and delusional and her descent into mental